History

In December, we received Dan Denney’s "Through the Ice - a Tale of Survival". Not only does he explain how dangerous it can be to drive on river and/or lake ice, he gives us techniques for survival which he had to learn the hard way! January's issue also presents history, photographs and more...

Imagine asking the US residents on Washington Island, in Clayton, NY, to change the island’s name back to its original: ...

The Thousand Islands Navy, or the Admiralty as it is known by some, was established in 1940 by W. Grant Mitchell, my gre...

Remington died of appendicitis in 1909 at the age of 48. Theodore Roosevelt...

It’s time to head north. I get emails from non-River friends all the time asking, “When are you going back to the cabin ...

The decade of the 1920s is well remembered as a time of rapid growth in the American economy and the development of pers...

Now That We’re Here, Where Will We Stay? Some people collect postcards or stamps but my efforts  turned to acquiri...

"Enough of that! Now for the really thrilling news... I soloed on Sunday, April 29! Yip, I SOLOed!

Among boaters that enjoy using their vintage craft frequently, Lyman boats seem to hold a very unique position. Many woo...

During the summer of 1912, Ralph Britton of Gananoque, Canada’s foremost canoe expert, had won every sailing race of the...

My father, Keith Taylor loved to talk about the early TIA days. He was one of the original boaters who attended the Augu...

“...the burning of the Sir Robert Peel Steamer, by a band of masked villains – [was] outdoing the worst deeds of the worst ...

The memories most dear to me are the times I spent with my Grandfather. He was so proud to show-off his first born grandson to the River captain community in the 'Burg...

So what's different? Who out there remembers the 1000 Islands from the 60's and can compare it to today? Let me take a stab at it...

Since 2004 my family and I have been visiting our secret garden cottage retreat, on the shores of the Thousand Islands R...

Island residents face their toughest winter in years. The ferry Wolfe Islander operates on an erratic schedule because o...

It’s estimated that around 5 million people in Canada and 20 million people in the United States are of Scottish decent....

In the fall of 1940 officials from the United States Defense Department made a quiet trip to Alexandria Bay, NY. It was ...

Early in September, 1927 a steam-powered barge appeared on the water off Snowshoe Point near Henderson Harbor in eastern...

My father-in-law used to joke that the most expensive piece of artwork he owned was the wooden blue heron that sat on th...

My thanks go to Brian Winter, the archivist for the Whitby Ontario Library for sharing this 1927 Toronto Daily Star arti...

In the early 1900s, long deck launches became the boats of choice among well-to-do summer residents on the lakes and riv...

My grandfather, Thomas Mitchell (1913-1990), told me many stories about life on the river during the winter months. Many...

One of the little known historic sites on the Canadian mainland is the area around Sheriff’s and Lindsay’s Points west o...

I love looking at photographs of the Thousand Islands. In fact, I can never get enough of them, so when I learned that D...

The date was February 1838. Action in the Upper Canadian rebellion had abated on Navy Island on the Niagara River and ha...

You can see the utter joy on their faces as children of the congregation come forward to ring the chapel. Lots of childr...

His name has become quite familiar in the Thousand Islands in recent years even though he hasn't been there in almost a ...

There are times in one’s life when the stars seem to be in alignment and maybe this to be one of those times.  It i...

In December I won an auction on eBay – a pewter “Trophy Cup”. Once again...

Editor’s Note: Congratulations to all Grenell Island residents – past and present -  who participated in the island...

As we approach the holiday season it is appropriate to reflect on our circumstances that might otherwise be taken for gr...

Who? George Rockwell? Never heard of him! No, it doesn’t surprise me as he flew under my radar for a while. Let me star...

“There’s just gott’a be a better way to earn a living than this!” Grant ‘Lindy’ Lucy, machine operator at Parmenter &am...

. . . Here I am again, sitting in my car on the Prescott/Ogdensburg international bridge, waiting in a line of traffic. ...

The history detectives at the Leeds and the Thousand Islands Archives (LTIArchives) are hard at work, constantly in search of their quarry.

Had enough of The War of 1812? Not really? Good, because I feel the same way. Ever since the Kingston Historical Soci...

