History, Natural History & the Arts
Located at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, Sackets Harbor boasts a stellar history in the War of 1812, but this lake port holds a wealth of other fascinating stories.
After the War of 1812, Sackets Harbor nearly became a thriving lake port, but both the emerging railroads and canal systems quickly excluded the tiny village from ever becoming a Buffalo or Cleveland-size port. [Read more…] about Dancing On Logs: Pulp Wood At Sackets Harbor
New York’s Finger Lakes Region was well known to many Revolutionary War veterans as a place of both strife and potential. Strife because of conflict with Indigenous people, and great potential for lush productive farmland.
Soldiers witnessed both ends of the spectrum first-hand. [Read more…] about Colonial Canandaigua In War And Peace
The Northeast Motus Collaboration recently installed a Motus Wildlife Tracking Station on Lake Shore Marshes Wildlife Management Area (WMA).
Located on the edge of Lake Ontario, this station is the first of five that are being installed on WMAs in New York this summer to track wildlife movement. [Read more…] about Tracking Animal Movement and Migration with Motus
Old Fort Niagara, is considered the oldest continuously occupied military site in North America. It opened in 1934 as a historic site and public museum. The Fort, originally built to protect the interests of New France in North America, is located near Youngstown, Niagara County, NY, on the eastern bank of the Niagara River at its mouth, on Lake Ontario.
The site has reopened to visitors, following a 15-week closure due to the ongoing pandemic. Daily hours of operation have been shortened slightly from 10 am to 4 pm to allow for extra cleaning before and after hours. [Read more…] about Old Fort Niagara Has Reopened
2020 is off to a great start as far as state fishing records go in New York. Less than a month after a new white bass record was established, a new rock bass record was reeled in by one lucky young angler. [Read more…] about State Record Rock Bass Caught
Shipwrecks of Lake Ontario: A Journey of Discovery, a presentation by Great Lakes shipwreck explorer Jim Kennard, has been set for Thursday August 1st, 2019 at 6:30 pm, at the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site.
Kennard’s presentation includes stories of long-lost shipwrecks and their underwater exploration. [Read more…] about Shipwrecks of Lake Ontario Talk At Sackets Harbor
Susan Peterson Gateley’s new novel The Widow Maker, A Maritime Tale of Lake Ontario (Whiskey Hill Press, 2019) looks at the story of a female Lake Ontario sailor’s political enlightenment in the time of Rochester’s Susan B. Anthony, Oswego’s Dr. Mary Walker and Auburn’s Harriet Tubman.
The novel’s publication coincides with the centennial of the passage in Congress of the 19th amendment allowing the vote for women by the U. S. Congress (subsequently ratified in 1920). Much of the plot is based on actual historic events and takes place on Oswego’s waterfront in 1880 and on the open waters of Lake Ontario. [Read more…] about Widow Maker, A Maritime Tale of Lake Ontario
Over the centuries, history unfolded in so many ways along the cliffs of what is today the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site.
The oldest story about the cliffs appears in the oral traditions of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) when the Great Peacemaker crossed Lake Ontario in a white stone canoe, landing where Sackets Harbor is located.
The cliffs played a defensive role a May 1813 attack by British and Canadian forces during the War of 1812. [Read more…] about Sackets Harbor: On The Cliffs of Lake Ontario
The Sodus Bay Lighthouse Museum, located at 7606 North Ontario Street in Sodus Point, Wayne County, New York, has opened for its 31st season.
Built in 1870, the lighthouse was used to guide ships on Lake Ontario to safe harbor in Sodus Bay. Use of the light was discontinued in 1901, having been made redundant by an outer light on the bay’s west pier. The building now houses a museum, operated by the Sodus Bay Historical Society. Exhibitions focus on local and maritime history and include displays about lighthouse keepers’ tools, railroads and trolleys, the Erie Canal, and the War of 1812. [Read more…] about Spotlight: Sodus Bay Lighthouse Museum
As the second summer of the War of 1812 was drawing to a close, the sea war with Britain that had enjoyed such notable success in its early months, had shifted from the open ocean to the Great Lakes. There were two reasons for this. Stunning victories by USS Constitution over HMS Guerriere, the United States over the Macedonian and Constitution against Java had shocked the British.
The Admiralty’s response to the American frigate victories was to use overwhelming numbers to control the seas. Orders were issued forbidding any more single ship engagements, and the British established blockade squadrons off the coast all the way to New Orleans. The British blockade on America had tightened, with 100 ships on station off the coast.
And, while it was possible for an American ship to run the blockade, especially during foul weather, naval supplies were being diverted to a different theater of war – the Great Lakes. [Read more…] about All Hands: The Battle of Lake Erie Bicentennial