The story in Sackett's Harbor was that the American forces had a 10" cannon
but no shot for it. along comes a 10" shell which tears up the walk of the
local doctor's house almost to his front door! They retrieve the cannonball
take it to the gun and fire it back at the British Navy. so the story goes
there...

Unfortunately, a good deal of Sackett's harbor material culture was taken
out on the ice in the 1940's I think, a disposal method relying on the
melting of the ice. I imagine there's a big pile of things out there in the
lake. I visited it in 1979 and the whole area was a pretty sorry sight, now,
however, it is much more interesting, though the full restoration of the
historic Madison Barracks would require a small army of restorationists as
much of the stonework has tumbled in perhaps from tremors. Former Mayor of
New York City, Fiorello ("Little Flower") LaGuardia grew up there for awhile
as his father was a non-com percussionist unfortunately an informant led
them to the wrong building, burning down the one he had been in, I was told.

There's quite a fleet of sailboats there that race in and out of Alexandria
Bay.

One of William Ritchie's (former NY State Archaeologist) first research's
was in that area in the 1940's. He believed quantities of wild rice once
grew in the area around the lake as they do in other parts of the Great
Lakes.


George Myers

_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com