 Anne and Charles Phillips honeymooned in the Thousand Islands in 1929. Before they left, the bride of a Methodist ...

Bounce! Bounce! PLOP! And the phone was gone. It was a blustery day and the river was so rough my husband changed to car...

“I don’t like your stupid old river!” blurted a little boy to his parents making the nighttime crossing by boat from a dance hall in Clayton, N.Y.,

Surfing the internet one day, I landed on a 1000-Island tourist attraction and found myself staring into the picture of ...

It was September 21, 1812 - 200 years ago, the first shots on the St. Lawrence River frontier rang out in Gananoque. &#...

When you live on an island, boats are important. In the early days, most people got to and from the island via a steamer...

Lovely, home-built and all-aluminum the Thousand Islander queens it over Gananoque’s seaway. Alcan News, No. 6, 1972 W...

No I’m not talking about making a new dive site by sinking a ship with a rocket. I am talking about a lost shipwreck tha...

“No story of a small privately-owned firm such as Mitchell & Wilson Ltd. can be...

The history of every legendary figure includes tall tales, deliberate embellishments, and apocrypha. Bill Johnston, the ...

Temagami Island   I am in Chippewa Bay 10 miles below Alexandria Bay. Seven miles wide here and blows like hell ev...

The American lighthouses of the Thousand Islands have fared better than their Canadian counterparts over the years. Of t...

2012 marks the 175th anniversary of the 1837/38 Upper Canadian Rebellions. This is a chapter in that story which has a F...

I’ve always held a fascination with history, especially along the river. Whether it was the wreck of the Riverside near the rift...

Bob kicked the clod of earth that had covered the artifacts and out fell a brass tag that was about two and a half inches...

If you cruise by Grenell Island after dark this month, you might notice something special. Grenell Island is glowing wit...

Grenellians have an intense attachment to the old launch "That’s Her". For me, the stories make her seem larger...

I happened to meet a fellow the other day who asked what I did with my time. I told him that I had the privilege of bein...

The 3-ring, leather, binder is the best “read” I have had in many years. Neither a novel or a piece of non-fiction it is...

During my first week on the island, July, 1975, I went to the Grenell Island Store/Post Office to mail postcards home to...

If Minna Anthony Common had a Rock Ridges Trail blog I would have had it bookmarked, or better yet I would have pinned i...

A kitchen party in the 1950s, rural Canada. A small, tightly-knit, stable, island community in the mouth of the St Lawre...

Gone in 5 minutes… Every story I’ve heard about fire on the islands usually had the phrase…it was gone in 5 minutes. ...

Chapman Shoal is located between Round Island and Pine (AKA: Beckwith) Island in the St. Lawrence River downriver from C...

Author's Note: I first met Mary Hewitt in the summer of 2010 and interviewed her several times near Rockport at her ma...

If there is one thing that Grenell Island does not need, it’s more numbers. There are Lot Numbers, Fire Numbers and the ...

Her name is Zipper and she's one of the most active classic commuters in North America. During the past twenty-seven yea...

Early postcard scenes of the Canadian Thousand Islands published by the Detroit Photographic Co.

I live a long way from the Thousand Islands but my quest to discover who designed my home in Worcester, Massachusetts le...

The citizens of Round Island are gathering at the dockside post office under a sapphire blue sky on a Sunday afternoon i...

“How many cottages are on the island?” This is usually the first question I’m asked when I begin to describe life on Gr...

What you see is a photograph from 1965 of the Pot Pourri plying the St. Lawrence River with a Dodge Motor Home

James Churchward, who lived from 1851 to 1936,  wrote a series of books on the Lost Continent of Mu  , in whic...

If you collect Thousand Islands memorabilia, my guess is that your first purchase might have been a postcard.

"Show Girl" is the name of a pristine vintage launch that was built in the shop of the Hutchinson Brothers Boat Works in 1921

The 1876 St. Lawrence River Chart No 6, drawn by the US Army Corps of Engineers, listed a wreck off Washington Island in...

Orders were received for the Dunn Motor Works vehicle from as far away as India and China.

