Niagara Falls, NY, to Henderson, NY
Leaving the Niagara Falls area our path takes east to zig-zag through western New York before veering northeast along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario. The coastal plain of Lake Ontario is a rich agricultural area dotted with dairy farms, orchards and row crops interspersed amongst the ever-present corn fields. Threading through central New York is one of the first large construction projects built to open the riches of the interior of North America to the eastern seaports of the United States, the Erie Canal.
Lockport Locks
As the westward expansion of the United States opened up the vast natural resources west of the Appalachian Mountains a bottleneck to exploiting them was the difficulty in transporting the bounty of the interior to the Atlantic coastal cities for shipping to the rest of the world. Rivers were the highways of the day but there did not exist any direct connection between the northeast population centers and the interior so all goods were hauled back and forth by packhorses at great expense in both money and time. In 1817 state of New York created a commission tasked with the building of a great canal connecting the Hudson River to the Great Lakes. The canal was dug four feet deep and forty feet wide from Albany to Lake Erie just north of Buffalo (by hand, remember this was before the machine age). The canal was enlarged and modernized twice, first between 1835-1862 and then as part of the creation of the New York State Barge Canal System in 1905-1918. Completion of the canal reduced transportation costs by 95% and contributed to the rise of New York City as the premier port on the eastern seaboard.
A huge barrier to the creation of a continuous waterway from Albany to Buffalo was the Niagara Escarpment, the same geological feature that creates Niagara Falls. The escarpment was conquered by the building of a unique flight of five doubled locks designed to raise and lower boats nearly 60 feet. This picture from 1895 shows the set of locks, by then located in the center of the town of Lockport, NY, which grew around the locks.
The Barge Canal system reconstruction project was completed in 1913 and while it left the north progression of five locks in place, the southern set of locks was replaced by a central docking area and two large locks for the bigger barges then in use. The rock walls were paved in concrete. Standing above the locks on the south side, the first picture is to my right, looking through Lockport in the direction of Lake Erie some thirty miles to the west.
Directly in front of me are the central docks where unloading used to take place, now a tourist plaza.
To my left I am looking east downriver at the lower river, some 60 feet below.
At the base of the locks the view is downriver past the administration building and framed by the railroad ridge first built in in 1852.
I walk down to the lowest lock, turn and look up to street level. The narrow five-step north locks are on my right, the much larger two-step locks built in 1913 are on my left.
Here’s a closer look up both locks.
The central flight of stairs that traverse the locks show the original blocks of stone that also lined the locks. While this looks like a normal flight of stairs, these are have a much higher rise (at least one foot, if not more) than the normal rise, making climbing them a bit of a chore.
Example of the boats used in the canals include a boat that would have been used in the original canal.
Really an interesting example of the type of early construction projects that propelled the United States towards the future…
I leave Lockport and continue east through rich agricultural farms before transitioning into a seemingly endless series of rolling hills clad in dense forest with the occasional farm crowding small valley floors.
The hill country was the heart of the native Iroquois culture prior to the invasion of the European explorers and site of my next stop, Ganondagan State Historic Site.
Ganondagan
The dominant culture in central New York prior to the advent of the European explorers was dominated by a confederacy of five tribes, the Seneca, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga and Cayuga, collectively referred to as the Five Nations. The French called them the “Iroquois”, a name which is still in use today. During the French period of expansion a sixth tribe, the Tuscarora, joined the confederation in 1722. The Iroquois lived in villages surrounded by fields of corn and beans tended by the women while the men roamed over wide areas hunting game. This map shows the distribution of Iroquois villages during the period of European expansion into the interior of northeast seaboard.
Just to the left of the “Finger Lakes” region is a Seneca village named Ganondagan, today a state historical site. In the 1670’s, when Ganondagan was at its height, several thousand Seneca lived in approximately 130 long houses clustered together in the midst of the lush green hills of central New York. Standing at the front door of the museum entrance I look down at the Lunch Box nestled in the green with the rolling landscape stretching to the west.
The Iroquois lived in “long houses”, each housing up to 30 people, on hill tops that could be easily defended. The purpose of the confederation, generally successful, was to bring peace amongst the tribes. A vibrant culture flourished in the area and the Iroquois developed a number of games, the most significant of which was lacrosse. Lacrosse games were held at celebrations, as part of religious ceremonies held to heal the sick, and used to settle disputes. The basic equipment has stayed essentially the same over the last 400 years. Here is a recreation of a lacrosse stick from the 1600’s alongside one used today.
The center of the Iroquois life was the longhouse. A longhouse could be as large as 200 feet long and 25 feet high but the Iroquois did not measure their houses by feet but rather by the number of cooking fires contained within the long house. A detailed model in the museum prepares one for the full scale model outside.
Outside the museum up the hill is a full-scale re-creation of a long house.
A “three-fire” long house, perhaps thirty people would have lived in it. The central corridor is lined with sleeping decks on both sides with storage above. Long strips of hickory bark were used to tie the structural elements together. Openings in the roof enables the smoke from the cooking fires to escape.
A small entry room at either end used for storage helped keep the elements of the weather out of the interior.
The confederation was treated as a sovereign government by the European countries who concluded a number of independent agreements treating the Five Nations as a co-equal nation. The first of these was a peace treaty with the Dutch who were expanding up the Hudson River Valley, documented in a “two-row” wampum belt shown in this re-creation. The two purple rows of beads represent a native canoe and a European ship “traveling down the river of life together.” The three white rows denote “peace and friendship, forever.”
As would happen to the Plains Indians a hundred years later in terms of the buffalo, a European fashion trend precipitated turmoil with great political ramifications in the region. Hats made out of beaver skins became all the rage, and the pressure on the native populations grew as trappers and their native allies infiltrated the region, expanding their reach and coming into conflict as the supply of beaver dwindled. The Iroquois grew extremely wealthy and traded for many European goods with the profits they reaped from trapping. This culminated in the “Beaver Wars”, also known as the “French and Indian Wars”. The Iroquois, allied first with the Dutch and later the British fought the French and their native allies. In 1687 the French mounted a major expedition, striking at the heart of the Iroquois and attacking Ganondagan. The village was destroyed and not rebuilt. The war lasted over 60 years until a great peace summit was held in 1701 in Montreal that lead to the Iroquois declaring neutrality between the French and the English.
Leaving Ganondagan I again turn towards the northeast and as I descend the hill, a lush green vista unfolds in the distance.
Next up: The North Country
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