In April 2023, I was blessed to take a deep dive into the history, geography, geology and culture of the far northeast corner of America,  the Canadian Maritimes and the St. Lawrence River and Seaway. Con su permisio, as they say in Spanish, I would like to share with you some of what I learned in these blog posts over the next couple of months. Hope you benefit and enjoy!

Lighthouses. Who does not like lighthouses? How many of you have braved the 100-spiral-open-metal stairs to climb to the top of a lighthouse? (And remember than in days of yore, the lighthouse keepers would climb those stairs at least twice a day carrying fuel for the fire………. and there were women lighthouse keepers too, going up those stairs in their long dresses.)

Lighthouses are beautiful and romantic and have been featured in a million books and movies. “But what, really, is a lighthouse for?” asked David, our experience instructor on the ship. He continued, “A lighthouse is a navigation aid, surely not just by a light, but by a point to steer by. The lighthouse was the GPS of the 1800s. The lighthouse was a landmark visible at sea to enable recognition to ships of where they were. Anciently, shore fires wee used before lighthouses.” ****

“Imagine the coast of North America in the late 1800s. It was a broad expanse of rocky shores, forested wilderness, populated by the First Nations and then by lumbermen and fisherman,” David taught us. “In the mid-1800s there were hundreds of vessels from a dozen nations in North Atlantic waters for by water was the easiest mode of transport and transportation  for both cargo and passengers. Today, modern ships navigate by GPS and other automated systems to keep safe on the water, but there were only lighthouses in the 1800s.” 

“In the 1800s, sailing captains had only crude maps and a compass and sailors hoped for a captain skilled in these tools. Accidents occurred constantly….capsizing, beaching, grounding and collisions. The lighthouse was the technology of the day, built to make travel safer for the ships and people on the waters.” 

***  On my Mississippi River trip in 2022, due to an extremely low river, we could not moor at Vicksburg but were diverted south to a hastily-extended concrete fishing access. Being up in the pre-dawn dark, I knew we passed Vicksburg and shortly in the pitch black darkness, I spotted a small, flickering light on the shore. As the ship’s floodlight zoomed in on that signal light, I could see that it was a beach fire! Lighted purposefully to guide us to where we could moor! So old time methods were still necessary in 2022!

In April 2023, I was blessed to take a deep dive into the history, geography, geology and culture of the far northeast corner of America,  the Canadian Maritimes and the St. Lawrence River and Seaway. Con su permisio, as they say in Spanish, I would like to share with you some of what I learned in these blog posts over the next couple of months. Hope you benefit and enjoy!

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, has a 400-year history of cod fishing. Today, cod is important for fish-and-chips on both sides of the Atlantic. “Yesterday” these fish could weigh up to 200 pounds and now they’re usually four-to-five pounds (so explained the guide). 

“Yesterday” there were literally millions of these fish in the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 1497, John Cabot’s sailors wrote home to Italy that there “were to may fish we could take them up by the baskets full.” Another English report: “We could hardly row a boat between them.” Jacque Cartier in 1524 echoed those sentiments and soon the word spread all over Europe, especially to Catholic countries.

Good Catholics in those days did not eat meat on Fridays or on the many special holy days, but they could eat fish. The fishing frenzy was on.

Besides being so abundant, cod live in shallow waters, near the bottom, and are easily fished from small dories with hand-held lines. It was easy to make a living as a cod fisherman. Cod are not an oily fish, so they would dry easily. Salted and spread upon the rocks to dry, salted cod would keep up to two years and fueled many long voyages. 

People of that day felt surely that the supply was inexhaustible. But as the technology for catching and processing cod improved, the supply was nearly exhausted. By 1992, the Canadian had closed down cod fishing (except for recreation). 

Today most of our cod comes from Iceland.

Who remembers fish sticks back in 1958?? They were cod and still are, I believe. 

In April 2023, I was blessed to take a deep dive into the history, geography, geology and culture of the far northeast corner of America,  the Canadian Maritimes and the St. Lawrence River and Seaway. Con su permisio, as they say in Spanish, I would like to share with you some of what I learned in these blog posts over the next couple of months. Hope you benefit and enjoy!

A short bus ride from Halifax, Nova Scotia, is the little fishing/lobstering village of Peggy’s Cove.  Peggy’s Cove was named by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain, who explored Nova Scotia in the early 1600’s. He named the region, St. Marguerite’s Bay, after his mother. Marguerite’s Cove, was the name originally given to the cove. (Wikipedia)

The famous lighthouse, perched on a huge outcropping of granite rocks, was a delight to visit. I was fascinated as much by those rocks as the lighthouse itself. You’ll see in the photo that there was a bagpiper there playing for us tourists. 

On the left top, is the watercolor painting that I purchased from a local artist. On the bottom right is our ship’s painting activity lady’s watercolor of that lighthouse and on the left is my pitiful attempt to duplicate it. 