There is, probably, no steam yacht on the St. Lawrence River that brought more delight to passengers, or spectators, tha...

In 1838, William "Pirate Bill" Johnston served as admiral in the rebel forces that repeatedly attacked Upper Canada, and...

One hundred years ago, 14 April 1912 the RMS Titanic sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic, 1,514 perished. Consi...

A Gananoque businessman and sailor who loved to explore the St. Lawrence River

From my very first summer on the River, I’ve heard the story about Harry Chalk and his tin cup. Harry was the intrepid c...

Frank Eames would be called an “amateur historian” which is why his role is not well recognized.

The Wheelock family began selling china in Wisconsin..

After Johnston and a small band of men destroyed the Peel, the Thousand Islands became ground zero for a costly bi-national manhunt.

We finished last. We’d learned about starting, spinnakers that the Lightnings could deploy downwind, and how to get around the course without fouling.

Carolyn Pratt spent summers as a young girl with her family on Mudlunta Island just a pebble's toss away from Kitsymenie...

I probably have a dozen things with the word Grenell on them: t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, rain jackets, canvas bags and...

The magnificent launch was completed on schedule as promised. Wela Ka Hao met Col. Wilber's expectations so completely that it became his principle boat for the next twenty-five summer seasons.

From the moment the anchor emerged dripping from the waters of the St. Lawrence River, the twelfth grade students of Tho...

I had no idea as to its value and asked the dealer the price. She held up two fingers but did she mean two dollars, twenty dollars or two hundred dollars?

Before my first visit to Grenell in 1975, my then fiancé - now husband, Gary, showed me the lot map of Grenell drawn in ...

Some good things start with death. When my father's Uncle Luther died in October 1952, Big Bob was glum. "You’d’ve like...

The summer of 1904 proved to be the debut in quantity of the gasoline launch in the Thousand Islands. The Syracuse Post ...

"Garden Island grew from merely a dot in the wilderness to be the home of hundreds - it made a bit of history all its ow...

From the day the Grenell Island Community House was dedicated in 1934, the southwest corner room was designated as a lib...

The warm spring sun reflected brilliantly off the freshly varnished woodwork as Jack Preston guided his brand new blue a...

When my wife, Prudence, and I began to collect, we didn’t understand or recognize the value of glass and consequently le...

The trek to the post office to retrieve the mail is a daily ritual on Grenell. It’s rarely a straight shot there and bac...

It ended up being a love story of sorts. When one of my coworkers mentioned that her sister-in-law’s family was responsi...

This story first appeared in the Kingston Whig-Standard as: “1946: End of the ferry crises” on November 17, 2006. The tr...

Frank Cole, long time resident of Murray Isle, was a friend to many and a father who loved to share his memories with his family. This story is just one of many...

Mix well: Seven months and $400,000. Add one motel owner, a lawyer and partner with a small boat company. Strain and pre...

Located near the foot of the island, just down the sidewalk from the Grenell Island Chapel, stands the heart of Grenell—...

Jack Norris became ‘chief engineer’ of the Gananoque Boat Line after spending a lifetime at sea. Standing head and shoul...

During the early to mid-1900’s, Alexandria Bay’s boat building and repair business included several machine shops. My fa...

Dr. Douglas J. Pippin, Star Carter,  and I are standing on the embankment at Fort Haldimand, a British Fort built o...

Louise Gaylor Cooke deserves special recognition for her dedication in preserving the history of Point Vivian.  We ...

In the Gilded Age, as now, American’s love sports; hotels, clubs, and communities had teams. The Thousand Islands region...

“Most people only dream of living to the age of 100,” she begins. “Our Gramp planned on it...

It was love at first sight. They were married July 28th, 1908 on the Magedoma,

In the 1980s, while working at St. Lawrence Islands National Park, I became involved with the writing of the history of ...

June 1904 marked the beginning of the Gold Cup Races, considered power boat racing’s ultimate contest in North America a...

Andrew Keech, and his young family, settled on a farm near Clayton, New York, around 1830, thus continuing more than 150...

I am in search of Mary “Molly” Brant, Mohawk woman of the American Revolution. Her journey once took her to Fort Haldima...

