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Geology

Cliffs Host Varied Flora and Fauna

September 10, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Searchers look for the body of a man from Brooklyn in the karst below a cliff at Mohonk Preserve in February 2023On a recent hike up Eagle Mountain in Milton, Vermont, we climbed to a ledge overlooking Lake Champlain. Turkey vultures soared overhead, tilting back and forth on the breeze. A sheer cliff dropped to the forest below us, a lush variety of plants clinging to its face. Cliffs are defined as areas of exposed bedrock with a slope greater than 60 degrees. We tend to think of cliffs as solely geological features. But they also host distinct natural communities of plants and animals. [Read more…] about Cliffs Host Varied Flora and Fauna

Filed Under: Nature, Recreation Tagged With: bats, birding, birds, climbing, Geology, lichen, mosses, raptors, rock climbing, small mammals, snakes, wildflowers, Wildlife

Early Inhabitants of the Finger Lakes Region

August 14, 2023 by Guest Contributor 2 Comments

Lamoka Site diorama at the New York State MuseumAccording to archeological records, groups of nomadic Paleo-Indians traveled through the Finger Lakes region approximately 8,000 to 9,000 years ago. Small bands of these hunters and gatherers followed large game during the last stages of the Ice Age when the glaciers that formed the area’s notable lakes were receding.

Somewhat more recent early archaic archeological sites scattered across Western New York reflect a culture that was highly mobile and left little in terms of an archeological record. [Read more…] about Early Inhabitants of the Finger Lakes Region

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Algonquin, Archaeology, Broome County, Canadice lake, Canandaigua Lake, Cayuga County, Cayuga Lake, Cayuga Nation, Chemung County, Conesus Lake, Cortland County, Finger Lakes, French And Indian War, fur trade, Geology, Grass lake, Haudenosaunee, Hemlock Lake, Honeoye Lake, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Ithaca, Keuka Lake, Lamoka, Lenape, Lenape - Munsee - Delaware, Livingston County, Material Culture, Monroe County, New France, New Netherland, Oneida Indian Nation, Oneida Lake, Onondaga County, Onondaga Lake, Onondaga Nation, Ontario County, Otisco Lake, Owasco Lake, Paleontology, Pennsylvania, Rochester, Schuyler County, Seneca County, Seneca Falls, Seneca Lake, Seneca Nation, Seven Years War, Skaneateles Lake, Spencer, Steuben County, Susquehanna River, Syracuse, Tioga County, Tompkins County, Treaty of Fort Stanwix, Tuscarora, Valley Heads Moraine, Waneta-Lamoka WMA, Watkins Glen, Wayne County, William Johnson, Yates County

Geologic Formation of the Finger Lakes

July 26, 2023 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

A late fall snowstorm frosted the hills of the Finger Lakes region of central New York in early December 2004Approximately 600 million years ago, during the Neoproterozoic Era, the Earth’s supercontinent began to break apart, and an ocean formed between land masses that roughly correlate to Europe and North America today. For the next 100 million years, this ocean continued to widen until the continents changed course and began to move back towards each other.

The eventual collision of these land masses formed a tall mountain range now known as North America’s Appalachians. [Read more…] about Geologic Formation of the Finger Lakes

Filed Under: History, Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Appalachian Mountains, Canadice lake, Canandaigua Lake, Cayuga County, Cayuga Lake, Chemung County, Conesus Lake, Cortland County, Finger Lakes, Geology, Grass lake, Hemlock Lake, Honeoye Lake, Ithaca, Keuka Lake, Livingston County, Monroe County, Oneida Lake, Onondaga County, Onondaga Lake, Onondaga Nation, Ontario County, Otisco Lake, Owasco Lake, Paleontology, Rochester, Schuyler County, Seneca County, Seneca Falls, Seneca Lake, Skaneateles Lake, Spencer, Steuben County, Syracuse, Tioga County, Tompkins County, Valley Heads Moraine, Watkins Glen, Wayne County, Yates County

National Park Service Declares Finger Lakes Eligble For National Heritage Designation

July 19, 2023 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

National Park Service NPSOn Tuesday, July 18th, the National Park Service delivered the Finger Lakes National Heritage Area Feasibility Study to Congress. The feasibility study determined that the study area in the Finger Lakes region of New York state meets the criteria to be eligible for inclusion as part of the National Heritage Area System. [Read more…] about National Park Service Declares Finger Lakes Eligble For National Heritage Designation

Filed Under: History, Nature, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: Canadice lake, Canandaigua Lake, Cayuga County, Cayuga Lake, Cayuga Nation, Chemung County, Conesus Lake, Cortland County, Erie Canalway Heritage Corridor, Finger Lakes, Finger Lakes National Heritage Area, Geology, Grass lake, Hemlock Lake, Honeoye Lake, Indigenous History, Ithaca, Keuka Lake, Livingston County, Monroe County, National Park Service, Oneida Lake, Onondaga County, Onondaga Lake, Onondaga Nation, Ontario County, Otisco Lake, Owasco Lake, Rochester, Schuyler County, Seneca County, Seneca Falls, Seneca Lake, Seneca Nation, Skaneateles Lake, Steuben County, Syracuse, Tioga County, Tompkins County, Valley Heads Moraine, Watkins Glen, Wayne County, Yates County

Altona Flat Rock: Fires, Berries and Concrete

July 9, 2023 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

Sandstone pavement barrens at Gadway Sandstone Pavement Barrens part of Altona Flat Rock (phot by Gregory J Edinger, courtesy New York Natural Heritage Program)Altona Flat Rock is a large area of discontinuous bare sandstone pine barrens that stretches along the Champlain Valley into Quebec. Gazing at the rock formations, visitors to the area can easily imagine the long-forgotten retreat of glacial ice from the Champlain Valley. The area is home to the rare ecosystem of jack pine barrens.

