Why isn't Lake Champlain famous?
It's been a struggle for organizers of the Lake Champlain Quadricentennial to build momentum and national attention.
Other geographies in America are iconic: the Mississippi River of Twain and a thousand blues songs; the Southwestern landscapes of cowboy yarns and Steinbeck; the lush, Faulknerian world of the South and the Civil War.
So why doesn't Lake Champlain resonate? It's one of the cradles of North American history and legend -- or maybe one of the crucibles.
From Benedict Arnold's fierce battle near Valcour Island to the Battle of Plattsburgh to the bearing of John Brown's body to the waves of immigrants who burrowed deep under the Lake's shore in search of iron ore.
There's no richer landscape culturally. And the physical beauty is unrivaled.
And yet before I moved to the North Country, I had no sense of it. I knew of Fort Ticonderoga -- but didn't know that it was in the Champlain Valley.
War of 1812? Barely registered.
So what do you think? Do we need a great writer to bring Lake Champlain into the national imagination? What separates the iconic landscapes from the forgotten (or at least neglected) places?
Labels: chpv
posted by Brian Mann @ 5/12/2009 07:39:00 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
You want a great writer who deals with Lake Champlain's role in history? Try Kenneth Roberts' "Rabble in Arms".
Yes, I like Roberts' stuff very much. But I don't think he quite gets there, do you? In terms of establishing Lake Champlain's signature as a place. Maybe because he deals with a larger region and a particular sweep of events...
-Brian
Seems like some radio station has a piece about the Quad today.
Anyway, Bill McKibben mentioned a mental and geographic divide created by the lake. He later claimed to have reached some kind of epiphany and saw the "big picture".
Well, I still can't see beyond that divide.
I think that our region has already had several rides on the product lifecycle. Heh, starting with Champlain and peaking a few times.
Surely, having a war fought here over control of the lake meant there was at least some awareness of the existence and importance of the region. Today, there is no such strategic value. The lake doesn't even have any value as a commercial transportation route. In that sense, we have a unique opportunity to rebuild our "brand".
Not often are marketers presented with a relatively blank slate. Can a two-state, two-country configuration cooperate to promote a shared region? Possible, but not easy.
I'm wondering if Lake Champlain's close proximity to two already long established geographic icons (the Adirondacks and Vermont - yes, the state as a whole has an iconic image) has distracted attention from Champlain.
Post a Comment
<< Home