New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Lake Champlain

Patterson Names Wife ‘Honorary Chair" of 400th

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Governor David A. Paterson today announced that First Lady Michelle Paige Paterson has been named Honorary Chair of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Celebration. Next year, 2009, marks the 400th anniversaries of the voyage of English Captain Henry Hudson, who led the first European expedition to sail up the river that now bears his name, and the voyage of Frenchman Samuel de Champlain, the first to discover the namesake lake. To celebrate these simultaneous 400th anniversaries – as well as the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s maiden steamboat journey up the Hudson River – New York State is planning a yearlong series of events, programs and projects that highlight the discovery of New York, celebrating the State’s Dutch, French and English roots and heritage.

“This is a momentous occasion in our State’s history,” said First Lady Michelle Paige Paterson. “I am so proud to be able to serve this important role as ambassador for the 400th anniversaries of the exploration of our historic Hudson River and Lake Champlain, celebrating our rich history and our embrace of diversity, tolerance and innovation. Perhaps most importantly, we are utilizing the occasion to focus attention on the most important legacy of all — environmental and economic sustainability starting with the next 100 years.”

New York’s First Lady will lend her support to several projects across the State, including the “Walkway Over the Hudson” in Poughkeepsie that will transform the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge into a spectacular park in the sky, the longest elevated walkway in the world. On Lake Champlain, the newly refurbished Crown Point Lighthouse will shine again over the stabilized ruins of two nearby forts – Crown Point and St. Frederic – that symbolize the region’s English and French heritage. And Governor’s Island, the site of one of New York’s first Dutch settlements and a strategic 19th-century coastal fortification, will soon allow visitors to have access to the entire perimeter promenade for the first time, and will create a picnic area with unparalleled views of the Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor, and the Manhattan skyline.

Other Quadricentennial events include the valley-wide event “River Day” celebrating 400 years of boats, ships and the Hudson River; the Quadricentennial Sustainability Expo at the American Museum of Natural History, the International Commemorative Stamp Expo at the Empire State Plaza – featuring the loan of the original Henry Hudson 1909 stamp from the National Museum, the New York Medal of Discovery-the first annual medal from the Governor to a distinguished New Yorker, the “400 Years of History” conference at Marist College, and a special visit from the Dutch Royal Family.

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer said: “This event provides a golden opportunity to celebrate the history of New York State and three of the giants who defined it for the last four hundred years. Over this past year, I have worked tirelessly for the Quadricentennial to ensure the celebration provides a big boost for our tourism economy. I know with Michelle Paterson as the Honorary Chair of the Quadricentennial we can only expect even greater success.”

U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said: “First Lady Michelle Paige Paterson is an excellent choice to chair the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial celebrations. Under her leadership, this celebration of New York’s rich past will be a truly historic success.”

U.S. Congressman Maurice Hinchey said: “The Quadricentennial celebrations presents New Yorkers with so many exciting ways to celebrate and learn about the extraordinary historical events that occurred right here in our own backyard several centuries years ago. I am very pleased that First Lady Michelle Paige Paterson will be taking on such an important leadership role that will ensure we fulfill the cultural, educational, and economic potential that these upcoming events have for our State.”

Hugo Gajus Scheltema, Consul General of the Netherlands, said: “We are thrilled that the First Lady is Honorary Chair for the Quadricentennial Celebration. We look forward to working together for next year’s events. From our side we have set up a number of festivities in the framework of the Quadricentiennial and expect several Dutch dignitaries to visit New York State next year, including members of the royal family.”

Deputy Secretary for the Environment Judith Enck said: “We are honored to have First Lady Michele Paige Paterson integrally involved in commemorating the 400th anniversary of our magnificent Lake Champlain and Hudson River. The Hudson River and Lake Champlain are not only rich parts of our past but also are key to our future. In the upcoming Quadricentennial year we will celebrate history while stepping up our efforts to reduce water pollution and to advance policies that protect the shorelines of these vitally important water bodies. Having the First Lady in this leadership position signals how important this commemoration is for our great State.”

