Thousands of Islands....

We have been blessed with beautiful sites both in Herkimer and here at KOA 1000 Islands.  In Herkimer we were on a pull-in site and the view out of our front windows was the Canada River which was a beautiful whitewater river.

Speaking of views, they are all over the place …. Or else … to me .. a view is water!  While in Herkimer we took a ride up into the start of the Adirondacks and had a taste of what is to come!

Driving from Herkimer to 1000 Islands is a beautiful one and we went through Verona on Oneida Lake.  I get so excited when I see these large bodies of water my toes curl!  Oneida Lake is the largest lake entirely in NYS and links the Erie Canal emptying into the Oneida River which flows into the Oswego River which flows into Lake Ontario. ….the Loopers!  Although not considered one of the Finger Lakes it is sometimes referred to as their “thumb”.

We are camping on the windward side of Henderson Bay on the St Lawrence River and it’s blowing like snot … as we used to say on the boat!  We have not been able to put our awning out because it would probably get ripped up with the wind … which may not be a bad thing given the state of the awning … but the cost of replacement would equal the deductible and I prefer to pick and choose my expenses whenever possible!

 VIEWS FROM OUR WINDSHIELD......GOTTA LOVE IT!

I have been viewing this whole area from Niagara through the Finger Lakes and Erie Canal to the Great Lakes through the eyes of a boater.  So much water!!!!  While we were on Seneca Lake we commented on some fairly good sized trawlers in some of the marinas thinking this was a land locked lake….but it’s not!!!  

We won’t have to truck Spindrift because we can come through the Seneca-Cayuga Canal and come into Seneca Lake.  

Now up  here in the 1000 Islands it’s boats, boats, boats.  Of course buying a boat here would be a lightly used one as it’s only used three months out of the year and then stored! 

Anyway, thinking like a boater...when we woke up to wind, wind and overcast skies, with lots of wind. I thought.... if we were on a boat we’d probably hunker down.  Instead we just got into a car and headed out.  There are some advantages to land travel!

We hugged the coast detouring down into the towns that run along the water.  Oh… to have a summer home up here.  Summer being defined as June and July but they would be wonderful if you had a boat!

TIBBETT LIGHTHOUSE

We headed up to Tibbett Lighthouse as I love light houses and this one actually looks like a lighthouse.  I was amazed while in Michigan at how some of the lighthouses looked more like buoys than lighthouses.

We brought Billy because he would have plenty of opportunities to run and play at our stops. 

As  we approached the end of Tibbetts  Point I noticed wind machines across the water in Canada on Wolfe Island.

WOLF ISLAND WIND FARM

Wolfe Island located at the entrance of the St Lawrence River on Lake Ontario and is the largest of the Thousand Islands.   While camping at Herkimer, our camping neighbor was an electrical engineer specializing in wind farms; hence, I added a new term to my vocabulary which made it easier to find information on these wind turbines.

                                                              

Wolfe Island Wind Farm has eighty-six 2.3-megawatt wind turbines made by Siemens.  Once completed, the 197.8 MW project will generate 594 gigawatt-hours of renewable power annually.  In 2010 the windfarm operated at 24% of capacity.   Winds need to be 13-15’/second in order for the wind turbines to generate power.  Because of the variability of the winds, this plant produced 48 megawatts.  This wind farm is located on the west end of the island exposed to westerly winds blowing across much of the length of Lake Ontario.

 However, this alternative energy isn’t without its critics.  Apparently Wolfe Island is a globally significant Important Bird Area (IBA) in southern Ontario known for waterfowl, raptors and swallows. According to studies that Trans Alta, owner and operator, submits, the Wolfe Island Energy plant is one of the most destructive for birds and bats in North America;

Tree Swallow and Purple Martin at the top of the list including Bobolink and Barn Swallow, both listed as Threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).

Aside from going completely dark, there doesn't seem to be a solution to energy generation that isn't open to some controversy.  Reading some of the blogging responses to web articles, many think the wind machines should be on top of the high rises so the cities using all the engery can bear the burden!  I think they should make wind generation as well as solar affordable to the average citizen and let us generate our own!   Who knows!

