The Seasons Last Crown Bridge History Tour

On Sunday, September 30, 2012, state historic site managers Thomas Hughes at Crown Point, New York, and Elsa Gilbertson at Chimney Point, Vermont, will lead a guided round-trip walk across the new Lake Champlain Bridge connecting New York and Vermont.

For centuries, this crossing has been used by Woodlands Indians, the French, the British, and Americans. The narrow channel passage for water vessels and the peninsulas, or points, on either side made this one of the most strategic military locations along Lake Champlain, especially during the 1700s.

Foliage will be at near peak this weekend, and this tour is an official National Public Lands Day (www.publiclandsday.org) activity, while for Chimney Point, this tour is the final public activity of Vermont Archeology Month (www.vtarchaeology.org).

This tour (also the last of the season) starts at 1 pm at the museum entrance at Crown Point State Historic Site. The fee is $5 for adults, free for children under 15.

Crown Point State Historic Site enjoys breath-taking views of the Lake Champlain Bridge and is located at 21 Grandview Drive on the Crown Point peninsula. The public may phone 518-597-3666 for the site’s museum.

Chimney Point State Historic Site is located at 8149 VT Route 17, at the Vermont foot of the Lake Champlain Bridge. The public may phone the site office at 802-759-2412 for information.

Both sites are open and staffed into October on site-specific weekdays plus Saturdays and Sundays from 9:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

Photos: Above, the new Crown Point Bridge from the Crown Point side- Below, the Crown Point Bridge from Chimney Point, which opened in 1929 and was torn down in 2011. 

Touring Old Mine Road: The Esopus-Minisink Trail

The other day, driving home from Kingston, I could not help but notice the sea of New York State Education Department signs (NYSED) that lined the roadside. The blue and yellow plaques are designed to alert those passing by of significant historic events that had occurred somewhere in the vicinity of the signs. These signs made me think about when I lived in Boston and followed that city’s Freedom Trail. Read more

Saranac Lakes Hobofest Set For Sunday

The Fourth Annual Hobofest, an all-day music festival “at-the-tracks” in Saranac Lake NY celebrating railroad culture and the “hobo spirit,” is happening on Sunday, September 2nd. This year’s Hobofest will take place under the “big top,” to assure against the variables of weather, from noon until 11pm. Eat and Meet Grill & Larder will serve local fare, also a children’s activities booth and festival & artist merchandise tables.

This year’s special guest is Washington State legend, Baby Gramps. A former street musician and train buff, Gramps plays antique resonator National Steel guitars, and sings his own unique arrangements of rags, jazz, & blues songs from the 20&#8242-s & 30&#8242-s, and many originals with wordplay, humor, and throat singing. His appeal is to a wide range of audiences from “jam-band” – having toured with Phish and the Flecktones- to punk to old timey traditional and to kids of all ages. He has performed across the States, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

Several unsigned, fully-realized ensembles, all “invested” in Hobofest, offer distinct takes on roots music: The intricate groove-grass pulse of Big Slyde, this year with the smoky vocals of Hanna Doan. The Adirondack-Brooklyn hybrid, Frankenpine, craft a modern take on bluegrass, with a colorful palette and original voicing. Crackin’ Foxy distinguish themselves with a post-vaudeville vintage of styled song, elegant female three-part harmony, and swinging arrangements. This year’s appearance of the young and grizzled Blind Owl Band, follows their recent romp through the Northeast, diving headlong into the mosh-pit of old-time as dance music.

The day traditionally kicks off with bluesman Steve Langdon hollerin’ and pickin’ ala John Henry against the din of the first arriving train. New to this stage this year are Eddy and Kim Lawrence, with their wry sense of humor, and deft fretwork from the Canadian border, Keene resident Stan Oliva, and Quinn Sands from Cleveland, OH.

Bridges And New York History

New York State has approximately 17,000 highway bridges. They are essential for traveling around our state and connecting our communities. About 37% are “functionally obsolete” or “structurally deficient,” according to DOT, a reminder of the need for continuing investment to maintain valuable resources.