Locals recall wildfires on Altona Flat Rock with anxiety, but the jack pines require fire. The heat of fire opens the pitched covered cones allowing the barren to reproduce. Fire on Altona Flat Rock is a curse and a blessing. [Read more…] about Altona Flat Rock: Fires, Berries and Concrete

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Food, History Tagged With: Agricultural History, Altona, Altona Flat Rock, Chazy, Clinton County, Flat Rock State Forest, Fruit, Geology, Immigration, Labor History, Native Plants, Pine Barrens, wildfires, William H. Miner Research Institute

The Geology of Clinton County and History

June 18, 2023 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

Map of Clinton CountyThe geology of Clinton County has shaped the county’s history in complex ways. There are five major geologic rock types in the county, each mined for its beauty and strength. You can see them in the buildings. [Read more…] about The Geology of Clinton County and History

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondacks, Alice T. Miner Museum, Architecture, Ausable Chasm, Ausable Forks, Ausable River, Bluff Point Light House, Champlain Valley, Chateaugay, Chateaugay Lake, Chazy, Chazy Lake, Churubusco, clinton correctional facility, Clinton County, Clinton County Community College, Dannemora, Delaware & Hudson Railroad, Fossils, Geology, Historic Preservation, I-87, Iron Industry, Keeseville, Lake Champlain, Lyon Mountain, Mining, peru, Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Samuel de Champlain History Center, Town of Ausable, Transportation History

Abandoned Stone Quarries of Schoharie County

May 5, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Schoharie Quarry in CobleskillLate in the 19th century, stone was king of building materials and much of the cut stone which helped transform New York into the Empire State came from Schoharie County. There were eight limestone quarries in the town of Cobleskill, with six in the village alone. The largest, located near Barnerville, employed 450 men to fulfill a huge contract with the city of New York, worth the equivalent of approximately $65 million today. [Read more…] about Abandoned Stone Quarries of Schoharie County

Filed Under: Events, History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: Geology, Industrial History, Labor History, Schoharie County, Schoharie County Historical Society, Stone Quarries

There Were Giants in the Earth in Those Days

April 17, 2023 by Jack Kelly 3 Comments

Cardiff GiantMy first brush with the artifacts of history came when I was a youngster on a family vacation to Cooperstown, Otsego County, NY. I found the famous Baseball Hall of Fame, with its baggy uniforms, battered bats and flattened fielders’ mitts, decidedly ho-hum. I couldn’t wait to get to the nearby Farmers’ Museum and see something that I had heard of with wonder: the Cardiff Giant. [Read more…] about There Were Giants in the Earth in Those Days

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: 1901 Pan-American Exposition, Archaeology, Cardiff Giant, Circus, Cooperstown, Farmers' Museum, Fossils, Geology, Museums, Onondaga County, Otsego County, Paleontology, PT Barnum, Religious History, Science History, sculpture, Syracuse

Science & Suckers: The Cohoes Mastodon & The Cardiff Giant

February 9, 2023 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

Cohoes Mastodon exhibit at the New York State Museum, Albany New York (photo courtesy Kenneth C. Zirkel)In 1866, NY State Geologist James Hall received a message from T.G. Younglove, an official at Harmony Mills in Cohoes, New York, informing Hall that while conducting some excavations to expand the mill they uncovered a “great pothole” at the foot of Cohoes Falls where the Mohawk River begins to empty into the Hudson.

The “great pothole” contained a large jawbone “of some unknown beast,” much larger than that of an elephant. [Read more…] about Science & Suckers: The Cohoes Mastodon & The Cardiff Giant

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Archaeology, Board of Regents, Cardiff Giant, Cohoes, Cooperstown, Farmers' Museum, Fossils, Geology, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Journalism, Mohawk River, Native American, nature, New York State Education Department, New York State Museum, Newspapers, Onondaga County, Otsego County, Paleontology, PT Barnum, Religious History, Science History, sculpture, Wildlife

James Hall: New York’s First State Geologist & Paleontologist

December 12, 2022 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

James Hall at age 85James Hall was born on September 12, 1811, to James and Susanna Hall of Hingham, Massachusetts. His father was a weaver trained in England who was making a comfortable living. One day he opened his newspaper and noticed a “help wanted” ad posted by a textile mill in Massachusetts. The salary was far better than James Hall, Sr. could earn in England.

After some inquiry, Hall heard that land in America was more cheap and plentiful than land in England, which was, in most cases, held by the same families for generations. He also heard that food was plentiful and less expensive than England. Like so many other Europeans looking to improve their lives, Hall packed up his family and they departed for the United States.

In 1826, when son James Jr. was 15, he learned of a new school, the Rensselaer School (later Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI) just started at Troy, New York by the Patroon of Manor of Rensselaerswyck, Stephen Van Rensselaer III, and under the academic direction of Amos Eaton. This new school was a departure from conventional classical schools that Eaton called “a kind of literary bondage.” Eaton’s new plan was for a scientific school centered on the “useful arts” and “adapted to the native curiosity and ardor of youth.” [Read more…] about James Hall: New York’s First State Geologist & Paleontologist

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Nature Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Albany Rural Cemetery, Dudley Observatory, East Greenbush, Ebenezer Emmons, Fossils, Geology, Joseph Henry, Louis Agassiz, New York State Museum, Paleontology, Rensselaer County, Rensselaerswijck, Roswell P. Flower, RPI

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