Everything's Better When the Sun is Shining

Utica turned out to be more of a treasure than we expected.  It seems that the Erie Canal made a lot of folks wealthy.  

The dome on this bank is real gold.

Mr. Munson cornered the market on canal boats even before the canal was finished.  He went on the have a hand in all kinds of capitalistic ventures.  He built a home for his daughter and bought art, both of which were eventually endowed to the city of Utica.


The result is the Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute.  We explored the city a while this  morning, including rummaging through a big old antique shop, waiting for the gallery to open at 10:00.  I had read that they had a good collection of Hudson River School paintings, and it was time for me to get educated on these works that had made some of the areas of our travels famous.


The master of the school was Thomas Cole.  In this gallery we saw his series of four paintings called The Voyage of Life.

 This is Childhood.

 A detail of Childhood.

 Frederick Church was one of his proteges.  We were at his "castle" on the Hudson.  

 Asher Durand was another protege.

 This is an amazing art gallery for such a small town sort of out in no-wheres-ville.  Here is a Picasso.

 Next door to the gallery is the Munson-Williams-Proctor Mansion. All of this is open free of charge.

 Finally we tore ourselves away from Utica and headed east along the Mohawk Valley, also following the Erie Canal.


The town of Herkimer is on the canal, but is named for that famous Colonial General who came to the aid of Fort Stanwix.  Herkimer has some impressive buildings too, such as the Town Hall.

 We had lunch in a restaurant right on the modern Barge Canal, the third iteration of the original Erie canal.

 Down river is the town of Little Falls.  Here is evidence of the original canal, as well as the mills that once dominated the town and brought it prosperity.

Those two mill buildings are now shops, one of them two stories of antiques.  We finally surrendered and purchased beyond our luggage capacity.  Tomorrow we'll be going to the Fedex store to ship some of our treasures home.

 Our next stop was Herkimer House State Historic Site.  This was General Herkimer's house.  He made his  money by offering portage services over his land, which was strategically located between two waterways.  This was in the 1750's.

 Later the original Erie Canal was built right there at the edge of the the mowed lawn.  Now the Barge Canal is off in the distance at the edge of the field.

 The interior is being restored to the 1775 era of the General.

 The General did not survive his battle wounds and died shortly after.  He is buried in the family cemetery there, and a monument was later erected.

 Traveling along Hwy 5S, we climbed out of the Mohawk valley for a bit, and had wonderful views of the rolling farmland.

 We are Brown Sign junkies.  Brown signs mean historical sites.  Once more we went off the beaten path, to the Schoharie Crossing Historical Site.  These are more Erie Canal installations.  The purpose here is to protect and preserve any remaining structures of the Erie Canal's three major eras of operation.


An old set of double locks is along side the modern Barge canal.

 This is the remains of an aqueduct, part of the first modification of the original canal.  It is literally a bridge for boats, floating them over another stream.

And with that, our canal history tour comes to an end.  Tonight we are back in Albany, where the canals flow into the Hudson River.


Tomorrow we will visit the capitol building, ship our extra baggage, and drive to Boston for our 6:00 flight back to Seattle.


It has been a grand tour.  And now we are ready to be back home.