In July 2011, TI Life published a book review of Saints, Sinners and Sailors of the Gilded Age: A compendium of biograph...

It was famously dubbed the Castle of Mysteries by the New York Times more than a century ago and today it still holds mo...

Enterprising, accomplished, and a passionate champion for the Thousand Islands, Leonard Stratford is literally on top of...

“Saints, Sinners & Sailors of the Gilded Age”, by Rexford M. Ennis and Archeophone Records presents "The High Priestess of Jollity & The Southern Singer."

    In Wolfe Island’s hour of need for means of transportation...

Cangarda, the century-old luxury yacht that once sailed the St. Lawrence River  as Senator George T. Fulford's Mage...

Each stroke of the huge paddles brought forth a series of creaks and groans from the ancient timbers below... But the we...

For almost 150 years, the photos of Alexander Carson McIntyre, or A.C. as he was known, have been telling the story of the early history of the 1000 Islands as it became a tourist destination.

It was just before 5:30 am on June 11th when Captain Charles Dyon of the Windsolite heard the warning whistles amidst th...

George C. Boldt, who famously built a castle for his beloved bride on Heart Island in what would become the most tragic ...

“You know,” he began, “I’ve worked on all three ‘Wolfe Islanders’.

The first Christian denomination on Grindstone was known as Christian Order founded by elder Jason McKee of Stone Mills ...

I love the internet! It seems that not a day goes by without me marveling at the vast array of information that is avail...

Sporting a weathered Commodore's cap to Sugar Island's opening encampment ceremonies complete with traditional bugle pla...

Dennis McCarthy inspects one of the frames of the "Iroquoise" in 80 feet of water off Niagara Shoal.

Part II of a two-part biography of Henry R. Heath, a pioneer promoter of the Thousand Islands.  This is the second ...

I dug into the family archives and found some more great pictures of interesting and memorable boats that plied both the American..

In December 2010, The Finger Lakes Chapter of the Antique Classic Boating Society published this article written by Tony...

It's one of the most familiar landmarks off the shores of Clayton, visible from the quaint village's waterfront patios a...

What a thrill it was when a package arrived recently from a man I had never met, Bill Schroeder. The envelope contained ...

100 Years Ago:  “The familiar sound of a put-put from the vicinity of Washington Island caused people to look at on...

Having grown up in Gananoque I was introduced to the joys of boating on the St. Lawrence River at an early age. My Dad, ...

Rex Ennis, local historian and author of Toujours Jeune Always Young: Thousand Islands, Emery and The New Frontenac Hote...

Pullman Island stands for everything that was grand about the Thousand Islands during its gilded era a century ago and a...

Very few of the boaters who stop by Van’s Motor Marine in Alexandria Bay have any idea that they are docking at one of t...

The history of the Thousand Islands is littered with the tales of fishing and the big one that got away. Samuel Sondheim...

Women stayed in their own camp from five o’clock in the afternoon ...

Some islands have names with stories that are just meant to be told. This little known Thousand Island off the shores of...

Who knows the correct answer? If you are a “subscriber” to TI Life, then from November to April, Canadian photographer ...

When the Craft School opened in 1966 there were 44 students learning the art of handweaving on looms either purchased or...

Julius Mendel Breitenbach or as he was known in 1928 “Santa Claus of the Thousand Islands,” was born in December 1890.&#...

One of the best known and longest operating boat building businesses on the St. Lawrence River is Hutchinson Boat Works, Inc.

Sightseeing flights over the islands were very popular. People loved to do the unusual, talk about it and maybe get their names in the paper.

A well-recognized structure among the islands is The Thousand Islands Bridge, operated by The Thousands Islands Bridge A...

My brother and I spent every summer weekend on Calumet Island in the 1960s...

Tuesday 3 May 1898 the First National Bank of Carthage did not open its doors for business. Why had the directors posted...

Looking up the history of Hill Island's Lot #7 we discovered monsters and murderers...

My earliest recollection of "River Runner", our spectacular 1926 Hutchinson Brothers sedan, was of a gray painted work

Edwin A. Link could fix most any machine, but all he really wanted to do, was fly...

