Fun at the Frost Faire

I've written before about how much I enjoy going to the Saratoga Battlefield. It is just so awesome to stand amid such beautiful scenery and know you are surrounded by history.

We paid another visit to the battlefield today for their annual Frost Faire.

We started out by taking a horse-drawn wagon ride out to the big tubing hill. And when I say big, I mean BIG. There was more snow last year. This year there were actually some patched of grass on the hill that slowed things down a bit. But it still went pretty fast. Nolan and I went for a few good runs down the hill.

Thomas was a little intimidated by the steep slope. So he hung out by the campfire at the top with Kris, who was nursing a sore knee, and worked on a assembling a life-sized puzzle of a British soldier.

Then it was off to the warming tent for hot chocolate and cookies before taking the 3/4-mile wagon trip back to the visitors center. That's where Nolan got a lesson in how to handle musket (it was only a pretend one) and Thomas got to practice writing with a quill and ink. There were some crafts to work on and -- best of all -- one of the big canons was fired off a few times. I never, ever tire of that!

It made for a pretty fun afternoon, and every time we go to the battlefield we leave having learned something new.

Father's Day fun

So in the end, on Father's Day I did not get around to claiming my free juicy hamburger or having a free 8x10 printed up.

However, we did take advantage of the waived entry fee at the Saratoga Battlefield.

It made for a great Father's Day. I enjoy history and touring sites like the battlefield. So it was fun to get to do something that I enjoy with the whole family. We all had a good time and learned a little bit along the way.

Anchors Aweigh

In honor of Memorial Day weekend, we took a tour of the USS Slater this morning in Albany.

This was originally supposed to be a Cub Scout trip, but most of the families dropped out of the trip for one reason or another. So it wound being just us and one other family.

The Slater is a Destroyer Escort that hunted German U-boats in the North Atlantic during World War II.

In fact, it's the last WWII-era Destroyer Escort still afloat in the United States.

The Navy decommissioned the Slater in 1947. About four years later she was transferred to the Greek navy. Forty years after that the Greeks donated her to the Destroyer Escort Historical Museum. Over the next several years, volunteers -- mostly former sailors -- raised money and faithfully restored the Slater to her former glory. She's been on display in Albany for about 10 years now.

This was our first visit to the Slater. It's an amazing piece of history to have right in our neck of the woods.

High tech communications

I meant to blog about this yesterday, but alas, I got too busy.

Anyway, here’s a history lesson: Oct. 26 was the anniversary of the opening of the Erie Canal. It was on that date in 1825 that New York Gov. DeWitt Clinton traveled on the first vessel to make the journey on the canal from Lake Erie to New York City.

Here’s the cool part that I learned yesterday…soon after Clinton departed, people in Manhattan knew he was on the way. The route was lined with cannons, spaced just within earshot of each other. They were fired, one after another, to spread the word. It took just 80 minutes for the signal to reach its destination.

Here’s how George Condon described the cannon telegraph in his book Stars in the Water, the Story of the Erie Canal…

“[The] first gunner lighted the fuse … fearsome enough to be heard by the next, unseen, gunner down the line because it seemed as if the echoing boom from the northeast came so quickly as to step on the lingering reverberations of the first roar … it rolled through the country of the Mohawks, the Senecas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, the Oneidas, and the Tuscaroras … moved east, through the Niagara Country, the Genesee Country, the Montezuma swampland, through the Mohawk Valley, past the Catskills, and down the Hudson… It took the cannon telegraph relay only one hour and twenty minutes to reach the island of Manhattan and deposit its historic word before turning about for the return relay to Buffalo.”

Telecommunications sure have come a long way.

Some other facts about the canal that was known as Clinton’s Ditch: it was 360 miles long, 40 feet wide, and 4 feet deep—just deep enough to float barges carrying 30 tons of freight. It was built by European immigrants—mostly Irish—who were paid $10 a month. They were also given whiskey, which was stored in barrels along the construction site. No mention of any mules named Sal.

A tour through history

I enjoyed a fun activity Saturday afternoon. I went on a bicycle tour of the Saratoga Battlefield.

The Battlefield is preserved as a national historic park. For those unfamiliar with the history, many believe the events that took place there in 1777 where the turning point of the Revolutionary War. Had it not been for the Battle of Saratoga, we might all still be singing “God Save the Queen.”

There were actually two battles fought there. The first was 228 years ago today and the second was on Oct. 7, 1777.

The park is set up so you can either drive or bike through it and stop at designated areas to view plaques and exhibits detailing what happened at each particular location.

At a couple of the stops they also had people in period costumes. At one – the Neilson House – a patriot camp was recreated. It was complete with tents, soldiers and a couple of Indians milling about and women cooking over open fires.

A crowd gathered around a man dressed as Major General Horatio Gates to hear him tell his tales. And I recognized one man’s costume as that of a ranger and struck up conversation with him, asking him some questions about the rangers and Robert Rogers, who I read about in “The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness.”

I got to hold a replica of a “Brown Bess” rifle and watched soldiers fire their similar weapons. More impressive was the artillery demonstration. Three, five and nine-pound canons were fired. I wisely followed the advice to stick my fingers in my ears – those things were loud!

On the steps of the Neilson House we watched a recreation of a court martial proceeding. It all seemed very authentic until the cell phone of one of the men guarding the defendant started ringing!

We also saw the monument to Benedict Arnold. He was one of the heroes at Saratoga. It would be another three years or so before he would become the most famous traitor in American history. The monument was erected in the 1800s and stands on the site where he was wounded. It has a lengthy inscription detailing his feats, but never mentions his name!

The whole route is about 11 miles. As I said, you can drive through the park, but I can’t think of a better way to see it than on a bicycle. I’ve always had a passing interest in colonial America and the Revolutionary War. This was a great way to learn a little more about our history while enjoying a pleasant ride (except for a couple of challenging hills) with some beautiful scenery.