TIBBETTS POINT LIGHTHOUSE

Tibbetts Point Lighthouse marks the point where Lake Ontario meets the St Lawrence River.   In 1827 three acres surrounding the point were deeded to the USG and the lighthouse was erected.  In  1854 the original structure was replaced by a circular tower standing 69 feet.

 

 Originally lights used whale oil, thenlard, then oil providing 50 candle power.  In 1930 electrically operated lights were installed using 61 candle power.


In 1960 the lamp was changed to 500 watt making it 15,000 candle power and visible 16 miles.  


Through all these changes, the Fresnal Lens brought from France in 1850’s remains the same. It is the only original working Fresnel lens in Lake Ontario.

For my sailing friends, this light is designated as of the fourth order and flashed white with 
characteristics of 10 seconds – 6 seconds flash and 4 seconds eclipse.

A fog whistle was added in 1896 operated by steam.  In 1927 replaced by airdiaphone operated by a Diesel engine with blasts automatically timed.  


This whistle could be heard for 4-5 miles.


The Fog Horn was discontinued in 1972 in favor of a new radio beacon guiding ships traversing the Lake and River. 

In 1981 the Lighthouse and living quarters were closed but the light tower is still operational with automated operations from Oswego.  However, the Lighthouse Quarters are a  Youth Hostel part of the Hostelling International (AYH). 

Wind blowing Billy's fur straight up!

What I found interesting is that there were  20 operational  lighthouses between Lake Erie and Ogdensburg NY along the Seaway Trail.  Of these, seven lighthouses are opened to the public; the remaining are privately owned as homes purchased from the Coast Guard when they were closing down the lighthouses.




     HOW HOW HOW COOL!!!  




We circled back to Sackets Harbor, the site of the War of 1812, and Dave’s Father’s Day present … a shot of Pappy VanWinkle!

We had dinner last night at the Sackets Harbor Brewery enjoying a flight of their beer.  This restaurant boasts a complete collection of the finest bourbon so Dave asked if they had Pappy Van Winkle (Trail Buffalo Trace).  Pappy Van Winkle is aged 25 years and 25 years ago there wasn’t the demand of today so a bottle, if you can find it, is very costly.  A shot was $15 and Dave is worth it so that’s his Father’s Day gift kids! 

We returned to Sackets Harbor to walk around the historic town that have homes dating back to 1810 and the battlefield.

WAR OF 1812

From Niagara to Plattsburgh, commemorations are in place for the Bicentennial of the War of 1812.  I’m re-learning what this war was all about because it is all about this area.

Two hundred years from this week, American declared war on Britain...again. The War of 1812 has been referred to as America’s second war of independence.  Americans were determined to eradicate the British presence in North America and settle "the Indian question".


Both land and sea battles were fought on the frontier running along the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River. Key staging areas of US land and naval operations against the British Canada were in Buffalo and Sackets Harbor.  

Sackets Harbor was the headquarters for the US Navy for the Great Lakes.    

DUG UP FROM SACKETS HARBOR IN PRIOR TO 1905.  

Despite the beauty of Sackets Harbor and this area today, conditions at the frontier outpost were squalid with Sackets Harbor being among the worst.  Living conditions deteriorated, sanitary conditions were appalling and hundreds of soldiers died.  


Several thousand other American troops died similarly from combat along the Niagara Frontier and at Plattsburgh.

UNION HOTEL APRIL 1817 

The battlefield is now a park commemorating the site of the Fort and the battles fought here.  

The British invasion was repulsed by the US Forces with help from the fleet hastily built along Lake Champlain’s New York and Vermont shores.  Walking around this battlefield park I tried to put myself back in time to 1812 and forward.  Lives fought here and were lost here.  

By the end of all the battles ranging from New Orleans, Baltimore, burning of Washington DC, Great Lakes areas, both sides occupied parts of the other’s territory, but these areas were restored by the Treaty of Ghent.  The treaty called for all occupied territory to be returned, the prewar boundary between Canada and the US be restored and the Americans were to gain fishing rights in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

In Canada, especially Ontario, the memory of the war has immense national significance.  The invasions were perceived by Canadians as an annexation attempt by America seeking to expand US territory.   The ceremonies scheduled in Canada commemorate a Canadian victory.

