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Geology

A Brief History of the Mohawk River

June 20, 2022 by Guest Contributor 2 Comments

painting of Mohawk RiverImagine the Mohawk River flowing with more force than Niagara Falls. Around 22,000 years ago, that’s exactly how it was. During the last ice age, the Laurentide Glacier began to melt, forming a large lake atop the glacier. As the glacier receded north, it opened access to the Mohawk River, which for thousands of years had been buried beneath the two-mile thick block of ice. Suddenly, all that lake water had somewhere to go.

The deluge of water that was released was so great that it carved an entirely new riverbed. It was so great in fact, that geologists gave the river a new name; the Iromohawk. Water rushed down the valley, carving away the cliffs of Clifton Park, the gorge at Cohoes, and the channel at Rexford. The river also curved back onto itself, creating the bend around Schenectady that the Mohawk follows today. [Read more…] about A Brief History of the Mohawk River

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, Nature, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: Arent Van Curler, Barge Canal, Clifton Park, Cohoes, Engineering History, Environmental History, Erie Canal, Geology, Mohawk River, nature, Rexford, Schenectady, Schenectady County, Schenectady County Historical Society, Transportation History

James Eights: An Albany Artist-Scientist Who Explored Antarctica in 1830

May 15, 2022 by Peter Hess 1 Comment

portrait of James EightsIn the late 1700s and early 1800s, there were a growing number of adventurers anxious to explore the sea, find new lands, chart new islands, and if they made their fortune while doing it, all the better.

There were also those just trying to get away from home and signing on to a whaling ship seemed the adventure of a lifetime. [Read more…] about James Eights: An Albany Artist-Scientist Who Explored Antarctica in 1830

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, Nature Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Albany Institute For History and Art, Geography, Geology, James Eights, Marine Life, Maritime History, painting, Rensselaer County, RPI, Science History, Whaling, Wildlife

‘Trouble at the Quarries’: The 1890 Slate Workers Strike

November 14, 2021 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

slate workers and their bosses near Granville in the early 20th century (photo courtesy Slate Valley Museum)Huge demand for slate in 1890 boosted prices for quarry owners and manufacturers in the Granville area of Washington County, NY, and workers sought a share of the wealth.

“The slate business is booming,” The Granville Sentinel reported on June 13, 1890, followed a week later with the report, “There is trouble at the quarries.” [Read more…] about ‘Trouble at the Quarries’: The 1890 Slate Workers Strike

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga Tagged With: Geology, Granville, Industrial History, Labor History, Mining, Slate Quarries, Vermont, Washington County

Deep Time: Lake Ontario’s Lucky Stones & Fossils

November 7, 2021 by Susan Gateley Leave a Comment

limestone pebble with marine cephalopodWhen did homo sapiens arise? Maybe 2 million years ago?

Nobody really knows exactly when we became “human,” but most of the rocks on our Lake Ontario beaches are at least a hundred times older than our species.

This is what the geologists mean by “deep time.” [Read more…] about Deep Time: Lake Ontario’s Lucky Stones & Fossils

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Climate Change, Fossils, Geology, Great Lakes, Lake Ontario, nature, Paleontology

New York Cave Country (Podcast)

October 22, 2021 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

New York Cave Country includes the caves of The Historians LogoSchoharie and Albany Counties, including the Howe Caverns tourist attraction. Author Dana Cudmore, the author of Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure and Enterprise in New York’s Cave Country (Black Dome Press, 2021), grew up surrounded by an astonishing 150+ caves including world-famous Howe Caverns and Secret Caverns.

Cudmore and friends explored many of them, including some of the spectacular ones that are not public and less well-known, such as Ball’s Cave and Schoharie Caverns in Schoharie County, and Knox Cave in Albany County. Yet to be rediscovered, however, is Lester Howe’s legendary Garden of Eden Cave, which Howe claimed was “bigger and better” than the famous cave he discovered and opened to the public in 1842.

