Tag Archives: plattsburgh

Geologist Sees Sea Where Lake Champlain Now Flows

Geologist Sees Sea Where Lake Now Flows

Geologist Sees Sea Where Lake Now Flows

John Rayburn,
SUNY New Paltz
environmental geologist

Although it’s not as exciting as spying the Lake Champlain monster, the discovery of bones from a prehistoric seal in the bed of a former inland sea in the Lake Champlain Valley should intrigue anyone interested in New York state’s natural history.

John Rayburn, a SUNY New Paltz environmental geologist, will share his research findings during a visit to the SUNY Cortland campus on Tuesday, Sept. 25.

Rayburn, a specialist in glacial geology, geomorphology and paleoclimate studies, will discuss “The Champlain Sea: A Record of Marine Conditions in the Lake Champlain Valley” at 7 p.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge.

The event continues the Geology Department’s ongoing speaker series that has run for a number of years. The talks are free and open to the public.

While today’s Lake Champlain Valley contains a most impressive long lake, in prehistoric times an inland sea dominated that same region, according to Rayburn.

The marine embayment developed in northern New York around 12,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age, Rayburn explained. The weight of the Laurentide Ice Sheet had pressed the entire surface of the earth downwards over the preceding millennia and, as the edge of the ice retreated northwards, salt water was able to flood along the Saint Lawrence Seaway and enter the Champlain Valley.

“The evidence is in the sediments,” Rayburn said. “Marine shells are found in clay deposits throughout the region for this time, and bones of a marine seal also have been found.”

Rayburn has spent the past 14 years documenting the timing and causes of the Champlain Sea event using sediment cores and shoreline deposits. His work has shown the linkage between catastrophic floods from ice-dammed lakes in the Ontario basin and changes in lake and sea levels in the Champlain Valley. These floods reshaped much of the landscape of northern New York and may have influenced circulation of the North Atlantic Ocean and global climate.

David Barclay, a SUNY Cortland associate professor of geology, noted that the College’s own Brauer Education Center in Selkirk, N.Y., is located south of the area flooded by the Champlain Sea.

“However, some of the glacial lakes that were in the Champlain Valley extended south into the Albany and Brauer area, and the catastrophic floods swept all the way down the Hudson Valley and out past what is now New York City,” noted Barclay, who leads geology field trips to the area for his Supplemental Field Studies class.

Rayburn and Barclay are conducting ongoing research in the Champlain Valley using tree rings to model regional climate change.

Rayburn joined SUNY New Paltz’s Geological Sciences Department in 2007 as an assistant professor. He teaches courses within the Geological Sciences and Environmental Geochemical Science programs.

He earned a Ph.D. at Binghamton University, where he was a graduate fellow and teaching assistant. He received an M.Sc. in geology from University of Manitoba. Rayburn completed a bachelor’s degree in geology at SUNY Plattsburgh and another in economics from St. Lawrence University. He completed a research fellowship with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va.

Previously, as a Mendenhall Fellow at the United States Geological Survey, Rayburn conducted research on the record and mechanisms of abrupt climate change.

Since 2008, he has edited the New York Glaciogram, an informal newsletter of shared geology information in New York state. He is a co-principal investigator of a study that involves undergraduate student researchers titled “A Comprehensive Approach to Watershed Characterization Focusing on the Source of New York City Water.” The program is funded by the National Science Foundation.

The series is sponsored by the Geology Department, the Geology Club, Campus Artists and Lecture Series and the student activity fee.

For more information, contact Barclay at (607) 753-2921.

Archaeologist Seeks Community Involvement

Local residents can help piece together the prehistory of the Lake Champlain region. Chris Wolff, an assistant professor of archaeology in Plattsburgh State’s Department of Anthropology describes how people can help create a better understanding in this article from the Press-Republican.

 

By JEFF MEYERS, Press-Republican

PLATTSBURGH — The North Country’s rich history dates back to well before Americans and British fought on the shores of Lake Champlain and even beyond Samuel de Champlain’s discovery of the lake four centuries ago.

