Auld lang syne

Auld Lang Syne {pronounced Zyne} is not necessarily a New York thing but is well known around the World especially if your some of the millions of New Yorkers that visit Time Square each year on New Years Eve 

Auld Lang Syne has a few meanings such as “old long since” “days gone by” or “old times” Robert Burns was the first person to write the prom on paper in 1788  The poem is Scottish but made its way around the world with the immigration of the Irish British and English 

Even though Robert burns was the first person to write the poem on paper he's most likely not the person who came up with it there's another poem that was written in 1711 by James Watson called old long syne and Burns himself admitted he got it from an old man

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

                                                       

The first tree in Rockefeller center is between west 48th and 51st street and Fifth and Sixth avenues  was in 1931 was a small 20 foot balsam fir. when workers put up and decorated it with stringed cranberries, garland and even cans. The first official tree was two years later and that was a 50 foot tree now the trees are 69 to 100 foot Norway Spruce.  In 1936 the ice rink was opened. During world war 2 three small trees were put up in the center each decorated one color of the united states flag in the years of 1944 and 45 the tree was left unlite do to black outs regulations. In Dec 2001 again the tree was decorated in red white and blue following the attacks on 9/11 When the tree gets to Rockefeller center it is anchored by 4 steel spikes held buy guy-wires with a spike in its base then scaffolding is used to decorate the tree with 3 million multi colored lights 70 spikes and topped with a Swarovski crystal star and weighing 900lbs in the end. Starting in 2007 the trees have been milled and donated to habitat for humanity 

Tug hill plateau

Tug Hill Plateau region is East of Lake Ontario North of Oneida Lake West of the Adirondack Mountains and isn't really a Plateau it's a Cueata and covers 800 square miles covering Jefferson County towns of Adams, Champion, Lorraine, Rodman, Rutland, Watertown, Worth. Lewis County towns Denmark, Harrisburg, Lewis, Leyden, Lowville, Martinsburg, Montague, Osceola, Pinckney, Turn, West Turin. Oneida County towns Annville, Ava, Boonville, Camden, Florence, Floyd, Forestport, Lee, Remsen, Steuben, Treton, Vienna, Western. Oswego County towns Albon, Amboy, Boylston, Constantina, Hastings, Orwell, Parish, Redfield, West, Monroe, Williamtown.

Before the English the area was controlled by Iroquois confederation mainly the Oneidaga and Oneida nations used for fishing and hunting. Four million acres were bought by the English after the revolutionary war by William Contable that was subdivided for English settlers and set aside anther 10,500 for roads and canals.

Even though the tug hill regions has nice summers it is well known for the amounts of snowfall it gets averaging 200 inches thats 16ft 7inches per winter between feb 3rd and 12th RedField can get 141inches (11ft) Parish can get 121inches(10ft) and Osceola can get 106 inches (8ft).Tug hill is used for a bunch of recreations snowmobiles hiking skiing and fishing and hunting there are a lot of animals that can be seen such as Deer, Rabbits, Beaver, Turkey, Fishers, Bobcats, Coyote   sometimes Black Bear, Salmon, Trout, Bass, Walleye, and Waterfowl.

Rome sand plains Rome NY

The Rome sand plains is a 15,000-acre pine barren with only two are found in New York State and the other is located down by Albany, the pine barrens are normally found near the coastal regions. The barrens consist of a mix of hardwood forest meadows and wetlands. 4,000 acres that are protected

In 1980 the sand plains have privately owned an application was made to mine the sand to be used for molds for metal casting triggering efforts to protect the area organizations such as The New York Environmental Conservation and The Nature Conservatory with other organizations started buying land    

The sand plains are a relic of Lake Iroquois that is a larger version of Lake Ontario and 100 feet deeper. Lake Iroquois was a lake that existed at the end of the last ice age 12 thousand yrs ago 

The Rome sand plains have a variety of trees and plants, along with some rare species of plants and animals  for the area including the red-shouldered hawk and the frost elfin butterfly along with

purple pitcher plant

and a sundew both are carnivorous plants. 

The pine warbler

The eastern whip poor will

The marten

the barrens buck moth

 

Wild Blue Lupine

and the pitch pine

purple pitcher plant

and a sundew both are carnivorous plants. 

The pine warbler

The eastern whip poor will

The marten

the barrens buck moth

 

Wild Blue Lupine

and the pitch pine

The Village of Delta

 Village of Delta NY was established and developed in the 1800's by a man named Prosper E Rudd along with others. The town was located between the city of Rome and the town of Western in the delta river valley connected to the Mohawk river and black river canal.

 The town was full of farms shops and business and later got a saw and grain mills. In 1903 New York state wanted to enlarge and improve the New York State  canal system and that required more water. To get the water they needed for the canals improvements they needed to dam the Mohawk river and flood the town of Delta. The reason the state picked the town to be flooded because there had been an earthen dam some were near were the current delta dam is and the area had been a lake. Construction on the dam started in October 1908 after moving and clearing the homes trees and cemetery's. The dams is 100 ft tall 1,1000 feet long and 85,0000 cubic yards of cement with a 300 ft spillway. The dam itself hold 2.7 million cubic feet of water and took 4 years to fill.