Here’s the funny postscript to the story. I had the business card of that artist fellow and called him to share the photo of the three lighthouses. He was thankful and polite, of course, but said that at that very moment there was a lady from Olympia standing in his shop! What a small world indeed. 

To further that “small world” realization, I had the best ice cream cone I’ve ever had from a shop there in Peggy’s Cove and the young lady scooping the ice cream was from South Africa! 

In April 2023, I was blessed to take a deep dive into the history, geography, geology and culture of the far northeast corner of America,  the Canadian Maritimes and the St. Lawrence River and Seaway. Con su permisio, as they say in Spanish, I would like to share with you some of what I learned in these blog posts over the next couple of months. Hope you benefit and enjoy! 

In this photo I’m standing on top of Cadillac Mountain overlooking Bar Harbor, Maine. That teeny white oval is my ship and if you look close you can see the sand bar between the mainland and the island which gave Bar Harbor its name. 
Here’s the story of how Cadillac Mountain got its name:  In 1674 a young Frenchman, named Antoine, aged 16, was to be released from prison because he agreed to join the military. He came to New Spain and served under Gen. Frontenac. Eventually he wanted to stay in New Spain and petitioned for a land grant. But not being nobility, his petition was denied. 
He went back to his hometown in France, changed his name and altered the town crest to suit him. He became Antoine de la Mothe sieur de Cadillac. With this change he again petitioned for land in New Spain and his petition was granted…….. the entire island of Acadia! 
He lived with his family only a short time on Acadia and, according to the tour guide, became bored with the limited opportunities that the island afforded and moved on. But the mountain bears his name: Cadillac Mountain. 

Think about this story in terms of your own genealogy. How many times have you come upon a seeming brick wall because of these ancient undocumented (or nearly impossible to find) name changes???

In April 2023, I was blessed to take a deep dive into the history, geography, geology and culture of the far northeast corner of America,  the Canadian Maritimes and the St. Lawrence River and Seaway. Con su permisio, as they say in Spanish, I would like to share with you some of what I learned in these blog posts over the next couple of months. Hope you benefit and enjoy!

Miscellaneous Factoids About Maine

* Maine “beaches” are more like shown above (in Acadia National Park) and not long flat sandy beaches like we have here in the Northwest. Maine beaches are lovely granite, white and pink granite. 

*Folks born, raised and live in Maine refer to themselves as Maine-iacs. 

* Maine had more soldiers in the Civil War than any other state.

* Cities have subways; islands have ferries.

* Maine has 3470 miles of coastline, the longest in the lower 48 states.

*Maine because a state due to the Missouri Compromise; Maine did not wish to separate from Massachusetts but Congress needed a free state to balance the slave state of Missouri. 

* Dandelions seem to be the unofficial state flower of Maine and the Maritimes; a “no mow or spray zone” protects these yellow flowers and leaves them for the honey bees. 

* The Bar Harbor-Acadia National Park area during the 1870-1905 era for the summer “cottages” of the wealthy….. mansions of 100 rooms or more. 

* Bar Harbor was first named Eden by an Englishman who named it after himself; changed to Bar Harbor when mariners realized there was a sand bar between the two islands visible only at low tide. 

* Only 15% of Maple Syrup comes from Maine/New England; 85% comes from the Canadian Maritimes….. hence the Sugar Maple leaf on Canada’s flag. 

 “Spokane Flour Mills once shipped its wares all over the world” began an article in the Spokesman Review, 22 Jul 1972 by Jan Chrisman. “It closed shop last week after 80 years of operation.” The 3-column article detailed the long and convoluted history of the mill. A shorter summary was found on the Spokane Historical website, an article by Jesse Roberts: (Photo from 1928)

The city of Spokane began as a small cluster of buildings on the south side of the falls, focused around saw mills and and later flour mills. This is why the city was originally named Spokane Falls. After the 1889 fire had burned much of the city it was decided to build a new mill on the north side of the falls.

The mill was finished in 1895 but it wasn’t put into operation until 1900. The reason for the delay was lawsuit over ownership of the mill. The previous owner, Simon Oppenheimer, went bankrupt and went off the grid. The ownership of this mill passed to James Glover and a series of complex lawsuits between him, the city of Spokane and a Dutch financial firm named Kantoor soon ensued. Eventually Kantoor won the suits and the mill was able to enter operation. This was one of the most spectacular and complex lawsuits in Spokane history.

The mill worked regularly until 1972 when it, after many years of service, closed its doors. This was not the end of the Flour Mill though. Soon, in 1973 the mill was converted into a shopping center in preparation for EXPO ‘74. This was one of the first examples in Spokane of a historic building being preserved and reused for a new function. Its location was directly next to the north entrance to the EXPO, which got it much publicity during the EXPO. It contains many interesting little shops including Tobacco World and Olde Joe Clark’s Photography Studio which have been there since it was converted. At first, much of the original equipment was left in place, but was later removed.

