SUNY Plattsburgh

Students Work To Clean Up Saranac River Trail, Seek Help

April 16, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Eight volunteers recently removed roughly 100 pounds of garbage from the Saranac River Trail in Plattsburgh from Seltzer Road to behind Clinton Dining Hall on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus.

Much of the garbage consisted of single-use plastics, beer bottles, cigarette butts, and numerous other household items. Among the garbage was a pint of bleach that was properly disposed of. The efforts focused on the shoreline, hoping to limit waste from entering the Saranac River, and eventually Lake Champlain. [Read more…] about Students Work To Clean Up Saranac River Trail, Seek Help

Martin Luther King’s Northern New York Legacy

January 19, 2026 by Lawrence P. Gooley Leave a Comment

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and if you lived through the 1960s, you’ll never forget that turbulent decade. Even turbulent is putting it mildly: weekly classroom drills for nuclear attacks (Get under my desk? What the heck is this thing made of?); riots over race, poverty, the draft, and the Vietnam War; the assassinations of JFK, King, and Bobby Kennedy; and so much more.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a leading figure of those times, beloved and hated nationally and internationally. Love him or hate him, he was remarkable. Against the worst of odds, he effected change through peaceful protest. The impact was clear, even here in Northern New York. [Read more…] about Martin Luther King’s Northern New York Legacy

Project Rearing Atlantic Salmon for the Saranac River Enters Final Year

April 8, 2025 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

A five-year project experimenting with raising Atlantic Salmon in Lake Champlain on the Saranac River estuary is entering it final year. The project team is studying how to increase returns of the popular fish to the Saranac River to spawn each year on their own. [Read more…] about Project Rearing Atlantic Salmon for the Saranac River Enters Final Year

Riddles, Records and Revelations in North Country Notes

November 1, 2024 by Helen Allen Nerska 1 Comment

We are fortunate in Clinton County to have access to hundreds of original documents at the Clinton County Historical Association (CCHA) and at SUNY Plattsburgh’s Special Collections. And we have the Northern New York Library Network historic newspapers. [Read more…] about Riddles, Records and Revelations in North Country Notes

Marjorie Lansing Porter’s Contributions to Preserving Adirondack history

July 27, 2024 by Anthony F. Hall 1 Comment

The artist and illustrator Rockwell Kent once suggested that Pete Seeger compose an opera based on Adirondack folk tunes, and that my father write the book. Despite the fact that my father was a friend of Seeger’s, it’s hard to imagine him, a lifelong newspaperman, collaborating on an opera. Nevertheless, the idea is not as far-fetched as it sounds.

In fact, in 1960, Seeger did release “Champlain Valley Songs,” an album based on lyrics and tunes recorded by Marjorie Lansing Porter as she traveled throughout the North Country. [Read more…] about Marjorie Lansing Porter’s Contributions to Preserving Adirondack history

Clinton County’s History Reminders: What’s In A Name?

April 16, 2024 by Helen Allen Nerska Leave a Comment

Thank you, Anne Gilliland, for asking the question – What’s in a name? On October 31, 1931, Anne was asked to read a paper to the Major Benjamin Mooers Chapter of the Daughters of 1812 in Plattsburgh, NY. Her paper? “What’s in a name? – a lot of history, that’s what!.”

Most of her information came from Three Centuries in the Champlain Valley written in 1909 by Jeanette Tuttle, which is a treasured source of history. [Read more…] about Clinton County’s History Reminders: What’s In A Name?