Joan Davidson, Chairperson of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Commission (HFCQ), said: “The Commission is inspired by Governor Paterson’s vision of a revitalized Hudson River Corridor and the Champlain Valley as a strong economic engine for New York City and State. We are delighted and honored that New York’s First Lady, Michelle Paige Paterson, has agreed to serve as Honorary Chair of the Commission and we look forward to working with her toward next year’s great events.”

Tara Sullivan, Executive Director of the NYS HFCQ, said: “New York’s communities, historic and environmental organizations, and State agencies have worked this past year to craft the 2009 plan for celebrating our past and planning for our future. New York’s First Lady will bring the prestige and gravitas to usher in this plan on the eve of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial!”

For more information on the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Celebration, visit: www.ExploreNY400.com.

A New Biography of Samuel de Champlain

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David Hackett Fischer‘s new biography of Samuel de Champlain is out. He will be at the New York State Writers Institute on Thursday to discuss the work, and there’s a review in the Albany Times Union by Paul Grondahl:

Published this month to capitalize on planned 2009 quadricentennial celebrations of Hudson and Champlain, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian has written a comprehensive, magisterial biography, Champlain’s Dream. It is intended to resurrect the extraordinary accomplishments of a protean figure largely overlooked in today’s history courses…

That dream of creating a French colony in North America began circa 1570 on the Atlantic coast of France, where Champlain grew up tolerant of religious differences in an era of brutal sectarian warfare. It is unclear whether Champlain was baptized Catholic or Protestant and much of his lineage remains murky. Fischer does not entirely discount historians who have suggested that he was an illegitimate son of the illustrious French king Henri IV — who gave financial support to Champlain’s explorations, granted him special access and provided a pension for him.

“The hard evidence to support such an idea is zero,” [Fischer] said.

Regardless of his paternity, Champlain went to sea as a youth and acquired exceptional sailing and navigation skills. In his jam-packed career, he was a soldier, spy, explorer, cartographer, author, artist and, above all, a conciliator among warring Indian tribes in the New World.

Unlike other agents of imperialism, Champlain did not go in search of gold or conquest, but rather to spread the culture of France, to discover new places and to bring together diverse people in a spirit of harmony.

His travels are prodigious. He made at least 27 Atlantic crossings between 1599 and 1635 without losing a ship; traversed six Canadian provinces and five American states by land and water; created maps more detailed and accurate than his contemporaries; wrote in-depth accounts of his trips that fill six large volumes. Oddly, he never learned to swim.

It is as the father of New France that Champlain deserves the most recognition, according to Fischer. As the founder and leader of the first permanent French settlements in North America, he went so far as to subsidize new families with his own money.

Although Champlain had some stains on his character, including shabby treatment of his French servants and an inability to absorb criticism, by the time of his death in 1635 he had succeeded in permanently planting French culture in the New World.

NY Council for the Humanities 400th Programs

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The New York Council for the Humanities has announced a host of special programs and initiatives in conjunction with the upcoming Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial including:

Mini Grants of up to $2500 for the planning and execution of public programs related to the 400th.

Reading Between the Lines reading and discussion series focused on 400th-related themes.

Speakers in the Humanities 400th lectures available to New York State groups for a nominal fee.

Speakers in the Schools 400th lectures available free of charge to any New York State high school.

To learn more about the 400th and the Council’s key role in its celebration visit the 400th website.

Stolen 1612 Map of Canada to be Auctioned?

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Thanks to The Map Room we learn that a rare copy of Samuel de Champlain’s 1612 map of Canada set to be auctioned at Sotheby’s next month, may be the same map discovered missing from Harvard University in 2005.

The Calgary Herald has the whole story:

The Harvard map was found missing in 2005 during an FBI investigation into a string of thefts from major libraries in the U.S. and Britain that saw about 100 cartographic treasures – worth an estimated $3 million US in total – sliced from centuries-old atlases and exploration journals.