Bridges – old and new – are part of community and state history. The story of three historically significant bridges shows various connections to history. Read more

Annual Waterford Tugboat Roundup Returns

Tugboats will Roundup the weekend after Labor Day in Waterford after taking last year off due the effects of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.

The Tugboat Roundup is an annual event in Waterford, celebrating the maritime heritage of upstate and interior New York at the confluence of the Hudson River and New York State Canal system. The Roundup begins on Friday, September 7 and concludes on Sunday afternoon, September 9.

More than 30 tugboats, workboats, barges and other craft are expected along the Waterford wall at the entrance to the Erie Canal. The festival takes place in front of the Visitor’s Center at the foot of Tugboat Alley and kicks off with the Tugboat Parade on Friday afternoon which starts at the Port of Albany, coming into Waterford in late afternoon.

The Mohawk-Hudson chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers will be recognizing the Waterford Flight of Locks as a significant American Engineering achievement on Sunday at noon during the Roundup. The flight is a two-mile long series of five locks, critical to the success of the “modern” Erie Canal when it was built in the Nineteen Teens (it opened in 1917).  Boats are raised from Hudson River level more than 180 feet into the Mohawk River above Cohoes.

Additional land displays include local crafters, artists, food tents, historical displays and local organizations. The American Red Cross, continuing in their efforts to help the region recover from last year’s storms, will have a tent at the festival for more information and donations. Local fire departments, always at the ready, will also have information areas.

Live music with local musicians will take place throughout the weekend, kicked off on Friday afternoon with canal and river balladeer George Ward and including other local bands such as “All Nite Long,” “Yesterday’s News,” “Flood Road,” Nixie Dixie Cats,” “Captain Squeeze and the Zydeco Moshers,” “Lawson,” “Scott Stockman with Big Blue Sun,” and wrapping up with the “Boys of Wexford” on Sunday afternoon.

Fireworks will take place on Saturday evening at 8:00.

More information on the event, and the complete schedule can be found online. Check out video just released by the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce: http://youtu.be/69rO-PkJwfA

The Tugboat Roundup is organized by the Town of Waterford with the support of sponsors.

Photo: The 2008 Tugboat Round-Up, Courtesy Duncan Hayes, NPS  (Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor).

New Drama to Bring Roebling, Brooklyn Bridge to Stage

A new drama Roebling: The Story of the Brooklyn Bridge is in development for a New York City Equity Showcase Production to be produced by special arrangement between the author Mark  Violi and Theater to Go. Plans are underway to present this show in March 2013.

Based on the true story of the Roebling family who helped conceive, design and finally build the New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, the play has been endorsed by the Roebling Museum and by descendants of John Roebling. &#8220Roebling: The Story of the Brooklyn Bridge&#8221 brings to the stage the human drama surrounding the construction effort to complete one of the most enduring engineering icons in the world. The play examines the beginnings of the project to build the Brooklyn Bridge in1869, through its completion in 1883. It is a play about a forward thinking family on the cutting edge of the Industrial Revolution. The play shows how this project foreshadowed the 20th century in its huge ambition, the revolutionary construction techniques developed by John Roebling and implemented by his son Washington, and in the recognition of the invaluable role that a woman, Emily Roebling, played in the completion of this enormous project. &#8220Roebling: The Story of the Brooklyn Bridge&#8221 has had two widely acclaimed non-equity productions in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey. The New Jersey premier was produced in 2010 by invitation of the Roebling Museum to open the restored Roebling Auditorium and it was because of the overwhelming response to this play that plans were implemented to bring it to NYC. Fundraising has begun through IndieGoGo. Through a special arrangement with Fractured Atlas, Theater to Go is able to accept tax deductible contributions and has arranged to offer some incentives donated by the Roebling Museum including artifacts from the Roebling factories. With the success of the fundraising, this showcase production is seen as a first step toward a larger New York production. Theater to Go is well known throughout the Mid-Atlantic region for their  unique interactive theater events. At the helm is Ruth Markoe who has produced, directed and performed throughout the region for many years and who brought the NJ premier to the stage. Photo: Mark Violi and Ruth Markoe holding original cable from the Brooklyn Bridge (provided).  