 So, after all that fighting, all the lives lost, everything went back the way it was.  To Canada it was a victory; to Britian it was a side show, a bare memory, since they were so involved with Napoleon, so welcomed an era of peaceful relations and trade with the US.

Such is life ... over and over and over

June 19^th  forecasted to be hot but we are still on the windward side of the bay and it’s blowing like it did in the Exumas.  We decided to head up to Alexandria Bay to take a boat ride to Boldt Castle.  Alexandria Bay is about an hour north, just north of Watertown and Fort Drum.  The drive up was beautiful through small towns with large farms.  Alexandria Bay is a little town on the River with stores luring tourists on each side of the street. 

We caught the shuttle boat over to Boldt Castle to walk the beautiful grounds.  Everything here is being restored according to the original plans because this castle was never completed.

  

BOLDT CASTLE

George C. Boldt is an American story.  He was born in the Baltic Sea area, emigrated to the US in 1864 and began as a kitchen worker in New York.  By age 25 he was hired to manage the dining room of Philadelphia’s most exclusive gentlemen’s club, The Philadelphia Club.

He married the boss’s daughter and in 1881 owned the Bellevue at the NW corner of Broad and Walnut Streets in Philly.  He bought the competing hotel, the Stratford, and 20 years later built the largest hotel in the city, 1,090 room Bellevue-Stratford Hotel.

This was the gilded age with unprecedented level of luxurious living for wealthy Americans….John Astor, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller.  Boldt catered to the super-rich class charging the highest prices for the very best and becoming one in the process.  He coined the phrase, “The customer is always right.”

William Waldorf Astor built the Waldorf Hotel in NYC with Boldt as proprietor.  John Jacob Astor IV built the adjoining Astoria Hotel.  Boldt mediating between the feuding millionaire cousins leased the Astoria himself and merging the two buildings under the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.  The enclosed bridge between the two hotels became the “peacock alley” where the rich with high fashions paraded back and forth to be seen.

 He is credited with popularizing Thousand Island dressing and the Waldorf Salad.  The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was eventually torn down to make way for the Empire State Building on 34^th Street and 5^th Avenue.

The family vacationed in the Thousand Islands and he owned several of them.  He purchased Hart Island, renaming it Heart Island and proceeded to build a castle based on the ones he loved on the Rhine, in honor and testament for his love of his wife Louise Kehrer Boldt.   

The design included six stories, 120 rooms with tunnels, powerhouse, Italian gardens, a drawbridge, a tower house to serve as the children’s playhouse.  However, Louise died suddenly in 1904 at age 42 and construction was halted.  It is said that Boldt never set foot on Heart Island again.

 TOPS OF THE BUILDINGS ARE ALWAYS MOST INTERESTING.  HEARTS WERE USED IN THE ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS.

 TOWER USED AS CHILDRENS PLAYHOUSE

 POWER HOUSE

 FOUNTAINS AND GARDENS ALL AROUND THE GROUNDS.

 BOAT HOUSE 

DESCENDING THE MARBLE STAIRCASE.....YEAH!

For 73 years the castle and various structures were left to the mercy of the elements.  The Thousand Island Bridge Authority acquired the property in 1977 and has been rehabilitating, restoring and improving Heart Island structures. 

 I could live in little "Island Home" in the middle of the St Lawrence.

Wonder if they need a lighthouse keeper!

Climbed to the top floor of the castle and had the view of the River.  This area is just gorgeous.

Flying between the US Flag and the NYS Flag.

So ends our last day in this area.  By late this afternoon the winds had shifted and we were once again on the leeward side of the Bay.  It is absolutely gorgeous here.  What a fabulous boating area.  There is a small marina here in the campground so you could pretty much make this home for the summer.  

Tomorrow we are heading up into the Adirondacks to spend a few days until we go over to Vermont.  

LIFE IS GOOD!