Tag Archives: History

Lake Champlain history

Whales in Lake Champlain?

The Charlotte Whale

In August 1849, a work-crew digging a railroad bed in Charlotte, Vermont unearthed a skull and a batch of bones that were first thought to be the remains of an ox or horse, or some other large familiar creature. Indeed it was a large creature… a whale – discovered in 8 feet of clay a mile from the shore of freshwater Lake Champlain.

whales in Lake Champlain?

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The bones were turned over to a Vermont natural scientist named Zadock Thompson, who with help from Harvard University, identified the skeleton as a 14-foot, 11,000-year-old beluga whale, an important discovery that confirmed evidence that ocean waters had once covered the area.

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UVM Perkins’ Museum

whales in Lake Champlain

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The whale skeleton, later reconstructed with wires by Thompson, is now housed in a glass display case for all to see at the UVM Perkins Geology Museum. The whale and a helpful inscription tell about continental glaciers, changing climates, and evolving sea and land formations. A visitor can’t help but imagine the puzzlement of the laborers when they uncovered the whale, the excitement of Thompson as he pieced together the skeletal puzzle, and more to the point: how dramatically the landscape and flora and fauna of the region have changed over 11,000 years.

What can we learn from the Charlotte whale? That some 24,000 years ago a continental glacier covered the area with ice a mile deep. As the earth’s climate warmed, the glacier receded north, and that roughly 13,000 years ago the ice had disappeared enough to allow ocean water to flow into the region. That sometime during that period the whale died and ocean waters began receding, eventually disappearing, as the once glacier-depressed land mass rose.

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Modern Day Vermont Whales

Modern day whales in Vermont are limited to the Charlotte whale’s skeleton and the Whale Tails sculpture alongside the northbound lanes of Interstate 89 in South Burlington. Click here to learn about the Whale Tails sculpture.

 

whales in Lake Champlain

Whale Tails alongside I-89 in South Burlington, VT

 

The Charlotte Whale can be seen at:

Perkins Geology Museum, Delehanty Hall, University of Vermont, 180 Colchester Ave., Burlington, VT 05401, 802-656-8694    www.uvm.edu/perkins/   Mon-Fri 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Admission free.

Rock, minerals, fossils, dinosaur bones and an 11,000-year-old whale skeleton!

More About This:

Lake Champlain Geology

Whale Tails in Vermont Field

Charlotte Whale

The Vermont State Fossil

Charlotte, The Vermont Whale

 

A Brief Lake Champlain History

Lake Champlain History - The Battle of Plattsburgh

Battle of Plattsburgh

Lake Champlain’s Early History

Lake Champlain was named for Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer, who first saw the lake in 1609, but native people had been depending on the lake for food, water and transportation for ten thousand years before Champlain’s arrival.

In the Colonial era the lake provided easy passage between the Saint Lawrence and Hudson River Valleys. This passage connected French North America (Montreal and Quebec) and English North America (Albany and New York). Because of the easy and speedy travel it offered, this strategic military location was the scene of many battles for control. Throughout the Colonial period, the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 fleets of warships patrolled its waters and important battles were fought on Lake Champlain and the land surrounding it. A number of the old fortresses are still visible and a few, like Fort Ticonderoga have been maintained or restored.

Lake Champlain History - Fort Montgomery (Fort Blunder)

Fort Montgomery (Fort Blunder)

 

History of Lake Champlain in the Commercial and Recreational Eras

lake Champlain History - Ticonderoga

Ticonderoga

In the early 1800’s with the completion of the Champlain Canal, Lake Champlain was connected to the Hudson River allowing north-south commerce between New York City and Montreal (and Atlantic Canada). This began a booming commercial era in Lake Champlain history. Barges, sloops and lake schooners bustled back and forth carrying lumber, iron ore and agricultural goods.

Today Lake Champlain enjoys a more peaceful existence the warships have been replaced by recreational boaters. Thousands of people enjoy fishing, swimming and enjoying the beauty of the Lake Champlain life.

Lake Champlain history - sunset

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First View of Lake Champlain

Account of a First View of Lake Champlain

view of Lake Champlain

“Here a scene of indescribable sublimity burst upon us. Before us lay the waters of Lake Champlain, a sheet of unruffled glass, stretching some ninety miles to the south, widening and straitening as rocks and cliffs projected in the most fantastic shapes into the channel. On each side is a thick and uninhabited wilderness, now rising up into mountains, now falling into glens, while a noble background is presented toward the east by the Green Mountains, whose summits appear even to pierce the clouds. On the west mountains still more gigantic in loftiness, pride and dignity. I cannot by any powers of language do justice to such a scene.”

R.G. Gleig, a member of Gen. Fraser’s staff, June 1777

( at his first view of Lake Champlain )

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Samuel de Champlain

Samuel_de_Champlain (1567-1635) French explorer of Lake Champlain

Who was this man for whom Lake Champlain is named?

Samuel de Champlain was an explorer, geographer and colonizer. He was born in 1567 in Brouage, a village on the Bay of Biscay. As a captain of a Spanish sailing ship, serving under Don Francisco Colombo, he visited the Spanish West Indies and Mexico. Between 1601 and 1603 he wrote his first book, the ‘Bref Discours’.

 

Samuel de Champlain : “Father of New France”

Statue of Samuel de Champlain, Isle La Motte, Vermont

Champlain made his first voyage to the St. Lawrence River in 1603 and was active in attempting to establish the French colony in Acadia. During this time he also explored the seacoast from Cape Breton to Martha’s Vineyard.

In 1609 Champlain discovered the lake that bears his name today. It was here that he fought his first battle with the Iroquois.

Champlain explored the Ottawa River to above Lac Coulange in 1613, and in 1615 he reached Georgian Bay. From 1617 through 1629 he worked to strengthen the colony of Quebec and promote trade on the lower Saint Lawrence River.

After the surrender of Quebec in 1629 he was taken captive and imprisoned in London, but he returned to New France in 1633 and remained there until his death on Christmas Day 1635.