Massachusetts antiquarian E. Forbes Smiley, a well-known collector and dealer of rare maps, eventually admitted to the thefts and is serving three years in a U.S. prison for the crime.

He helped authorities recover many of the stolen maps as part of a plea bargain, but the 1612 Champlain map removed from Harvard’s Houghton Library was not among those he admitted taking.

The Champlain map is one of top-priced items at Sotheby’s Nov. 13 Natural History, Travel, Atlases and Maps sale. According to the Calgary Herald the map was the first to be published to show Montreal, Lake Champlain and the Great Lakes as a chain of connected waterways.

Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Grants Announced

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More than 250 schools, grassroots organizations and local governments in the Hudson and Champlain valleys have been awarded “mini grants” to help bring supplemental funds to their preparation and planning for celebrating the 400th anniversary of the historic voyages of Henry Hudson and Samuel de Champlain, according to the the New York State Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial Office (HFCQ).

The announcement coincides with last week’s launch of the new Quadricentennial website. The new site focuses on a listing of the dozens of events being planned by all of the communities in the Hudson and Champlain Valleys and New York City. Also included is a wealth of statewide images, historical information, countless project plans, and opportunities for partnership with the state wide preparations for New York’s 400th.

Over the last ten months, HFCQ has been rallying all communities in the two valleys to become “Quad communities” (including schools, libraries and colleges) and valley businesses and corporations to become “Quad ambassadors,” cultivating organizations, clubs, and cultural institutions to become “Quad partners” and assisting them in initiating Quad events and programs for their memberships, and promoting New York State’s legacy projects in the Champlain Valley, the Hudson Valley and the New York Harbor.

These efforts will help local governments in their preparations for the commemorative year; provide funding for 400th anniversary projects, exhibits and events, and help fund state “signature” events. These include the Walkway over the Hudson project in the Hudson Valley, events on Governor’s Island in the New York Harbor, and the Crown Point lighthouse project on Lake Champlain (co-sponsored with the State Parks Department).

Stretching from Staten Island to the Town of Champlain on the Canadian border, the grant winners represent a wide variety of initiatives, from theatrical productions to research and writing projects to local festivals. Each award is approximately $1,000, funded through a combination of state funds and a generous donation from the Dyson Foundation.

Some examples of the more than 250 projects funded include:

Adirondack Rowers & Scullers (Albany County) for the Albany Rowing Center to build five park benches, outdoor display case and new boat rack at riverside for Quadricentennial events in Albany.

The Field Library (Westchester County) for author Tom Boyle of World’s End to participate in the library’s literacy project, a community wide ‘read’ of the book with Q&A and a film as well as part of the Quadricentennial.

Saugerties Pro Musica 975 (Ulster County) to contract with a musician to present a concert of HR/HV folksongs commemorating the New York 400th.

American Museum of Natural History (New York County) to present a public program series that will include the Quadricentennial theme, “Explore 400 Years of Progress in the Environment” which will focus on the impact of climate change on the HR Valley.

Cornell Cooperative Extension (of Warren County) to create a Quadricentennial display for the countywide events.

A full list of the more than 250 projects funded is available [PDF].

Civil War Fort Montgomery Needs Preservation

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According to an editorial in the Plattsburgh Press Republican this week, Fort Montgomery – not the Hudson River American Revolution fort, but the Lake Champlain (mostly) American Civil War one in Rouses Point – is in ruins, the victim of nothing less then neglect.


According to the Press Republican:

In April 1980, a huge portion of the northwest bastion collapsed into the moat, and cracks in the rest of the structure have raised concerns that a similar fate awaits the rest of the fort.


And there are other obstacles. Liability is an acute concern, as the unstable structure has long been used as a party spot for teens. Also, the location is surrounded by environmentally sensitive wetlands.


But the potential as a historic landmark and tourist destination — accessible by car, bus or boat — is undeniable. In fact, it can be seen by the preservation of a similar landmark, Fort Lennox, just a 20-minute drive upriver in Isle aux Noir, Quebec.

