Thinking of the Mohawk Valley and Green Summers

It is the beginning of September in New York and usually by this time grass has yellowed and landscapes start to dry out but not this year. We have had sufficient rain to keep lawns and landscapes moist and green.......I suspect the Mohawk River at Cohoes generated a great deal of power for Brookfield Energy Group this summer. With such a green summer I was looking forward to exploring the history of New York's bread basket - the Mohawk Valley.

In past blog stories I ave emphasized the Hudson River and the Champlain Corridor between New York and Montreal and neglected the Mohawk Valley. My plan was to use some vacation time this summer to become more reacquainted with the Mohawk Valley. My mother always took me to Auriesville, the shrine of the North American martyrs Issac Jogues and Rene Goupil. Antique shops in Fonda and Cherry Valley were always important road stops as well as Sir William Johnson Manor House and dinner at Union Hall (my mom and I called it the Johnstown Inn) in Johnstown, NY.  I remember loving the corn fritters they served in the 1960s and according to the menu on the web, are still served!

Anyway summer 2013 didn't work out exactly as I had planned and an accident with a broken arm put a quick stop to excursions in the Mohawk Valley. Before the accident occurred, I did go back to the Cohoes Falls, Fort Hunter, Oriskany Battlefield and Fort Stanwix. There will be more summers. The Mohawk Trail awaits!

Here's a little capture of the great Cohoes Falls with a beautiful rainbow this summer!

and Fort Hunter at Schoharie Crossing.....

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.

Click on image to enlarge and read

Cohoes Falls in Spring

   

History of Cohoes on a new YouTube Video

There seems to be a hundred videos of the Cohoes Falls on YouTube but this one, added in May 2011 by a nonprofit Friends of Cohoes Falls, is a charmer.

With all the recent flooding in upstate New York (May 2011) including Lake Champlain, it is not surprising to see the Mohawk raging over the falls in this video:

Full Moon on the Mohawk

Here's a very interesting postcard that I hope Cohoes natives will carefully look at and offer a comment about.......

Full Moon over Cohoes Falls

The Cohoes Falls under the light of the full moon......except I don't think it is possible from the trajectory of this romantic painter.  Viewing the falls from this point, the spectator would be looking almost directly north.  So readers, astronomers and Cohoes natives please tell me is this possible in the northern hemisphere?  Can the moon shine directly over the Cohoes Falls as in this postcard? Or is the painter using a great deal of license?