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Onondaga County

Central-Finger Lakes Segment of Statewide Birding Trail Opens

May 14, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

bird watchers courtesy DECNew York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced the grand opening of the Central-Finger Lakes segment of the New York State Birding Trail to highlight the state’s world-class and wide-ranging birding opportunities.

The Central-Finger Lakes segment includes 54 locations throughout 15 counties, providing a variety of quality birding experiences for New Yorkers and visitors to enjoy. [Read more…] about Central-Finger Lakes Segment of Statewide Birding Trail Opens

Filed Under: Mohawk Valley, Nature, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: birding, birds, Cayuga County, Chenango County, Cortland County, DEC, Finger Lakes, High Tor WMA, Lake Ontario, Livingston County, Madison County, Monroe County, Montezuma National Wildelife Refuge, nature, New York State Birding Trail, Oneida County, Onondaga County, Ontario County, Oswego County, Otsego County, Seneca County, Tompkins County, Wayne County, Wildlife, Yates County

Simeon DeWitt: America’s Surveyor General

April 25, 2022 by Peter Hess 2 Comments

The Roemer map of Albany 1698 showing fort orange and BeverwyckTjerck Claeszen DeWitt immigrated to New Amsterdam (now New York City) from Grootholt in Zunterlant in 1656. Grootholt means Great Wood and Zunterland was probably located on the southern border of East Friesland, a German territory on the North Sea only ten miles from the most northerly province of the Netherlands.

By 1657, Tjerck DeWitt married Barber (Barbara) Andrieszen (also Andriessen) in the New Amsterdam Dutch Church and moved to Beverwyck (now Albany). While in Beverwyck, he purchased a house. At this time Albany contained 342 houses and about 1,000 residents, about 600 of whom were members of the Dutch Church. [Read more…] about Simeon DeWitt: America’s Surveyor General

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Albany Rural Cemetery, American Revolution, Aurelius, Brutus, Camillus, Cato, Cayuga County, Cicero, Cincinnatus, Dryden, Fabius, Galen, Geography, George Washington, Greece, Hannibal, Hector, Homer, Ithaca, Junius, Kingston, Locke, Lysander, Manlius, Maps, Marcellus, Military History, Milton, New Amsterdam, New Netherland, New York City, Onondaga County, Ovid, Pompey, Rome, Romulus, Schenectady County, Scipio, Sempronius, Seneca County, Simeon DeWitt, Solon, Stirling, surveying, Syracuse, Thompkins County, Tully, Ulster County, Ulysses, Virgil, West Point, Yorktown

Syracuse Hero Jermain Loguen, Abolition & The Jerry Rescue

February 13, 2022 by Bruce Dearstyne 4 Comments

During Black History Month, it is useful to recall well-known Black Americans and also some not-so-well known. Jermain Loguen (1813-1872) fits a category of those who deserve more recognition and attention.

Born into slavery in Tennessee, he escaped to Canada (where slavery was outlawed) in 1834 and moved to Rochester in 1837 and then to Syracuse in 1841.  He became a teacher and then a minister with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.  An eloquent speaker, he used his sermons and public presentations to advocate abolition and resistance to slaveholders and to urge enslaved people to escape. Loguen had an apartment in his Syracuse home for freedom seekers and identified himself as  “Underground Railroad Agent.”  Loguen assisted more than 1,500 enslaved Black people to freedom, earning the informal title “King of the Underground Railroad” in Syracuse. [Read more…] about Syracuse Hero Jermain Loguen, Abolition & The Jerry Rescue

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Abolition, Black History, Canada, Crime and Justice, Jermain Loguen, Legal History, Mexico NY, Onondaga County, Political History, Slavery, Syracuse, Underground Railroad

America’s 250th Student Fellowships Funded In Western NY

January 5, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

History student intern Dwight DinkinsThe Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation has awarded SUNY distinguished professor of history Michael Leroy Oberg, the SUNY Geneseo Center for Local and Municipal History, and a consortium of six other colleges and universities, a three-year grant of more than $300K for American War of Independence Semiquincentennial student fellowships.

