Delta lake Rome NY

Lake Erie

Lake Erie lies with in Ontario Canada and the U.S states of New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. As  the fourth largest finger lake and eleventh globally its 9,940 square miles of shoreline is 871 miles long and holds 127.8 trillion gallons of water  the outflow is the Niagara river. There were a number of lakes formed with different shores and depth the most recent before the current lake is  Lake Warren. Lake Warren was from 12,000 and 13,000 years ago the shore was 8miles inland from the current lakes shore line

The Economic growth the Erie canal made on the US

The Erie canal was good for the economic growth of our young country providing many jobs and helped grow towns along the canal. The canal paid for itself in the first year it was open with tolls alone. Along with freight and commercial boats the canal saw a number of passenger boats. In 1825 there were 40,000 that enjoyed the beauty of the canal.The Erie canal helped to grow New York City to a major city and main port it is today. The population of New York State quadrupled between 1820 and 1850 and wall street took off. The Erie canal was a big part of the underground railroad.

Harriet Tubman moved to New York after freeing her self in Maryland in March of 1913. Harriet made 13 trips freeing over 70 people using the Erie canal tow paths 

The Erie canal

The Erie Canal runs 363 miles from Lake Erie in the West to Albany in the East. The Erie canal was built by Governor DeWitt Clinton and engineered by Benjamin Wright construction  started in Rome N.Y from July 1817 and opened in October 1825 with an elevation change of 565 ft and has 34 locks with a depth of 4ft and a width of 40ft for reference the Panama canal is only 51  miles long 85ft above sea level and 110 feet wide The cost of building the canal in $7143,00 {that's $14,664,579 in today's money}The first boat on the canal was The Seneca Chief it was an astonishing 10day trip with governor DeWitt on board from Buffalo to Albany vs the 15 to 45 days the shorter trips also made it more cost effective by wagon for a ton of cargo it cost $125 {$2,566.25 into days money} with the canal it was $6 a ton {that's $123.18 in today's money} to hall such big loads they would you a team of houses or oxen to tow the boats on the path on the sides of-the canal

London bridge

We all know the children song london bridge is falling down but how much do we really know about it. The first london bridge was first built in 43 AD by the Romans over the River Thames. The bridge had to be rebuilt in 1176 after the Vikings attacked it . The first stone bridge was built in 1176. The next bridge was built in June 1825 out of granite. In 1962 the london bridge started falling down after a 130 yrs and surviving the ww2  air strikes and the weight of modern cars the bridge started sinking 1inch every 8yr not being able to fix it the English government decided to try to sell it to the United States. In 1968 negotiations started with a man named Robert McCulloch and he ended up paying $2.46million. The Bridge was disassembled and moved brick by brick by cargo ships to Long Beach California then trucked to Lake Havasu City in Arizona. It took 3 years to rebuild the bridge and reinforced with  cement and rebar to support modern cars.

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