This week on The Historians Podcast, Dana Cudmore talks about the history and economic importance of the caves of New York Cave Country. Hand-in-hand with the story of the caves is the story of the stone and cement quarry that was also built on the region’s unique geology, and the history of the feisty, hardscrabble community that grew up around the original Howes Cave entrance and the quarry. Recently Howe Caverns was sold and reborn as an adventure destination with the reopening of the Howes Cave quarry, and the creation of a new, first-of-its-kind, museum dedicated to these underground empires. [Read more…] about New York Cave Country (Podcast)

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: Albany County, Geology, Podcasts, Schoharie County

Underground Empires: A New History Of New York’s Cave Country

October 22, 2021 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Underground EmpiresBook purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.

The new book Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure & Enterprise in New York’s Cave Country (Black Dome Press, 2021), by Dana Cudmore with foreword by Robert & Johanna Titus, explores the history of caves in Albany and Schoharie Counties, and describes the personal and engineering accomplishments that turned some into popular tourist destinations. [Read more…] about Underground Empires: A New History Of New York’s Cave Country

Filed Under: Books, History, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Albany County, Books, Geology, Schoharie County

Early Settlement Above The Helderberg Escarpment

October 19, 2021 by Harold Miller 1 Comment

Detail of John Bleeker made a map of the van Rensselaer's patroonship, Rensselaerswijck, 1767, showing unidentified farms above the Helderberg escarpmentFrom 1630 until the Anti-Rent Movement of the 1840s, most of what is now Albany and Rensselaer Counties, along with parts of Columbia and Greene Counties, was part of the estate of the van Rensselaer family. They leased the land, but did not generally sell it.

Running north-south through Albany County is the Helderberg Escarpment, a vertical limestone cliff hundreds of feet high (Thatcher Park forms a part of this geologic feature) that separates the Hudson Valley lands in the eastern part of the county from the lands to the west, above the cliffs. Because the land above was difficult to reach, and the soils poorer, that area was settled somewhat later by Europeans. [Read more…] about Early Settlement Above The Helderberg Escarpment

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany County, Anti-Rent War, Berne, Geology, Rensselaerswijck, Schoharie County, Van Rensselaers

‘Wild, Picturesque and Beautiful’: Mount Ida, Poestenkill Falls and Troy’s Prospect Park

October 2, 2021 by John Warren 1 Comment

Henri Gaugain, Amerique Septentrionale - Etat de New-York No 15, pl 3 Falls of mount Ida, above the town of TroyIt’s likely that the early farmers, millers, colliers, lumberers and teamsters helped spread the word of the springs and waterfalls on the Poesten Kill, but it was the early artists and travelers whose record remains.  One of the first depictions of the beauties of the Poesten Kill High Falls was an engraving made in Paris in 1817.  As the 19th century wore on, changing attitudes about nature combined with regional guides and maps led to increase in American travel for travels sake. [Read more…] about ‘Wild, Picturesque and Beautiful’: Mount Ida, Poestenkill Falls and Troy’s Prospect Park

Filed Under: Arts, Capital-Saratoga, History, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Art History, Geology, Poestenkill, Tourism, Troy

Life In Groundwater Fed Springs in Winter

March 3, 2021 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

TOS_Springs In Winter_CaddisfliesOn a clear mid-winter day several years ago, my student Sarah Wakefield and I pulled on snowshoes, donned backpacks, and headed up through Smugglers’ Notch in Vermont.

Our destination was Big Spring, which rises from Mount Mansfield’s bedrock before flowing east for 100 yards and entering a culvert under Route 108. When it emerges from the culvert, the spring water joins a stream fed by surface runoff and snowmelt. [Read more…] about Life In Groundwater Fed Springs in Winter

Filed Under: Nature Tagged With: Aquatic Culture, Geology, insects, Science, Wildlife, winter

Dam History: The Proposed Oxbow Reservoir Project

October 7, 2020 by Mike Prescott Leave a Comment

Proposed-Oxbow-DamThe Raquette River, from Raquette Falls to the State Boat Launch on Tupper Lake, is one of the nicest stretches of flat-water anywhere in the Adirondacks. Paddling this river corridor under a clear cerulean blue sky, on a sunny autumn day with the riverbanks ablaze in orange and red, is exquisite. For me, though, the river’s history is as captivating as its natural beauty. [Read more…] about Dam History: The Proposed Oxbow Reservoir Project

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Axton Landing, Follensby Pond, Geography, Geology, Maps, Oxbow Lake, paddling, Raquette River, Stony Creek, The Wild Center, Tupper Lake

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