Tom Hughes: The Champlain Memorial Lighthouse Centennial

What follows is a guest essay by Thomas Hughes, Director of the Crown Point State Historic Site on Lake Champlain in Essex County, NY. The site includes two National Historic Landmarks: the ruins of French-built Fort St. Frederic (1734-59) and the ruins of Crown Point’s British fort (1759-73).

Dedicated 100 years ago this month on July 5, 1912, and located at a prominent site that is steeped in history, the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse serves as a monument to the 1609 voyage on Lake Champlain by French explorer Samuel Champlain.

This Champlain Memorial rises from a small point of land just southeast of the Lake Champlain Bridge. In July 1609, Samuel Champlain was the first European to record seeing this majestic lake which he named for himself. Late that month, Algonquin, Huron, and Montagnais Indians in canoes guided Champlain and two fellow Frenchmen southward from the St. Lawrence River region onto Lake Champlain, so that the three Europeans might join the Algonquins in a military engagement against the Algonquin’s Iroquois enemies. A battle took place (perhaps near the present-day site of the lighthouse), the arquebus firearms used by the three Frenchmen proved decisive, and the Algonquins and French returned northward.

Over 100 years later, the French built a fortified windmill here (circa 1737), as part of their Fort St. Frederic military and civilian complex. The windmill ground grain for the fort garrison and for the nearby French civilian population but also served as an outer military defensive structure in that the windmill was fortified with cannons. The French blew up their windmill in late-July 1759, as the French military abandoned Fort St. Frederic to the advancing British army. In August 1759, when the British began to build a vast Crown Point fort, to be their primary fortification on Lake Champlain, the lighthouse site was chosen for one of their outer forts, the Grenadier Redoubt. Remains of part of the Grenadier Redoubt can still be seen today, immediately south of the lighthouse.

On May 12, 1775, during the outbreak of the War for Independence, a few British soldiers at Crown Point were captured by 100 “Green Mountain Boys” (from the Hampshire Grants) under the command of Seth Warner. In addition to taking the strategic location from the British, the rebels liberated a great prize: 111 British cannon.

In peacetime, commerce grew on Lake Champlain, as did the need for a lighthouse at the narrows at the point of the Crown Point peninsula. The Crown Point Lighthouse was built in 1858 as a 55-foot octagonal limestone tower. Trapezoidal windowpanes encased the lantern room, from where a fifth-order Fresnel lens beamed a fixed white light at a focal plane of eighty-three feet. The Crown Point Lighthouse faithfully served for over 70 years.

In time for the 300th anniversaries in 1909, the States of New York and Vermont each established tercentennial commissions to organize events to celebrate Champlain’s lake voyage. The festivities that the commissions organized commenced at Crown Point on Monday, July 5, 1909 with an address by New York State Governor (Glens Falls native and future U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice) Charles Evans Hughes, Indian pageants, and fireworks.

Besides planning the week-long celebration, the commissions from New York and Vermont also desired to erect a suitable and permanent memorial to Champlain. One suggestion that appeared in a local newspaper as a Letter to the Editor was to convert an existing lighthouse into a memorial. Incorporating the memorial with a lighthouse seemed a fitting way to commemorate an explorer and navigator of Champlain’s stature. Various sites on Lake Champlain (including Cumberland Head, Plattsburgh, Isle La Motte, Bluff Point, Split Rock, Rock Dunder, Ticonderoga, Mount Defiance, and Juniper Island) were considered for the memorial before the two commissions, with the blessing of the U.S. Lighthouse Service, agreed in 1910 on Crown Point.

