Cohoes: Drownings in the rivers, locks and canals

 

News of the search for Daniel Benoit off Van Schaick Island in Cohoes

The Times Record 25 October 1955

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.....

Sunny Day on the Bike Path through Cohoes: When railroads killed horses and men were never the same afterwards

Saturday and it was gorgeous for a change in the northeast! So we put the tandem bike in the car and headed up north.  After a breakfast at Uncle John's Diner (a really good breakfast) on Ontario Street in Cohoes, we were on the bike in Cohoes.....

The bike path follow the RR line from Cohoes to Schenectady

Historical marker at the site of High Street station
needs serious scrub work.  Tree sap !

Under Johnston Avenue named for the Harmony Mills superintendent

View to the east and the hills beyond the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers

Here a Lansing of  the Dutch Hudson Valley family owned a huge farm.
Louis St Hilaire from Napierville, Québec bought the land
from the Dutchmen in the late 19th century.
He farmed and fed the textile factory workers below in the town

LANSING LANE
The St Hilaire family farm was here

At his intersection, the old railroad crossed Lansing Lane
Here the RR hit and killed one of the St Hilaire's horses
Lea Langlois said her grandfather was "never the same" after his horse was killed!

Louis St Hilaire and his wife, Elisa Paré, gave each of his sons and daughters a plot of land on Lansing Lane to build a house and raise a family. Instead of farming, some of his sons went into brickmaking and masonry.  Louis Street, around the corner, was probably named after Louis St Hilaire - before he went crazy over the death of his beloved horse.  Many of the houses on Louis Street were homes of extended family... the Benoits, Krameks (Marie St Hilaire married Walter Kramek), and Sheperd (Chabot).

Soon after passing this point, the path went out of Cohoes, under Route 9 and along the southern side of the Mohawk River and old Erie Canal.  We cycled past the old Niskayuna train station that's been restored and whose roof is home to a huge hive of carpenter bees.

A few thunder clouds and some threats of rain couldn't change a beautiful day!