517 Words
U.S.A. - New York State -
Northern New York Freedom Trail
It is when Doris Herwig starts to talk about the Underground Railroad that she reveals her passion. She's explaining the "talking quilts" that folklore says were used as ways to guide fleeing slaves north to their freedom in Canada. "It usually took escaping slaves a year to reach Canada. Legend has it that safe houses - usually Quakers - would hang these quilts with their hidden messages to either display a home as a haven from the slave hunters or as a warning to keep moving." Herwig runs Hayfield Quality Tours from her office near the shores of what she claims..."is the most beautiful lake in the world."
Lake George is 32 miles long with the town of the same name sitting at its southern end. She guides our bus up Prospect Mountain sitting at the town's back. At the Eagle's Eye overlook we get out and see the six million acres of the Adirondack Mountains roll away from our feet. It's from this vantage that this particular freedom trail makes more sense and the link between waterways and history becomes apparent.
Amtrak offers a daily run along this "Lakes to Locks" passage. The train travels from New York to Montreal, following a landscape shaped by retreating glaciers that left these huge lakes in a North/South pattern. There were several freedom routes, but here, slaves could flee northwards from Lake George, up to Lake Champlain and then along the Richelieu River to the St. Lawrence and their freedom.
Herwig tells us of her first tour, "We crossed the Canadian border, the bus went silent and when the Welcome to Canada sign came into view, the bus erupted into cheering. I looked and saw the bus driver wiping his eyes. I realized I was crying and so were my passengers. I knew then that I had conveyed the truth of the Underground Railroad."
It wasn't just the slaves that realized the importance of these linked waters. The early history of Canada and the U.S.A. was shaped by these shores. British, French, indigenous peoples and newly-minted Americans formed varying alliances to wage great battles on the land and the waters of this passageway. All of them recognizing that the water was the lifeline and whoever wrested control would hold the power. The present-day reenactments, museums, forts and battleground sites are testimony to the lives lost and ground gained.
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration and New York State have designated certain roads as Scenic Byways. These roads must meet scenic, recreational, cultural, natural, historical or archaeological criteria to qualify. The Lakes to Locks passage is the state's only nationally designated All-American Road. It is called the Best of the Best.
Cruising along the curvaceous roads - past cabins, lakes and the ever-present Adirondack chairs - it's apparent the Scenic Byway committee didn't have to think too hard about their designation. The maples arch over the roadway creating a tunnel that carries us through this land of living history.
It is here that it all comes together, an often bloody account of our two nations set in spectacular beauty.
When you go: www.empire.state.ny.us |