According to the Ticonderoga Sentinel (page one, October 13, 1910), “The Memorial Committee of the Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission, appointed from New York and Vermont, announced [on Wednesday, October 5, 1910] that the permanent memorial to Samuel Champlain, discoverer of Lake Champlain, would probably be a lighthouse instead of a memorial statue or monument …The expense of the memorial is $76,000. … The members of the committees were guests … Wednesday on board the steamer Vermont, and the members of the association viewed the proposed site that day.”

With $50,000 in funds set aside from the Tercentennial Commissions, work began on the memorial to Champlain and his exploration of the lake. The memorial was designed by Dillon, McClellan, and Beadel. The Champlain Memorial is classical and French Renaissance in style, with heavy stone columns, entablature, ornamental frieze and setbacks. The limestone exterior of the lighthouse was replaced with eight Roman Doric columns resting upon a conical base made of Fox Island granite from Maine. An ornate cornice, parapet, and lantern room were also added to complete the memorial. Parts of the foundation, the interior brick, and the cylindrical shaft holding the spiral stone staircase remain from the 1858 lighthouse.

In another page one article on June 27, 1912 the Ticonderoga Sentinel announced that “The Champlain memorial, erected on the site of the lighthouse at Crown Point, N.Y., by the states of Vermont and New York jointly through the commissions of the two states, will be dedicated Friday, July 5th. The Hon. H. Wallace Knapp, chairman of the New York commission and Dr. John M. Thomas, president of Middlebury College, a member of the Vermont commission, will present the memorial to the States …, and it will be accepted by Vermont Governor John A. Mead and by New York Governor John A. Dix [Glens Fallsnative]. &#8230- The exercises will begin with prayer by the Rev. Dr. Lewis Francis, of Port Henry. [In addition to the Governors’ remarks,] it is expected that representatives from the British and French embassies atWashington will also be present and make addresses.”

On the side of the memorial that faces Vermont, are bronze sculptures, the largest of which was crafted by German-American Carl A. Heber (1875-1956). It depicts, above the prow of a canoe which appears to be filled with furs, Champlain standing in the center, flanked by a crouching Huron guide and a French Voyageur. These larger-than-life-size figures were cast at the Roman Bronze Works in Brooklyn.

Two months before the July 1912 dedication, France had donated a bronze profile bust (for which sculptress Camille Claudel had been the model), sculpted by the great French artist Auguste Rodin, to be incorporated into the monument. At the dedication of the memorial, the leader of the visiting French delegation remarked “The United States is raising a monument to a Frenchman, and France sends you, through us, her tribute of gratitude.” The Rodin “La France” sculpture remains visible, as located on the memorial exterior, below the larger-than-life sculpture of Champlain.

The construction of the lighthouse memorial was a joint effort of the States of New York and Vermont (two small monuments flanking the lighthouse are inscribed with the names of the tercentenary commissioners) as part
of the 1909-1912 observance of Champlain’s voyage on the lake. On each side of the monument are coats of arms: New France (French North America, 1609-1763), the State of Vermont, France (at the time of Louis XIII), the United States of America, the State of New York, and Brouage (Champlain’s birthplace in France).

With the opening of the nearby Lake Champlain Bridge on August 26, 1929, the usefulness of the light as a navigational aid was short-lived. The lighthouse was taken out of active service circa 1930 and deeded to the State of New York. The light keeper’s wooden Cape Cod-style cottage, attached to the memorial lighthouse, was eventually removed. Today the Champlain Memorial lighthouse is part of the Crown Point Reservation Campground and is open to the public. The lighthouse is under the stewardship of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

A few years ago, government funds were used to repair the covered steamboat pier that was added during the 1930s and to restore the historic lighthouse, a symbol of Crown Point’s history. The restoration of the lighthouse exterior was completed in time for the 2009 quadricentennial celebration of Champlain’s historic voyage and the “La France” sculpture by Rodin was cleaned. On September 19, 2009, this Champlain Memorial was publicly re-dedicated by the states of Vermont and New York. Four weeks later, the Lake Champlain Bridge closed and during 2010 and 2011, a replacement bridge was constructed beside the lighthouse. The Champlain Memorial is visible from a sidewalk on the popular new bridge.