It took hundreds of stonemasons thirty years to build (1844 and 1871), according to the great Wiki:

Named for Revolutionary War hero General Richard Montgomery who was killed at Quebec City during the 1775 invasion of Canada, construction began on Fort Montgomery two years later in 1844. Fort Montgomery was one of a very few “Permanent” or “Third System” forts built along the Northern Frontier, most being constructed along the Atlantic Coast. Work on the fort remained almost continuous through 1870, with the peak of construction taking a frenzied pace during the American Civil War, amidst rumors of possible British intervention against the Union from Canada. These fears were actually proven to be not that far fetched when the Confederate led St. Albans Raid, the northernmost action of the Civil War, took place in nearby Vermont in 1864 involving an incursion by the enemy from Canada.

In 1926 the United States Government sold Fort Montgomery along with its adjacent Military Reservation at public auction. During the period of disuse which followed, as had also happened with the abandoned 1816 fortification, many locals visited the fort, carting off untold amounts of lumber, bricks, windows, and doors for use in their homes and other buildings. Ultimately the majority of the fort, aside from the gutted westward facing officer’s quarters, a small portion of the southern wall and 3 bastions, (2 of which remain today) was demolished in 1936-1937. Its massive stones were crushed and dumped into the lake for fill to construct a nearby bridge between Rouses Point, New York and Alburg, Vermont. After a number of private owners, the property was sold to Victor Podd, Sr. who constructed the headquarters of the Powertex Corporation on the adjacent “Commons” to the west of the fort. Island Point, the actual fort site, was left untouched. During the mid-1980s Podd worked with local historical societies to have the State of New York purchase the property with a view toward possible restoration of the site. Despite being offered the fort at no cost, negotiations were unsuccessful and the State declined to accept the property. Since May 2006 Podds’ heirs have attempted to sell the fort on eBay. The first auction ended on June 5, 2006, with a winning bid of $5,000,310. However, the sale was not completed, and the fort and lands surrounding it remain for sale.

There are current concerns among local preservationists that what remains of the fort today is in danger of a catastrophic structural collapse. This is in part due to the removal of iron reinforcing rods, emplaced around 1886, which were likely cut out for their scrap value during the wartime scrap metal drives of World War 2. These rods were originally devised to brace up and support the massive weight of the fort’s detached outer wall face, a defensive element of the fort’s construction which later proved over time to be a structural flaw. Previously a third remaining bastion on the northern side of the fort suffered a similar collapse and was completely destroyed in 1980, mostly falling into the moat.

Thanks in part to a National Register of Historic Places listing in 1977, the fort is often confused with “Fort Blunder,” for which construction began in 1816. Thanks to a surveyor error, it was discovered that this first fort had been accidentally built on the Canadian side of the border and the site was abandoned. Materials from the fort were taken by locals for local building projects. It was never officially named.

Call For Papers: When The French Were Here

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As part of the quadricentennial of Samuel de Champlain’s exploration of Lake Champlain, Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont is hosting an international academic symposium on July 2-5, 2009. Scholars from the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences are invited to participate.

The theme, “When the French Were Here,” invites the broadest possible consideration of Samuel de Champlain’s achievements, his life, and of his world as a cultural, social and ideological context. [Read more…] about Call For Papers: When The French Were Here

The Big 400: Champlain Descendants Still Local

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2009 will mark the celebration of the 400th Anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s arrival on the big lake, Henry Hudson’s on the big river, and the 200th Anniversary of Fulton’s steamship. Both New York and Vermont will be celebrating Champlain. [Read more…] about The Big 400: Champlain Descendants Still Local

Fort Ticonderoga Facing Financial Ruin

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Fort Ticonderoga President Peter S. Paine Jr. has suggested in a memo forwarded to the Plattsburgh Press Republican that the historic site (a veteran of the French and Indian and American Revolutionary wars as well as the War of 1812) has seven options to avoid permanent closure, none of them good.