Humans have called the region home well before history began cataloging their activities. Our prehistoric ancestors lived along the shores of what used to be a saltwater sea 13,000 years ago, the precursor of what would become the lake as we know it.

Chris Wolff, an assistant professor of archaeology in Plattsburgh State’s Department of Anthropology, is attempting to piece together details about what life was like for early inhabitants of our region. He is seeking help from area residents in his quest for knowledge.

“There is such a rich cultural history in this region, both historic and prehistoric,” Wolff said. “My main interest in the study of the past is how did humans interact with the lake and the environment? How did they survive?”

AN OBLIGATION

Prehistoric humans in northeastern New York faced at least one concept that may sound similar today: climate change.

One volatile era, Wolff said, saw the North Country covered by tundra, with the glaciers of the Ice Age just to the north.

“How did they respond to the changing environment?” he wondered. “What was it like living on the Sea of Champlain with a marine environment? It’s an interesting puzzle, and I’d like to get people involved in what has happened across the centuries.”

Wolff first came to Plattsburgh State in the summer of 2011 following a stint as staff archaeologist at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Although he, himself, is still learning about the rich heritage this region has to offer anyone interested in past civilizations, he has jumped into his research head first, renewing an archaeology dig that began on the Allen Homestead in Peru two decades ago.

“The property owners have given us materials collected from those earlier digs to put in our lab,” he said. “Now, students and I are cataloging those items to determine what different cultures may have lived there.

“The next step will be to see if there’s anything else at the site,” he added. “We’ll go out and open some more units, dig into the past.”

The area of interest sits along a dry riverbed that at one time flowed to Lake Champlain, allowing residents of the time to paddle upstream to their settlement and back to the lake, which was one source of food, though artifacts confirm that a staple of their diet was white-tailed deer.

Wolff sees potential for similar research across the region, including opportunities to provide hands-on activities for students in the college’s archaeology program.

But most importantly, he believes, is the opportunity to reach out to the community and promote the region’s heritage beyond the ever-popular focus on historical events after Champlain’s arrival.

“As a trained archaeologist, I have an obligation to educate the community about the context of past civilizations,” he said, “about what the artifacts we find mean in context to where they were found and what they were used for.”

CREATING WEBSITE

Wolff would like to establish a network to bring together professional archaeologists and community researchers.

“It’s the people who live here who know the most about the community,” he said. “Those people may have treasures in their attics that can be an answer to the questions we have (about past cultures).”

Wolff began developing an interest in archaeology as a youngster living on a farm in the Texas panhandle. He was always intrigued by ancient relics he would find while working on the farm, and that curiosity eventually blossomed into a career that has led him to Newfoundland, the Arctic and now northeastern New York in his quest for understanding the past.

“I know how artifacts can be of interest to people,” he said. “But when they are taken out of context, there is no way of learning more about them.

“I’d like to work with people, document what they have,” he added. “I don’t want to take anything away from people; I’d like to learn (from the artifacts) and help the owners learn, as well.”

Wolff will be setting up a website for people to access and respond electronically to a survey about any possible artifacts they may have come across. He also envisions developing a working network where people will get together, share their ideas and continue to put together the pieces of the puzzle depicting the past.

To learn more, email Plattsburgh State Assistant Professor Chris Wolff at cwolf006

jmeyers@pressrepublican.com

Fort Blunder

Posted May 25, 2012 – 9:18am by Eric_LaMontagne

Fort Montgomery or 'Fort Blunder' Lake Champlain historic sites

A 1906 post card of Fort Montgomery, the site where Fort Blunder once not-so-proudly stood.

Off the Lake Champlain shore in Rouses Point, NY, where Fort Montgomery currently stands, is the site of a big mistake.

