History, Natural History & the Arts
The Champlain Canal turns 200 this year and the Erie Canal will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2025.
The Champlain Canal between the Hudson River and Lake Champlain at Whitehall was the first to open. Worked started on the Champlain Canal in October, 1816. The first boats operated in November, 1819, and was fully completed in 1823, two years before the Erie Canal was finished. [Read more…] about New York State Canals Bicentennial: Some History & Plans For Celebrations
Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the state of Michigan, and Ocean Exploration Trust have discovered an intact wreck of the Ironton resting hundreds of feet below the surface of Lake Huron. [Read more…] about 1873 Schooner Barge Ironton Wreck Discovered in Lake Huron
Buffalo’s long, storied professional sports history runs back to the early 1900s. Despite a century of opportunity, none of its four major sports teams ever won a universally recognized championship. Not for baseball or basketball; neither football nor hockey.
On the other hand, Buffalo teams experienced numerous close calls and blown calls. As well, there have been injuries and deaths, nefarious back-office dealings, and just-plain-weird happenings, each at just the wrong time to deprive city teams from winning championships. Just bad luck? Or is there something more sinister at play, like a Buffalo Sports Curse? Greg D. Tranter’s new book from RIT Press, The Buffalo Sports Curse: 120 Years of Pain, Disappointment, Heartbreak and Eternal Optimism, chronicles thirty-two cursed events. [Read more…] about The Buffalo Sports Curse: 120 Years Of Disappointment
The new book Olmsted’s Elmwood: The Rise, Decline and Renewal of Buffalo’s Parkway Neighborhood, A Model for America’s Cities (City of Light Publishing, 2022) by Clinton E. Brown and Ramona Pando Whitaker takes a look at the fascinating story of Buffalo‘s the historic Elmwood District, named one of America’s top ten neighborhoods. [Read more…] about Olmsted’s Elmwood: Buffalo’s Parkway Neighborhood
Upstate New York’s largest urban centers are pursuing economic development strategies that include a major focus on their canal heritage. [Read more…] about Upstate Cities Turn To Canal Heritage For Economic Development
In June, the Hudson River Valley Greenway fielded a call from Alan Jay, who just completed paddling the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Waterford with his brother-in-law Michael.
The next day Jay would start his solo adventure paddling the Hudson River toward New York City – he needed a Hudson River Water Trail Guide. [Read more…] about Kayaker Alan Jay Paddles From Buffalo to Manhattan in 31 Days
New York State has been selected by Inland Waterways International as the host of the 2025 World Canals Conference, an event that brings together hundreds of canal and inland waterway enthusiasts, professionals and scholars from around the world to learn about a variety of topics related to canals.
The 2025 conference will be held in Buffalo as the State commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal‘s opening there in 1825. [Read more…] about World Canals Conference Coming to Buffalo in 2025
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced $4.5 million is being awarded to the State University of New York’s University at Buffalo to create a new Center for Plastic Recycling Research and Innovation and support crucial work to reduce plastic waste.
This expanded academic partnership will improve plastics recycling by researching the development of secondary recyclable markets to ease the financial burdens on municipal recycling programs and streamline the recycling process, especially with certain types of lower-grade plastics. [Read more…] about $4.5M for Buffalo Center for Plastic Recycling Research and Innovation
The following captivity narrative was related by Robert Brice and includes an account of the September 1781 “Dietz Massacre” that took place a few miles south of the Village of Berne, Albany County, NY. This story was taken down from Robert Brice when he was still living by Josiah Priest and published in his Stories of the Revolution in 1836 as “The Captive Boys of Rensselaerville – John and Robert Brice.” This version has been lightly edited for easier reading, but has retained much of the tone and style, including the use of disparaging terms to refer to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people who took part in these events. Additional details and background about this event can be found here. New York Almanack is presenting this story to illustrate historical attitudes about these events from a victim’s perspective.
The Brices had migrated from their native country of Scotland in the year 1774 and settled in a new place, southwest of the city of Albany. At this place, a few families had chosen a residence, which was then called Van Rensselaer’s Patent, but now Rensselaerville. Here the newcomers erected a few log houses. [Read more…] about The Captive Boys of Rensselaerville: John and Robert Brice
For thousands of years prior to the early 1800s maritime transportation was dependent on sailing ships. In the first few decades of the 19th century however, entrepreneurs in New York helped revolutionize the industry so that one hundred years later sailing ships were an anachronism that hardly existed, except for show.
In the latter part of the 1700s the development of the Boulton & Watt steam engine in England made it theoretically possible to power a boat. Before 1800 a number of inventors, including New Yorkers such as Nicholas Roosevelt, John Fitch, Robert R. Livingston, John Stevens III and others, experimented with boats that used such steam engines. Before Robert Fulton made his first run in the North River steamboat (later renamed Clermont) in 1807 more than a dozen steamboats had been constructed in the United States with varying degrees of success. There were difficulties in making such craft commercially viable. [Read more…] about Fulton’s Steamboat, The Black Ball Line & The Erie Canal