DONNA:  Also Clinkerdagger’s  restaurant is there now!

The Flour Mill serves as a reminder of the industrial origins of Spokane and of the importance of water power throughout the history of Spokane. Its conversion to a shopping center has maintained the location’s viability while allowing it to continue to serve as a reminder of the city’s history.

I photographed this poster in the famous CNN Tower in Toronto, Canada. Doesn’t it make your mouth water? Even if it does look impossible to pick up!!   So what’s the history of the good old American backyard BBQ staple, the hamburger??  There was pages of information resulting from consulting Google; I suggest you might go read some for yourself. Here are some bits:

WIKIPEDIA: Considerable evidence suggests that either the United States or Germany (the city of Hamburg) was the first country where two slices of bread and a ground beef patty were combined into a “hamburger sandwich” and sold, it really boils down to who was able to prove it and not hearsay. There is some controversy over the origin of the hamburger because its two basic ingredients, bread and beef, had been prepared and consumed separately for many years in different countries before their combination. Shortly after its creation, the hamburger quickly included all of its currently typically characteristic trimmings, including onions, lettuce, and sliced pickles.1885  —  “National Birth of the Burger Day” is celebrated on September 18 to honor the invention of the burger in 1885 at the Hamburg Fair.Who invented the beef hamburger?First, the Library of Congress agrees it was Louis Lassen who invented the burger when he put scraps of ground between slices of bread for fast, easy eating.The ancestor of the modern hamburger arrived at American shores in the 19th Century when German immigrants brought with them a dish called Hamburg style beef, which, in turn, had been brought to Hamburg from Russia some time around the 14th Century. It was in America that this raw, chopped piece of beef would evolve over time to become the succulent patty sandwiched in a bun that we call a hamburger.

Now, it has been established that the development of the hamburger took place in America around the turn of the last century, but there is great dispute over what happened after the German patty arrived in America.

And I leave you to study it out for yourself………. after you wipe your fingers and chin from eating that hamburger!!

This is a continuation not of Alexandra Rain’s article but a parallel article.  This bit is from the Sept/Oct 2020 issue of YourGenealogyToday magazine, an article by T.S. Davis titled “What I’m Looking For.” I quote from his article:

“It is an odd obsession, and people who are not consumed by it can’t understand why we don’t focus on our own lives at the least instead of scouring the internet and tramping around graveyards on the weekend, or why we don’t worry more about what’s going to happen to our family than what already has happened. There’s no good retort to this argument. But I will say this: the past is as unpredictable as the future, but unlike the future, the past is discoverable, and often a lesson can be learned that prepares us for the future. And also, a person’s unique personality and struggle in life, their contribution to the human experience, is not forgotten until the past person who knew and loved them is gone. Until that happens, something can still be learned from them. And even when they finally are forgotten, some future obsessed descendant like me may come along and discover them all over again and appreciate them for the interesting life of anonymity that they lived.”

“Most of us would like to be remembered ourselves, so we do our fair share of remembering. Finally, there is the desire of practically everyone not to feel alone in this present moment. We want to be part of a tradition, a family that struggled and failed, or succeeded, and struggled again, a family that somehow, inexplicably and miraculously, led to us in this present moment. Because it somehow validates what we’re going through and gives us the strength to continue.”

Read recently an article by Alexandra Rain in the April 2023 issue of Deseret Magazine and was fascinated by her ideas.  I quote from her article:

“The urge to document our lives is not new,” Rain wrote. “Humans have been documenting themselves for as long as we’ve had the ability to do so. The first known “selfie” dates to about 40,000 years ago when a person pressed their hand to a cave wall and sloshed it in red paint. A more modern “selfie” is “Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk,” drawn on paper by Leonardo DaVinci in 1510. Across the millennia, we have painted ourselves, carved likenesses of ourselves and sculpted ourselves.”

“In 1839, a Parisian named Louis DaGuerre invented a technique that would hand self-portraits over to the masses. The daguerreotype captured images on a device that could be carried anywhere. After World War II, 35mm cameras became accessible to ordinary families. A decade later, disposable point-and-shoot camera were the rage. Camera sales grew until 2010 when more than 120-million were sold globally.”

“Camera phone changed the game. There are now an estimated 1.5-billion iPhone owners worldwide (documenting themselves)! We post baby pictures, graduation pictures, wedding pictures and even our meals. (And certainly our gardens, pets and travels!!) “

“So why do we all want to record our own images? Quoting Joe Marotta, a photog and emeritus art professor at the University of Utah, who quoted Louis DaGuerre as saying, “Now my immortality is guaranteed.” Meaning he would be remembered and relevant beyond his time on earth. Marotta said, “The photograph in a sense extends our mortality.”

“Grandmas who did scrapbooks of photos and beg the indulgence of grandchildren to sit and learn, didn’t do it for herself,” wrote Rain,” but for the living so we can remember.”

Continues with Part 2 next………………