It was 1816 and Canada was still under British control. American troops were coming off of their victory at The Battle of Plattsburgh two years earlier and had started to think about how they could protect themselves from future aggression out of the North. Island Point has been identified as a key strategic area for the US military due to its proximity to the Richelieu River and the relative narrowness of the lake. It became a priority of President James Monroe that a fort be erected there to ward off further confrontation. Construction soon started on an enormous, octagon-shaped fort with 30-foot tall walls.

In the fall of 1818, after only two years of construction, President Monroe paid the site a visit and to check in with the Joseph Totten, the site supervisor. Despite the great progress with the construction, it was soon discovered that the fort had been placed a little too far north. New survey standards revealed the site was nearly a mile north of the boarder, putting it solidly on Canadian ground!

The site was immediately abandoned. Materials from the partially-built building were left to be scavenged by impoverished residents for their own needs. The lifespan of the fort was so short that it never even got to the stage of being named. Records only refer to it as The Fort, The Works, or The Battery at Rouse’s Point. As a salute to this monument to poor-planning, the site soon became widely known as “Fort Blunder.”

The site stayed empty for 27 years. In 1844, two years after British Canada ceded the land to the US as part of the Webster-Ashburn Treat of 1842, the US government began construction of a new fort on the strategic location. After roughly 30 years of construction, the still-standing Fort Montgomery was completed.

Sources-

http://www.historiclakes.org/explore/Montgomery.html

http://wn.com/Fort_Montgomery_Lake_Champlain

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Fort Montgomery or Fort Blunder

Note: This is what Fort Montgomery looks like today >>

Champlain Hudson Power Express

What is the Champlain Hudson Power Express?

Hudson River image

Hudson River

The project is a 330 mile, 1,000-megawatt (MW) underwater and underground transmission line originating at the U.S.-Canadian border in Vermont, traveling under Lake Champlain and the Hudson River and terminating in New York City. The project is designed to help the New York metro area meet its ambitious clean energy goals. In addition, the energy will be derived from carbon-free wind and hydro power generated sources.

The submitted proposal call for two, 5-inch diameter cables to be placed underwater or underground. The submarine portions of the preferred route include Lake Champlain and the Hudson River between Albany and Manhattan. Construction is expected to begin in 2013 and last for three and a half years.

The $2 billion project would be one of the largest investments in New York State history, and could create 300 to 600 direct jobs and an average of more than 1200 indirect and induced jobs during the construction period. It is intended to deliver clean power to meet growing demands, increase the security of the State’s electric grid, reduce emissions and lower energy costs for consumers.

What are the benefits of the Champlain Hudson Power Express?

According to estimates, the project could generate in excess of $20 million a year in tax revenue to areas where the line is buried along railroad tracks and public roads. Taxpayers in Washington, Saratoga, Albany, Schenectady, Greene, and Rockland counties, as well as the City of New York will receive yearly tax benefits from the CHPE. In addition, a one-time payment will be made to the State of New York for easements once the project is completed.

According to prior studies by London Economics, once the Champlain Hudson Power Express is operational, it’s expected to reduce electricity costs by more than $650 million a year in New York state.

What is the Route of the CHPE?

The proposed route is approximately 335 miles (539 km) from the Canada-U.S. border to its southern terminus in New York City. Two 5-inch (127 mm) cables would be buried at varying depths of 3 feet (91 cm) under Lake Champlain and the Hudson, Harlem, and East Rivers.

The cables would cross the border under Lake Champlain and would continue southward to Dresden north of Whitehall, New York. On its way to the Hudson, the cables would be routed briefly taken along State Route 22 and then parallel the Delaware & Hudson Railroad right-of-way to Rotterdam, at which point it accesses the right-of-way of CSX Transportation, continuing southwards until it enters the Hudson River in the Town of Catskill.

Once in the Hudson River, the cables continue south to Stony Point, where the CSX right-of-way is used again until the cables re-enter the Hudson in Clarkstown. They next make landfall in the Harlem River Rail Yard in the Bronx, cross the East River to Queens, and end at a converter station  in Astoria.