Paine wrote in the memo that “the fort is running through its available endowment funds to pay the Mars Education Center bills, and, in the absence of a major infusion of funds, the fort will be essentially broke by the end of 2008.”


His options include applying for new short-term loans (perhaps from the Essex County Industrial Development Agency), banking on a new capital campaign to raise $3 million to $5 million (Paine had said the Fort needed 2.5 million), asking the state for a bailout or to take over ownership of the fort, selling some of the fort’s property or collections (it holds paintings worth millions, including Thomas Cole’s 1831 “Ruins of Fort Ticonderoga,” but its ownership is in dispute) or closing for an indefinite period until the finances are sorted out.

Paine’s proposals come after a year of chaos at the fort began when Deborah Mars, a Ticonderoga native married to the billionaire co-owner of the Mars candy company Forrest Mars Jr., bailed on their long-time support for the fort just before completion of the new $23 million Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center. The Mars paid for nearly all of the new building’s construction but left before it was finished leaving Fort Ti about a million dollars in debt. When the building bearing their name opened this month, they didn’t show. Mr. Mars said disagreements with fort’s Executive Director Nicholas Westbrook were the reason why. Paine replaced Deborah Mars as the fort’s president.

A newly released study of Revolution War and War of 1812 sites by the National Park Service [pdf] points to the problem of private ownership of some America’s most important heritage sites:

Nonprofit organizations dedicated to preserving, maintaining, and interpreting their historic properties own all or portions of 100 Principal Sites [identified by the report]. Ownership of four Principal Sites is unknown currently. Private owners still control most of the Principal Sites, especially the battlefields and associated properties made up of large land areas. Privately owned sites or portions of sites are without any known form of enforceable legal protection. Many private owners maintain and care for their historic properties, but without legally mandated protection, the properties could be damaged or destroyed at any time.

Fort Ticonderoga had already been identified in the report as a Priority I (“these sites need immediate preservation or may be lost by 2017”) facing a “medium” level of threat. The threat is real for the already economically depressed Adirondack region of New York State, and the locals are restless.

A Short History of Fort Carillon / Fort Ticonderoga

The fort located at the north-south choke-point between Lake George and Lake Champlain was ordered built by French Governor-General Vaudreuil (the French Governor of Canada) as the southernmost fort of the French Empire in the New World as a bulwark in anticipation of attacks on Fort St. Frederic and the French settlements at today’s Crown Point, New York (currently being excavated) and Chimney Point, Vermont. Named Fort Carillon, it was built by soldiers and settlers in 1755-56. The following year French General Montcalm used Carillon as a base to attack British Fort William Henry at the southern end of Lake George. In 1758, British General Abercromby led an overwhelming British and Colonial Army in a attack on the fort that ended disastrously. American colonial forces under Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen took the poorly manned fort in the opening engagements of the American Revolution without a fight in 1775. It was retaken by Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne in 1777. Native Americans from the Algonquin, French Mohawk, Huron, and Nippissings are among those associated with the history of the fort.

It is considered one of America’s oldest heritage tourism sites with tourists arriving in numbers in the 1830s (by way of comparison, the Hasbrouck House, George Washington’s headquarters at Newburgh, NY, became the first historic house museum in the United States in 1850). In 1783, George Washington visited the Fort with New York’s Governor Clinton. Following the Revolution New York State granted the Fort and its surrounding grounds to Columbia and Union Colleges. In 1791 future presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison both visited the fort.

William Ferris Pell purchased 546 acres containing the ruined fort in 1820, but it wasn’t opened to the public until 1908. The non-profit Fort Ticonderoga Association took control in the 1930s and members of the Pell family formally loaned many of the paintings and artifacts to the fort in the 1940s. Mount Independence, the high ground on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain where many colonial troops were encamped during occupation of the fort is under the care of the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. The ruins at nearby Crown Point are a New York State Historic Site.

This post also appeared at Adirondack Almanack, the premiere blog of the culture, politics, history, and environment of the Adirondacks.