The Seaway at 50
We've got special coverage coming this week on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. It was a huge project, that changed lives on both sides of the St. Lawrence River. Islands disappeared -- villages, farms, homesteads, cemeteries -- all under the water rising behind the big Moses Saunders power dam. And it's recent history...lots of those people whose lives were never the same are still alive. My life wasn't changed, but my grandmother, Pearl Fincham Vallance was born on Croil's Island (now mostly underwater) and I remember driving from home near Glens Falls to Massena to catch a glimpse of the island as the river came up. Years later we visited my great aunt Grace on Wilson Hill, in a camp/house that took the place of the house she lived in before it was flooded.
We'll hear about the "Lost Villages" in two stories this week, Wednesday and Thursday.
Tomorrow we'll hear about the people who built the massive locks and hydro dam.
Share your story, or your family's, in the comment box. Or e-mail radio@ncpr.org
posted by Martha Foley @ 7/06/2009 11:21:00 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
A lost village poem:
Evening on the St. Lawrence
40s jazz ripples out from pine-hidden patios.
Mist breeds over Croil Island shallows.
The boat turns slowly on its anchorline.
We insulate ourselves, bourbon
against the whiteout, line our bellies
with smuggled Canadian beef and beer.
The old river road still runs through rockcuts
under the lake, linking farm foundations,
root cellars
full of fish and muck. Lampreys taste the current
with toothy sucker-mouths, threading dog ribs
mingled in washed-out roots of apple stumps.
The past outlasts us. The land changes.
We picnic on forgotten graves, sing
drunkenly. Fog engulfs.
We nod wet dreams come nightfall
in the lightly bobbing boat.
Dale Hobson
I came across an old letter in my grandmother's records that discusses the loss of our family island to the Seaway project. It was a terrible blow to the family since it was a much-loved meeting place on the River--at least that's what my mother used to tell me since the island was long gone by the time I was born. At the time, my great Uncle Jim was one of the owners. Here's the letter he sent to his sister Franny:
May 26, 1954
Dear Franny -
This is it. The island will have to be enjoyed to the fullest during the next few years, and will them become a memory and what a memory. The letter and the map are sent herewith. You will see that the entire island will be uninhabitable, for what is not dredged out will be piled on and there will be a dump or as they call it a dike on the head where my house is. I see no place on the map where I would want to replace the glory that is vanishing. The whole landscape will be ugly, the water contaminated with oil and ash and dirt and the fishing probably ruined in the process. Whether there is available a lake site U.S. or Cananda near enough at hand is another question. The imps and the devils have taken over paradise and that is that. So let's make the best of it. Study the map and make conclusions and let me have your thoughts. Old Uncle Ken ought to have some bright ideas on what we might do. Prod up the old boy and let's cogitate together.
Aff. Jim
I have no love for the Seaway. As a kid growing up in Detroit, I remember how it wasn't long after it opened that lamprey began the destruction of whitefish and lake trout.
It should be torn down now.
I am a historian of sorts for Croil Island. Its a favorite haunt of mine and there has been a lot that has gone under the grow of mother nature in the last 30 years.
Its still a very beautiful place, but far different after the ice storm and way different then it was when I was a mere 17 years old.
At that time it was a hikers paradise. They had cows that did a lot to keep the island in a more pristine shape, with their paths and forage for grass. The maple forest was a sea of knee high huge fan/palm leaves and the distance between the trees was just magical. A real paradise.
After the ice storm, wow, what a difference. It has taken a long time for even this to fall away, but without the cows, it has overgrown quite a bit and is not the island it used to be. However I love it and I always will.
Dean Ward
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