As a monument, the Champlain Memorial is a handsome and fitting tribute- as a lighthouse, the structure is extraordinarily ornamental and unique- as sculpture, the edifice enjoys an abundance of great works of art in bronze. This month, the Champlain Memorial begins its second century of proudly honoring Samuel Champlain, “The Father of New France.”

Archaeology Theme For Schoharie Crossing Canal Days

Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site in Fort Hunter (Schoharie County) will be hosting the 28th annual Canal Days Celebration on Saturday, July 14 and on Sunday, July 15, 2012 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. Admission and parking are free.

Canal Days is dedicated to the historical significance of the Erie Canal and its impact on New York State. However, due to damaged caused by last fall’s Tropical Storm Irene and the unearthing of the remains of Fort Hunter for its 300th anniversary, there will be an archaeology theme and a focus on Schoharie Crossing’s earlier 18th century history as well as the 19th century canal history.

The Schoharie Crossing Visitor Center will be open for the duration of the events which includes the “Little Short of Madness” and “Celebrate 300!: Centuries of Fort Hunter History and New Discoveries” exhibits. Michael Roets will be conducting a live archaeological dig throughout the weekend with the ongoing potential of new discoveries. Topics in archaeology will be addressed throughout the weekend with special talks and walking tours in prehistoric, industrial, landscape archaeology and cemetery restoration.

Other history related activities include Joe Doolittle presenting stories about the Mohawk Valley on Saturday, David Cornelius presenting information about Mohawk Lifeways on Sunday and Beverly Cornelius doing basket weaving demonstrations on Sunday. Both days the Circuit Spinsters will be demonstrating fiber arts such as spinning and weaving.

Canal Days 2012 will feature live entertainment on the main stage:

On Saturday, the Veeder Guitar Jazz Duo will perform from 11:00 am to 12:15pm. The Dependants will follow performing from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. The Dependants are the hottest young pop/rock band around, having won Montgomery County’s 2010 Battle of Bands. Also all the members are under the age of 19. On Sunday Eric Marczak will perform Native American flute music from 11:00 am to 12:15 pm. Sunday afternoon will feature the bluegrass band Dyer Switch from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

Children’s Activities include a petting zoo and pony rides from Dream Pony will be set up both afternoons. Also a Native American Kids Craft tables will feature four different Native crafts for children aged 4 to 13, each craft will be $3.00 from noon to 3pm each day. Sparkles the Clown will be stilt walking and juggling on Saturday. There will be a reptile display and on Sunday magician Evil Dan will be on hand.

Also, the Tri-County Power Association “Field Days” will have Old Time Steam and Gas Engines on display with demonstrations of antique agricultural and household machinery both days. Cheryl Bielli will be available both days to draw caricatures. Food such as hot dogs, hamburgers, sausage, fried dough, fresh squeezed lemonade, and ice cream will be available. There will be a silent auction under the Friends of Schoharie Crossing Tent on Sunday.

Canal Days is sponsored by the Friends of Schoharie Crossing, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and the Occupancy Tax, and the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor.

For more information about this alcohol free event, call the Visitor Center at (518) 829-7516.

Photo: Schoharie Aqueduct, showing the canalway (Courtesy Wikipedia).

Steuben County: Walking Seasonal Roads

Seasonal roads are defined as one-lane dirt roads not maintained during the winter. They function as connectors linking farmers to their fields, neighbors to neighbors, or two more well-traveled roads to each other. Some access hunting lands and recreational areas. Some pass by or lead to cemeteries. They can be abandoned as people move and towns fade.