Black River Canal lock

1908 the New York State Canal System leased abou

t 350 acres to the New York State Parks

and Recreation, then in 2005 The Canal

Corporation transferred the park's land and 370 more

acres making the park 720 acres to the recreation
and historic preservation. Some of the home and

buildings from the town of delta can still be found i
n The city of Rome and Town of Western

Delta Lake

Herkimer Diamonds

Herkimer diamonds located in Herkimer New York. Herkimer diamonds are also called little falls diamonds and Middlefield diamonds and  are not real diamonds but they are double-terminated quartz in an outcrop of dolomite that means that is has two pointed ends and found in dolostone similar to limestone they are called diamonds due to the clarity and the multi faceitings. The crystals in New York were formed 500 million years ago in a shallow sea bed from sediment from the Adirondack mountains . The Native Americans knew of the crystals finding them in streams and fields thinking highly of them using them for tools and jewelry till the 1600s when they were introduced to glass beads by the Europeans. If your wondering if Herkimer diamonds have value yes they do but nothing close to a real diamond for a Herkimer diamond that is 4mm is $6 a real diamond the same size is about $1600

Holland patent New York

The town of Holland Patent New York  was founded in 1797 and got its name from the Holland land grant. The Holland land grant is were millions of acres of western New York, Pennsylvania and Canada were bought buy 6 dutch bankers

There are 7 historical landmarks in the town , 6 are in The Holland Patent stone church historical district, which includes 4 massive Greek revival churches, The village green and a gazebo and less then a block away the Holland Patent train depot.

Presbyterian churches also known as the twin churches 

The Welch congregational church 

Catholic church 

                                                     The gazebo in the village green

                                           Holland patent train depot and town offices

One of the parish priest for the Presbyterian church was Richard Falley Cleveland who moved to Holland Patent in September 1853 with his son who was future two term president Grover Cleveland and his daughter Rose who acted as first lady until her brother married in 1886 Richard only preached one service in Holland Patent before passing away on Oct 1 1853. Both Richard and his wife Ann's finale resting places are in the Holland patent cemetery

                                           Grover Cleveland the 22nd and 24th U.S president

Battle of Oriskany

The bloodiest battle of the revolutionary war took place in oriskany ny on August 6th 1777 american patriots and allied oneidas against the british loyalists and allied iroquois.

The commanders for the americans were Nicholas Herkimer Peter Gansevoort

and Benedict Arnold the commander for the British were Sir John Johnson John Butler

Berry St Leger and Joseph Briant. The battle field is located south of the mohawk river

raised up and divided by ravens and the oriskany flats(the river bottom lands)

                                          

   

Berry St leger was marching east crossing  central ny on his way to Albany stopping at fort

stanwix also known as Fort Schuyler in rome ny demanding that they surrender. Gen herkimer

was 2 miles away in oriskany making his way to the fort with 800 militiamen but was attacked

by Joseph Bryant and his crew of 1200 Iroquois and British loyalists. After a high number of

casualties the Americans retreated with the loss of the soldiers. The men back at the fort took

the opportunity to emerge then attacked  the British camp Gen Herkimer was shot in the leg

while on his horse and was sat up agents a tree. Herkimer's leg quickly became badly infected

and didn't get amputated for 10 days but sadly the doctor was inexperienced and the bleeding

couldn't be stopped and Herkimer died August 16th 1777, St Leger not able
to capture the fort made his way to Oswego

Oriskany(oriska) New York

Oriskany (oriska) Ny established in 1811 along the Erie Canal that runs from Lake Erie in Buffalo to the Hudson river in Albany the name Oriskany is kinda of an urban legend saying there was an error at the post office instead of being Oriska, Ny the comma was missing and was changed to Oriskany,Ny The word oriska is an Iroquois for nettles.

In the early 1900 there was an amusement park named summit park which included Dance Hall, Roller Coaster,The Whip, An Amphitheater, Shooting gallery, Observation Tower, Baseball Field, Train Ride, Japanese Shop, Penny Arcade, Boat Rides, Merry-Go-Round and more sadly the park was closed in 1927 do to the invention of the car and the ability to travel farther. The park tried to reopen in the 50s but didn't have the same success as its early days.Utica OD article about placement of the summit park marker placed oct 12th 2019








U.S.S Oriskany AirCraft Carrier (CV-34) (The mighty O) The keel was laid in 1942 and launched Aug 8th 1947. In May of 2006 the Oriskany was striped and sank to be used a reef and dive site and now carries the nickname Great Carrier Reef. the village oriskany homes monuments from the ship. The ships starboard anchor surrounded by 44 posts with the names of the 44 ship mates that died in a fire in 1966 there's also the ships bell and a skyhawk A-4E