Clinton County Historical Association’s North Country Notes

January 9, 2024 by Helen Allen Nerska Leave a Comment

Diving into Clinton County Historical Association’s North Country Notes is history buff’s paradise. The Historical Association (CCHA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1945 and funded and staffed by members of the community. We can speculate as to why the date of CCHA’s founding may be significant. [Read more…] about Clinton County Historical Association’s North Country Notes

Adirondack Coast Museum Days Weekend

June 13, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Adirondack Coast Cultural Alliance has announced the 14th Annual Museum Days Weekend throughout Clinton County has been set for June 17th and 18th, inviting visitors and residents to “be a tourist in your own backyard” and explore the area’s wealth of museums, galleries, and cultural organizations. [Read more…] about Adirondack Coast Museum Days Weekend

William Beaumont, Father of Gastric Physiology

May 31, 2023 by Helen Allen Nerska Leave a Comment

One of the important historical figures of Clinton County, who is not often mentioned, is Dr. William Beaumont (1785 – 1853), considered “The Father of Gastric Physiology.”

His name is honored across the nation on schools and hospitals and locally on historic markers, a SUNY Plattsburgh building, and a local medical practice. [Read more…] about William Beaumont, Father of Gastric Physiology

Smugglers & The Law: Prohibition In Northern New York

January 19, 2023 by John Warren 9 Comments

Dennis Warren left his job as a coal shoveler on the New York Central Railroad in Albany to ship out to the First World War. His transport ship had a close call with a German submarine on the way over, but got there in time to take part in what one of the bloodiest military campaigns in American history.

For Americans after the war, the Argonne would mean what Normandy meant just 25 years later – sacrifice. Sadly, that sacrifice in the Argonne Forest was never repaid to Dennis Warren, who met the death of a smuggler – running from an officious and invasive law on a treacherous mountain road near Port Henry on Lake Champlain.

According to the newsman who reported his death at the age of 29, “Canadian Ale was spread across the road.” [Read more…] about Smugglers & The Law: Prohibition In Northern New York

The Origins of Rockwell Kent: The Development of an Artist and His Craft

December 19, 2022 by Anthony F. Hall 1 Comment

Rockwell Kent, the artist who made the Adirondacks his home from 1928 until his death in 1971, mastered more media than any of his contemporaries, even if one were to include Andy Warhol.

And no one was more skillful than he at agitprop – exhorting the masses to political action through expressive combinations of images and words, in posters, pamphlets, books and even bottle caps, those he used to seal the milk bottles from his Ausable Forks dairy farm. [Read more…] about The Origins of Rockwell Kent: The Development of an Artist and His Craft

Lake Champlain Sea Grant Hosting ‘Zoom A Scientist’

April 1, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Over the next few weeks, the Lake Champlain Sea Grant team will be hosting “Zoom a Scientist,” an interactive webinar series focused on watershed and aquatic science.

Every Tuesday and Friday from noon until 1 pm scientists will lead viewers through the Lake Champlain watershed and share their research. [Read more…] about Lake Champlain Sea Grant Hosting ‘Zoom A Scientist’

Artifact Identification Day In Clinton County Saturday

October 17, 2014 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

To celebrate International Archaeology Day, the SUNY-Plattsburgh Anthropology Department and Clinton County Historical Association (CCHA) invite community members to bring their artifacts and collections to the Museum to participate in their Annual Artifact Identification Day.

Archaeologists Chris Wolff and Andy Black from SUNY-Plattsburgh will be on the grounds of the CCHA to identify and provide more information about your artifacts from 11 am to 2 pm on Saturday, October 18th. They will also be displaying some of their findings from local excavations for visitors to view. Guests are also encouraged to take advantage of the Museum’s free admission for this event and free family activities. No appraisals will be given at this event. [Read more…] about Artifact Identification Day In Clinton County Saturday

New Manager for War of 1812 Museum

December 30, 2013 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

The War of 1812 Museum, operated by the Battle of Plattsburgh Association, has announced the hiring of a new museum manager. Dave Deno, a native of Plattsburgh will be taking the helm as of January 6th, 2014. Deno replaces departing museum manager Tammy Brown, who has left to take a sales position with Essex Pallet and Pellet Company of Keeseville, N.Y.

