Eclipse's Odyssey: Day 83, 8.18.18 - Fort Ann to Stillwater, NY

Day 83. We wake up during the night, briefly, to the sound of engines slowly motoring past us from where we are tied up on the end of the dock at the top end of Lock C9. We quickly fall back to sleep. It is not until after breakfast when we enter lock C9 that we are told that by the lockmaster from onshore as he barks down to us on our boat that our place anywhre on that dock was a bad idea as large canal barges apparently use the canals and the locks during the night. We never knew that nor was it posted anywhere. Well, at least we were not hit during the foggy night last night but it did seem like there was a large barge not very many feet away from our hull.

We spent the day motoring the canal and took a brief stop at lunchtime in the town of Fort Edward. Like most of the towns along the canal, the reason these towns ever existed was due to the fact that they were on major travel and portal routes. It just happens that Fort Edward was also known by the Native Americans back in the days before the British colonized this area as "The Carrying Place". It was, in essence, the place where one would take their canoe out of the Hudson River and carry it (known as portaging) to the headwaters of Lake Champlain. The British capitalized on places such as these and used them to "manage" and restrict trade movements. A fort was built here as well to defend the town and access. During World War II it was staffed 24x7 just in case an enemy boat from Germany were to want to make its way through here. That, of course, never did transpire.

The town is also the home of the "Old Fort House" which really is a collection of period buildings, some which were moved from their original locations in order to preserve them, to this place. The main home seen in the pictures below was first developed as an Inn and served the traveling needs of George Washington and Benedict Arnold on one of their campaigns against the British during the revolutionary war. Later, it became the home of one Salomon Northup who was a free-man until he was kidnapped, had his papers attesting to his freedom taken from him, and enslaved down in Louisiana for twelve years before he was found and released.

Learn more about this amazing and tragic story here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Years_a_Slave_(film)

We lock through lock five with a real, honest-to-goodness paddle-wheel boat that actually USES the paddle-wheel for its drive! Wow! You don't see many like that anymore as most just have a paddle-wheel that turns passively as the "real" motor, a gas engine, provides locomotion through the water.

Kristen is catching up with blogging......something that we had both fallen behind in during recent days.

Old Fort House - T'was once an Inn that served George Washington and Benedict Arnold. Later, it was occupied by Salomon Northup, who wrote "Twelve Years a Slave"

Front view of the "old Fort House" complex

For a short time period during the revolutionary war, the British seized the town and the house. This is a signboard that outlines the battles and the personal story as told by a German Officer's wife who was stationed here with the British during the take-over.