What about Environmental Concerns with the CHPE?

Power line

CHPE states this is a very safe project. The HVdc cables that will be used for this project are solid, are made from non flammable materials, are well insulated and do not contain liquids or gels. The HVdc converter stations are solid state and contain no flammable fuel, as compared with thermal generation stations. Electrical protection systems within the HVdc converter stations will isolate any fault, in a small fraction of a second to minimize the possibility of damage.

Placing these cables, which are only five inches in diameter, underwater and underground is intended be minimally invasive to the surrounding environment and to preserve natural views. The cable is solid state and compact, further minimizing risks to the environment. If the cable is damaged, HVdc protection is designed to reduce the current and voltage to zero in a fraction of a second so there is no possibility of damage to persons, fish, or any nearby infrastructure.

The cables will be buried well below the bottom of the waterways to protect against an anchor or fishing equipment snagging the cable. In the unlikely event that the cable is snagged, given the weight of the cable, the boat that has snagged the cable will immediately know that it is attached to a major subsurface feature. There will be both fiber optic thermal and communications protection on the equipment that will detect this “snag” as well as fault protection equipment at both converter stations to clear any fault very quickly. The cable protection equipment is designed to shut down operation in order to protect life and equipment in the very unlikely event that the cable becomes damaged by external equipment.

To avoid environmentally sensitive areas such as the PCB clean-up site in the Hudson River, the line will be taken out of the Champlain Canal North of Fort Edward and buried along Canadian Pacific and CSX rail right of ways for 73 miles The line will also exit the Hudson and be buried underground for seven miles to bypass Haverstraw Bay.

Learn More About the CHPE:

Ferrisburgh, Vermont Plans Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Ferrisburgh
Ferrisburgh Town Grange in Ferrisburgh, Vermont

Ferrisburgh in Vermont’s Addison County is gearing up for a big birthday party and a birthday of note. On June 24th, 1762 Ferrisburgh was incorporated, and on this June 24 the town will celebrate its 250th birthday. The town is spreading the word and preparing to share just what makes it so special.

Ferrisburgh in History

Town Clerk Chet Atkins and Assistant Clerk Pam Cousino described the town’s critical role in the defense of the Vergennes shipyard.  “During the War of 1812, Fort Cassin was built at the mouth of the Otter Creek to protect Vergennes and the Vergennes shipyard,” said Atkins. “In 1814 the British were at the mouth of Otter Creek, blocking in the Americans who were building a fleet at Vergennes. To escape the blockade the Americans dug a passage from Otter Creek to Kellogg’s Bay in Lake Champlain. The Americans were successful in driving off the British. They then sailed to Plattsburgh and were part of the war effort to drive the British from Lake Champlain.”

Another important date in the town’d history was the opening of the Ferrisburgh Central School in 1955; this brought together the children of the whole town who had previously been schooled in different one room schools around the area. “It gave the children a chance to all meet and to be together,” shared Atkins. This central location went on to serve not only the children but the parents as well, focusing the attention of the town at meetings, events and school plays, sporting events and special presentations.

Rokeby, the Robinson family farmstead signific...

Rokeby, the Robinson family farmstead significant for its role in the Underground Railroad. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Join the Celebration

The 250th celebration will be held on June 23rd from 10:00-3:00 p.m. and most events will be held at the Ferrisburgh Central School, but there will also be special events at Rokeby Museum, the Maritime Museum and other sites that are still being scheduled in the area.

The theme of the celebration is Ferrisburgh, 250 Years of Farm, Family, and Fun, The 250th Birthday Celebration for the Town of Ferrisburgh.  Watch for events including antique cars and antique tractor displays, horse drawn wagon rides and musicians and music throughout the day, a chicken barbecue at 1:00 pm,  and old fashioned children’s games as well.The Historical Society building will be open with displays and local Farmer’s Market vendors will be on site and much more.

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