Several of the institutions in the fellowship program have committed $150K of matching funds for the project, bringing the total to over $450K. [Read more…] about America’s 250th Student Fellowships Funded In Western NY

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Allegany County, America's 250th Anniversary, Buffalo, Chautauqua County, Education, Erie County, Finger Lakes, Genesee County, Geneseo Center for Local and Municipal History, Grants, Lake Ontario, Livingston County, Monroe County, Niagara County, Onondaga County, Ontario County, Orleans County, Rochester, SUNY Geneseo, Syracuse, Wayne County, Wyoming County

Gilded Age Syracuse Senator Frank Hiscock: ‘We Will Bury Free Trade’

December 7, 2021 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Frank Hiscock from the 1891 Puck cartoon 'Doomed' by Louis Dalrymple and in the SenateThe St. Mary’s Band of Glens Falls played a quickstep the evening of October 26th, 1887 as the musicians paraded from Church Street to Glen Street to escort U.S. Senator Frank Hiscock from the Rockwell House hotel to the Glens Falls Opera House, where the freshman senator from Syracuse was to be keynote speaker at a Republican rally. [Read more…] about Gilded Age Syracuse Senator Frank Hiscock: ‘We Will Bury Free Trade’

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Western NY Tagged With: Economic History, Glens Falls, Onondaga County, Political History, Syracuse, Warren County

Watchable Wildlife: Green Lakes State Park in Onondaga County

December 4, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Green Lakes State ParkGreen Lakes State Park’s outstanding features are its two glacial lakes, each nearly 200 feet deep. These blue-green lakes are surrounded by old-growth forest of enormous hemlocks and tulip trees. [Read more…] about Watchable Wildlife: Green Lakes State Park in Onondaga County

Filed Under: Nature, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: birding, Cross-Country Skiing, Green Lakes Bird Conservation Area, Green Lakes State Park, hiking, nature, Onondaga County, Wildlife

Thurlow Weed, Stephen Van Rensselaer III and the Disputed Election of 1824

October 7, 2021 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

A Young Thurlow Weed (2)Thurlow Weed was born on November 15, 1797, the son of Joel and Mary (Elis) Weed, in Cairo, Greene County, NY where his grandfather settled after the Revolutionary War. His father was a farmer who was apparently hard working but never prosperous, occasionally spending time in jail for debt.

In 1799, the family moved to Catskill where young Weed received a small amount of schooling. His first job was pumping a blacksmith’s bellows while the blacksmith formed heated iron. He made six cents per day. At nine, he got a job as a cabin boy on a Hudson River sloop. [Read more…] about Thurlow Weed, Stephen Van Rensselaer III and the Disputed Election of 1824

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Catskill, Catskills, Cortland County, Greene County, Martin Van Buren, Onondaga County, Political History, Stephen Van Rensselaer III, Thurlow Weed, Van Rensselaers

Volunteers Improve Trails at Morgan Hill State Forest

July 28, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Morgan Hill State ForestRecently, volunteers from the bike group CNY D.I.R.T. worked together at Morgan Hill State Forest in southern Onondaga and northern Cortland counties to build an additional 1.3 miles of single-track multiple-use trail. The forest now hosts 10.8 miles of designated multiple-use trail, with another 4+ miles planned in the next few years. [Read more…] about Volunteers Improve Trails at Morgan Hill State Forest

Filed Under: Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: Cortland County, DEC, Morgan Hill State Forest, mountain biking, Onondaga County, trails

Wheelchair Downhill Pioneer Louis’s Twists and Turns

September 5, 2018 by Mary Lou Michalec and Natalie Williams-Dardaris Leave a Comment

Louis in the paperA planned escape? An outing to visit family and friends? Or just for fun?

One spring day in 1937, Louis must have decided it was a time for a change of scenery and maybe the opportunity to get back to city life and family he once lived with.

But to travel off of Onondaga Hill, there are several ways. Unfortunately, all down hill. [Read more…] about Wheelchair Downhill Pioneer Louis’s Twists and Turns

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Onondaga County, Syracuse

Remembering Onondaga’s Split Rock Explosion

May 1, 2018 by Natalie Willliams-Dardaris 1 Comment

split rockAs Rich Miller remembers, it was sometime around 1984 that a colleague at the bank where he worked first mentioned Onondaga’s Split Rock Explosion of July 2, 1918.

This was not the first time that Rich’s interest was piqued by the Split Rock Explosion. He had read former newspaper columnist Dick Case’s columns on that event, but this was the first time someone offered to take Rich up to explore Split Rock.

Over thirty years later, his research has lead him to write a four volume series about Split Rock – before, during and after the explosion that changed the lives of the people who worked there and the communities nearby. [Read more…] about Remembering Onondaga’s Split Rock Explosion

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Industrial History, Onondaga County, Onondaga Hist Soc, Syracuse

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