Having traveled nearly every seasonal road in Steuben County, NY, Mary A. Hood finds in Walking Seasonal Roads (2012, Syracuse University Press) that they provide the ideal vantage to contemplate the meaning of place, offering intimate contact with plant and wildlife and the beauty of a rural landscape. Each road reveals how our land is used, how our land is protected, and how environmental factors have had their impact. Read more

Champlain Bridge Grand Celebration This Weekend

New York Vermont Bridge OrganizationAfter many months of planning the Lake Champlain Bridge Community (LCBC) will host its two-day Grand Celebration which celebrates the re-opening of the Lake Champlain Bridge and the re-connected New York and Vermont communities that surround it. The bridge re-opened to traffic on November 7, 2011, but the celebration was postponed until now.

The Grand Celebration will take place on Saturday and Sunday, May 19 and 20. Saturday’s events begin at 9 a.m. with an opening ceremony and end at approximately 10 p.m. after a street dance. Sunday’s events begin at 6 a.m. with a sunrise ecumenical service and close with a fireworks show at dusk. All events will take place at or near the Chimney Point State Historic Site, Addison, Vermont and the Crown Point State Historic Site, Crown Point, New York. All of the weekend’s events are free and will take place rain or shine.

Lorraine Franklin, co-chair of LCBC, said  &#8220It’s taken more than a year of planning and hard work by hundreds of dedicated people, and we hope to have an event unlike any other seen in this area.&#8221

A schedule of events is available at LCBC’s website. A more detailed schedule, including times of musical and entertainment performances, will be available in the official event program. The program, published by The Addison Independent, will be for sale in advance and during the celebration weekend at a cost of $3/each. Proceeds from program sales will help defray the cost of the event.

Saturday’s Highlights

The weekend kicks off with an opening ceremony at 9 a.m. at Crown Point State Historic Site (NY). Theodore (Ted) Zoli, PE, National Director of Long-Span Bridges for HNTB Corporation is the bridge’s designer and will be the keynote speaker. Several other dignitaries and representatives from federal, state and local governments and agencies will be in attendance and available for a meet & greet with the public immediately after the ceremony.

Two of the weekend’s highlights are parades—one across the Lake Champlain Bridge and one underneath it on the water. The Old Time Hometown Grand Parade (pedestrians and autos) will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday and move from Vermont to New York. The bridge will be closed to traffic during this time—approximately 60 to 90 minutes. There are currently more than 120 parade participants and some examples of the types of floats attendees will see include the original float that was in the parade that celebrated the 1929 opening as well as floats provided by the Vermont Historic Sites consisting of Chimney Point, Mount Independence w/ Fife & Drum Corp, Hubbardton Battlefield, Old Constitution House, Bennington Battle Monument and the Vermont State House. Total entrants into the parade are approximately 120 floats and vehicles.

Attendees will see many vintage vehicles in the parade—some dating from 1929 when the first Lake Champlain Bridge was opened and dedicated. Riding in the cars will be several guests who were present at the 1929 opening. These people have been dubbed “the 29ers”, and organizers expect more than 25 of them will participate in the 2012 celebration. A private reception for the 29ers is planned during the weekend to honor their attendance at both events.

Featuring many types of vessels, and led by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s schooner Lois McClure, there will be a boat flotilla that travels underneath the bridge. Formation will start at 12:30 p.m. and the flotilla will begin under the bridge at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The direction of boat traffic (north to south/south to north) will depend on prevailing winds. There is detailed information on joining the flotilla on LCBC’s website under the Celebration Events section.

Saturday’s activities will close with a street dance featuring Rick and the Ramblers. The dance will begin at 7 p.m. at the Crown Point State Historic Site (NY) and will be preceded by a dance across the bridge starting from Vermont’s Chimney Point State Historic Site at 6:30 p.m.

Sunday’s Highlights

Sunday’s activities begin with a sunrise ecumenical service, beginning at 6 a.m. Services are on either side of the Lake Champlain Bridge and all will join at the center of the after the ceremony in a symbol of reunification.

