FrancoAmerican Gravy: Family History & Stories from Upstate New York, Quebec and Acadia

Stories of family and ancestors who lived and worked in Cohoes (textile and garment workers, butchers and barbers), Waterford (canalers), Whitehall (farmers and canalers), Port Henry (iron miners and Civil War soldiers), Champlain (canalers and farmers) and other towns along the Champlain Canal in New York State with some diversions to the places they emigrated from....Quebec (landless farmers, shoemakers, sailors, soldiers), Acadia (more farmers), and even Cornwall, England (tin miners).

Friday, August 12, 2011

The Cohoes Falls, Cohoes, NY

Just north of the Harmony Mill is the Cohoes Cataract...raging in spring, a gurgle in late summer and autumn, an ice castle in winter. The waters of the Mohawk were diverted just before the falls, harnessed for power generation and water flow through the New York State Barge Canal. Growing up around Cohoes, one learned early to defend the legend of Hiawatha descending the Cohoes Falls and vanishing in to the white mist. This Mohawk legend is Cohoes' claim to a time before the Dutch colonials.