Deno studied at Clinton Community College and earned a Bachelor’s of Art Degree in History from SUNY Plattsburgh in 2009. He has recently been working toward the establishment of a new Plattsburgh Air Force Base Museum which is expected to open Saturday, June 7, 2014. [Read more…] about New Manager for War of 1812 Museum

SUNY Plattsburgh Puts Yearbooks Online

October 7, 2013 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

If terms like Roaring Twenties, Winter Weekend and Homecoming Weekend sound familiar, you may be a graduate or staff member of SUNY Plattsburgh.

For a look into these events, as well as many others, go no further than the closest Internet connection. A total of 87 SUNY Plattsburgh Cardinal Yearbooks, consisting of 16,046 images, are now part of the New York Heritage site (www.nyheritage.org). This project was made possible through the collaborative efforts of the college and the Northern New York Library Network based in Potsdam. [Read more…] about SUNY Plattsburgh Puts Yearbooks Online

Events Highlight Role of Pot In Rockefeller’s Drug War

September 25, 2013 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Cannabis and its defining role in the culture wars and the ‘war on drugs’ declared by former New York State Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller forty years ago will be fully explored by award-winning investigative journalist Martin A. Lee in two separate events in the North Country on September 26-27. Lee will also be speaking in Albany on September 28.

All three events are sponsored by the freedom education and human rights project, John Brown Lives!, as part of “The Correction,” the organization’s latest initiative that uses history as a tool to engage communities in examining the past and addressing critical issues of our time. The focus of The Correction is the impacts of the 40-year era of the Rockefeller Drug Laws. [Read more…] about Events Highlight Role of Pot In Rockefeller’s Drug War

Historic Local Recordings Now Available in Plattsburgh

July 18, 2012 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Access to hundreds of audio recordings that reveal the rich histories of Clinton, Essex, and Franklin Counties are now available at SUNY Plattsburgh’s Feinberg Library’s Special Collections.

Recordings include Adirondack Folk Music; Clinton, Essex, and Franklin County oral histories, including those by local residents born prior to the American Civil War; SUNY Plattsburgh concerts; a 1963 recording of Edward “Doc” Redcay on piano and Junior Barber on dobro; and four-time Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Frost reading his works.

The collection of recordings is the result of a collaborative effort by SUNY Plattsburgh Communications Professor Timothy Clukey and Feinberg Library’s Special Collections staff. According to a statement released to the press “copyright restrictions require that researchers visit Special Collections during open hours to listen to any of these recordings.” The recordings are available as mp3 files on a new Audio Station computer kiosk.

A Soundscriber Recorder was used in the mid-20th century by Marjorie Lansing Porter, historian for Clinton and Essex counties. Porter recorded 456 interviews with elderly local residents telling stories and singing traditional Adirondack folk music.

Among the folk music examples, Granma Delorme sang more than one hundred folk songs for Porter, including a Battle of Plattsburgh ballad composed by General Alexander Macomb’s wife. Included also is “Yankee” John Galusha singing “The Three Hunters,” “A Lumbering We Shall Go,” and “Adirondack Eagle.” Francis Delong sings “My Adirondack Home,” and “Peddler Jack.”

Many of the recorded songs deal with mining, lumbering, Adirondack folk tales, and other subjects, as well as traditional Irish and French folk music handed down through generations. The Porter Oral History Interviews cover many topics of historical interest in Clinton and Essex Counties, such as ferry boats, Redford glass, mining, and lumbering.

The Audio Station also includes 96 interviews conducted by William Langlois and Robert McGowan with elder Franklin County residents in the 1970s.

Plans in the works for additions to the Audio Station include:

Rockwell Kent audio recordings (now on reel-to-reel tapes in Special Collections’ Rockwell Kent Collection);

SUNY Plattsburgh Past President Dr. George Angell speaking on antiwar action in 1967—“Protest is Not Enough”;

The 1965 SUNY Plattsburgh Students for a Democratic Society and S.E.A.N.Y.S. teach-in, “The Vietnam Question,” with introduction by Dr. Angell;

A1964 speech by Senator-Elect Robert Kennedy on the Plattsburgh campus; and a 1964 meeting between Senator-Elect Kennedy and Dr. Angell, discussing various local and county concerns and other topics.