At 3 p.m. on Sunday there will be a 5 kilometer fun run that starts and finishes at the Crown Point State Historic Site (NY) and includes a historic run over the new bridge. More details can be found at La Chute Road Runners’ website.

The weekend’s events will wrap up with a closing ceremony at the Chimney Point State Historic Site (VT) featuring Carol Reed of the French Canadian group Va et Vient and the Lake Champlain Waldorf School Dancers.

At dusk (approximately 8:30 p.m.) is the grand finale—the Lights on the Lake Fireworks Spectacular. The fireworks show is provided by Alonzo Fireworks based in Albany, NY and will be simulcast by WVTK 92.1. The firework’s soundtrack is provided by UNIR1 Network. In order to hear the music soundtrack accompanying the fireworks, attendees must have FM radio reception—MP3 players, boom box, or car radio. iPhones will have a few seconds’ delay in reception.

Both Saturday and Sunday

There are more than 50 crafters, food vendors, and non-profit agencies that will be exhibiting, educating and selling their products and services. Crafter and vendor booths will be set up underneath large tents on both sides of Lake Champlain. Food vendors will be located at The Bridge Restaurant on the Vermont side, and a wine tasting tent is located at Cottonwood on Lake Champlain, a Victorian house located at the foot of the bridge on the Vermont side, across the road from Chimney Point State Park. A complete list of crafters and vendors can be found on LCBC’s website, under Celebration Events, or in the official event program. Booths are open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days.

Throughout the weekend there is a non-stop line up of performers, musicians and dancers. Performances will be held at both state historic sites and a detailed schedule will be available in the official event program.

A vintage car show will be held both days at the Crown Point State Historic Site (NY). The show will be open 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Hosted by the Vermont Automobile Enthusiasts, there will be as many as 50 cars participating—including, but not limited to the vintage vehicles that participated in Saturday’s parade across the bridge.

After a two year closure to accommodate the construction of the water ferries and bridge, the Chimney Point Historic Site (VT) re-opens the weekend of May 19-20th as well. There are many activities planned on both days to bring to life the 9,000 year history of Chimney Point and the bridge project archeological findings. Enjoy a living history encampment, from the Native Americans to the French period and the Revolution, demonstrations of early skills such as stone tool making and spinning, spinning, historic boat replicas on Saturday, and a variety of children’s activities. See the new exhibit with highlights of the archeological discoveries, from the earliest years of Native American presence to the 1731 French fort and 1790s redware pottery.

Parking Information

The parking area will be at the Crown Point (NY) State Historic Site. There will be two shuttle buses that will run continuously during event hours from the New York parking lot, to the New York waterfront, and to the ferry landing in Vermont.

Boat Launch Information

Below is a list of the boat launches available during the weekend.

Public:

· McCuen Slang, Rte. 125, Addison, VT

· Port Henry Boat Launch, Port Henry, NY

· NYSDEC Boat Launch, Ticonderoga, NY

Private:

· Van Slooten Marina, Port Henry, NY

· Champlain Bridge Marina, West Addison, VT

Boat launches at Chimney Point State Historic Site, VT and Crown Point State Reservation Campground, NY will be closed during the weekend

Online Auction

An online auction is being held in conjunction with the event. More than 20 items have been donated by local businesses and artists. Proceeds from the auction will help underwrite the cost of the weekend’s activities. Items can be viewed and bid on at www.biddingforgood.com/accoc. The auction closes at midnight on May 15th.

Commemorative T-shirt

There is an official limited edition LCBC Grand Celebration commemorative T-shirt that’s being sold only during the celebration weekend. The shirt was designed and manufactured by East Coast Printers. The all-over design is dyed into the fabric and features renderings and opening dates of both the old and new bridge. Selling price is $20, with all profits helping to fund the celebration. Adult sizes only.

About the Lake Champlain Bridge Community

Members of the Lake Champlain Bridge Community include area residents, representatives from local business, historical sites, local governments, and chambers of commerce. The Community can be found on the web at www.champlainbridgecommunity.org.