History, Natural History & the Arts
Staff from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), including staff from the State’s Rome Fish Disease Control Unit (Rome Lab), recently completed a wild brown trout collection on upper Oriskany Creek in Madison County.
That section of the creek has not been stocked since the early 1990s because of the healthy wild “Rome Strain” trout population present. [Read more…] about Improving Brown Trout Genetics at Oriskany Creek
The 2019 Madison County Hop Fest Tour on Sunday, September 15th, will feature exemplary architectural structures that demonstrate the four components of 19th century hop processing, as well as provide new sites of the county’s hop heritage.
Visitors will get to enter the hop houses, see the elements and tools, smell the hop aroma saved in the timbers, and hear the explanations of the processes. The tour will include many “windshield viewings” of other sites included in the 2006 Bicentennial Hop Heritage Trail and in the Cultural Resources Survey supported by a grant from the Preservation League of New York State in 2006. [Read more…] about A Tour of Madison County’s Hop Heritage
The 24th Annual Madison County Hop Fest has been set for Saturday, September 14, at the Madison County Historical Society, 435 Main Street, Oneida.
The Madison County Hop Fest was created to raise awareness of the history and influence of hop culture, as well as for a fund-raiser for the county museum. [Read more…] about Madison County’s Annual Hop Fest Celebrate Hops History
The Madison County Historical Society has relaunched the Madison County Heritage journal, which has been dormant since 2015.
The mission of the Madison County Historical Society is to preserve, collect, promote, and exhibit the history of Madison County and to develop programs enhancing that heritage. The Society publishes Madison County Heritage, an annual anthology of essays showcasing aspects of the local past. [Read more…] about Madison County Heritage Journal Relaunched
The Madison County Historical Society’s Heritage Hops Benefit is now underway. Potted hop plants are again available for a five dollar donation. More than 200 hop plants are ready for purchase now.
Varieties available include Cascade and “Hedgerow Hops” from the wild stock of the old hop yards near Bouckville, where commercial hop growing was introduced to New York State in 1808. [Read more…] about Heritage Hops Benefit Madison Co Historical Soc
A new book by author Wade A. Lallier, Chenango Canal: The Million Dollar Ditch (Arcadia Publishing, 2017) chronicles the story of a Central New York State canal and how it changed the region. In 1825, the Omnibus Canal Bill had called for a survey of a canal linking the Susquehanna River at Binghamton to the Erie Canal in Utica. The idea of a canal was well received in the Chenango Valley but was opposed by many outside it. [Read more…] about Chenango Canal: A Million Dollar Ditch
In commemoration of the end of the Civil War, the death of Lincoln, and the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery, the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) has suspended its 2015 induction ceremonies to address the matter of President Lincoln as “The Great Emancipator.” Several programs will provide opportunity for the public to study Lincoln as an abolitionist.
The Thirteenth Amendment (“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,… shall exist with within the United States..”) was proposed by the U.S. Senate on April 8, 1864. The movie Lincoln features the historical drama of securing the votes needed in the House of Representative to pass the resolution. The Thirteenth Amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865 and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865. [Read more…] about Lincoln Weekend Celebrates Great Emancipator
Potted hop plants are available to benefit the Madison County Historical Society in Oneida, NY for at least a five dollar donation. Hop plants are ready to be planted now.
Available hop varieties include Cascade and “Hedgerow Hops” from the wild stock of the old hop yards near Bouckville, NY where commercial hop growing was introduced to Central New York in 1808. These hedgerow hops are a hardy plant, having survived over 150 winters. [Read more…] about Heritage Hops Benefit Madison Co Historical Society
The 23rd Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend schedule is in place for the Sesquicentennial commemoration of the last year of the Civil War, the death of President Lincoln, and the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery. Peterboro, a historic hamlet in the Town of Smithfield, Madison County, is located about 25 miles southeast of Syracuse. [Read more…] about 23rd Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend Set
The important contributions to the field of ornithology of citizen-scientist Greene Smith have been obscured by the Underground Railroad and abolition fame of Smith’s father Gerrit Smith. As important and well-known as are the Underground Railroad sites on the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark in Peterboro NY, it is Greene’s Ornithon that most piques visitors’ curiosity about the builder and collector of that bird museum.
This public fascination prompted Norm Dann to turn the focus of his Smith research to Greene Smith and his Birdhouse. Dann’s study of family letters, military records, Greene’s personal Catalogue of Birds, the pursuit of Greene’s hunting apparatus, and the ownership and investigation of the Birdhouse site, have culminated in the March printing of Greene Smith and the WildLife: The Story of Peterboro’s Avid Outdoorsman – the first publication on this absorbing story. [Read more…] about Greene Smith: Peterboro’s Avid Outdoorsman