For more information, contact Debra Kimok, Special Collections Librarian (email: debra.kimok@plattsburgh.edu; telephone: 518-564-5206).

During the summer, the Feinberg Special Collections will be open on Mondays and Tuesdays, from 1 pm – 4 pm, and on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, from 10 am – noon and 1 pm – 4 pm. Saturday appointments can be arranged with the Special Collections Librarian.

‘Lies My Teacher Told Me’ Author Event Friday

October 13, 2011 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

James W. Loewen, award-winning author of the popular Lies My Teacher Told Me titles, will visit the North Country tomorrow Friday, October 14 from 10-12 pm at SUNY Plattsburg.

The freedom education project John Brown Lives! and SUNY Plattsburgh’s Honors College, Department of Anthropology, Department of Education, Health & Human Services and the Center for Diversity, Pluralism & Inclusion are teaming up to sponsor Loewen.

Loewen’s address, “Lies My Teacher Told Me About the Civil War—And How They Still Affect Civil Rights Today”, is open to the general public. Known for his engaging style and gripping retelling of U.S. history, Loewen has inspired K-16 teachers across the country to get students to challenge, rather than memorize, their textbooks. His best-selling title, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, resulted from two years studying U.S. history textbooks and it has sold more than 1,250,000 copies.

Currently residing in Washington, D.C., Loewen taught race relations for twenty years at the University of Vermont and previously at the predominantly black Tougaloo College in Mississippi. He has been an expert witness in more than 50 civil rights, voting rights, and employment cases and is also Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, Visiting Professor of Sociology at Catholic University in Washington, DC, and Visiting Professor of African-American Studies at the University of Illinois in Urbana/Champaign.

Books: The War of 1812 in the Champlain Valley

April 30, 2011 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

As the 200th anniversary approaches, there will be a steady stream of new books about the War of 1812. But for readers interested in the effects of the war on the ground in the Champlain Valley, there remains just one foundational text, now available for the first time in paper by Syracuse University Press.

Although first issued in 1981, Allan S. Everest’s The War of 1812 in the Champlain Valley is still required reading for those hoping to understand the Plattsburgh campaign, considered critical to the war. [Read more…] about Books: The War of 1812 in the Champlain Valley

Life of Fugitive Slave Lavinia Bell to be Presented

January 29, 2011 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

One hundred and fifty years ago, few knew about Lavinia Bell, a fugitive from slavery who trekked from a Texas plantation to Rouses Point, New York, in search of freedom in Canada. Now, for the first time, her experiences will be presented to the public in “Never Give Up: The Story of Lavinia Bell,” reenacted by Melissa Waddy-Thibodeaux at Plattsburgh State University’s Krinovitz Recital Hall. The presentation will begin at 7:00 PM on February 11, 2011. The event is free and open to the public.

Ms. Thibodeaux’s visit to Plattsburgh in February will be her first to the North Country. She has already earned national acclaim for her sensitive depictions of Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks. The North Country location of the premiere of Mrs. Bell’s story, in the region where her vision was at last realized, is as fitting as are the sponsoring organizations: the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association, Plattsburgh State University, and Clinton Community College.

Ms. Thibodeaux will also offer performance workshops for university and college students during her stay in Plattsburgh. On February 12, she will cross into Canada
where, under the sponsorship of the Negro Community Center in Montreal, she will
introduce Mrs. Bell to a waiting audience.

To see Ms. Thibodeaux portray Harriet Tubman visit You Tube.

To learn more about this event, contact Don Papson at NCUGRHA@aol.com or
(518) 561-0277.

SUNY Plattsburgh

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