Our 1902 St Lawrence Skiff “Bobby” was my salvation as a teenager. It was 1961 and our cottage on Comfort Island was easy rowing distance from Alexandria Bay, NY.

When I met Anthony (Tony) Mollica at a recent gathering, I told him that I...

Tucked in a corner of Sackets Harbor is a reminder of our military heritage, and of the generations of veterans who live...

The sinking was first reported to police by Mrs. Walter Wells. “It was a great boom which woke me up. Then we began to hear people

What’s in a Building? Bricks, mortar and a lot of wood. But the Gananoque Canoe Club (GCC), now known as the Thousand Is...

Readers of TIL are aware that one hundred and sixty Patriots were taken prisoner at the Battle of the Windmill near Pres...

Baguettes, berets, French pastries, Canada's flag flying while “O’Canada” is being belted out from a singer on a main st...

It was one of those “hot summer days” when I first watched Thousand Island Park Now and Then.  The thirty-minute DV...

The nine passenger single engine plane chartered from Carson Air in Toronto picked up a newlywed couple who had spent th...

Louis Richards wrote, "It is a chapter in the story ...

The Central New York winter season has become my model building time. Several models have been built for collectors...

Under the probation system, prisoners were awarded tickets of leave (a form of probation) for good conduct following two years of hard labour. Many of the Patriots received

  On the night of Tuesday, May 29, 1838 between 12 and 1 o’clock one of the inmates of the ladies cabin on the S...

Let’s settle the nagging question of which came first: the name or the fiddler?

A new book by Rex Ennis...

Betsey Fitch of Rutland, NY was given Lot 16. Lots 19 and 20 were sold to William Wells of Augusta, Upper Canada for a total of $1,340.00.

Henry R. Heath was one of the visionary builders of the Gilded Age. However, Heath was not always destined ...

“Number please?” “Hello... Hello Mabel?” the female voice on the other end of the line was near panic. “Can you get Doctor Regan?

Charles S. Graham was an itinerant, self taught sketch artist born 1852 in Illinois.

I captained the old Snider 1000 Islands tour boats from 1978 to 1980...

One can’t discuss boat builders in the Thousand Islands without talking about Joseph Leyare.

After finishing a documentary DVD, a book, and then an updated version of our movie, we were pretty sure that we had com...

In 1867 the Marquess of Queensbury brought structure to the sport of prize fighting. These rules instituted the three mi...

The Darlingside store is located on the St. Lawrence  River, east of the Thousand Island Bridge, on the Canadian sh...

"...My parents remembered Alexandria Bay when it was only a “wooding station: where boats landed for fuel.

In the February issue of Thousand Islands Life Magazine we introduced Howard Pyle, one of North America’s premier illust...

The island road twists through a series of snake-like turns and suddenly there it is - Thousand Island Park- a bit of Am...

Flags abound in the islands. At Grenell Island’s July 2009 regatta, participants were asked to count the flags as they p...

The second in a series on illustrators of the Thousand Islands.

Part XII and final chapter of Kristen Pinkney's research

When the St. Lawrence River freezes over, one mode of transportation is by “ice boat” or “air boat”, as they are called ...

It wasn’t used and it took up too much space. Yet, chopping it up with an ax and burning it was not an option.

Well today is the fourth of July. I have had a delightful day.

The capitalists, the builders of our country, made the Thousand Islands their playground in what we call today the “Gold...

Captain Leath Davis can trace his Wolfe Island roots to the pioneer Hitchcock family who obtained a charter to start a ferry service to Kingston from Wolfe Island.

"Tidd’s Island: a History of its People and Their Stories" was published in July of 2009

Last night we had a delightful serenade. I wonder who it was. He passed the Island five times singing...

By the time I first arrived on Grenell Island in 1975, my husband’s family had already been on the Point, for nearly a h...

It is so beautiful here now nice and pleasant just like

“I am very concerned with the welfare of the steamer Edmund Fitzgerald."[New feature,now available in an audio version, written by Brian Johnson, Wolfe Island; read by Jan Eliot]

The first Wolfe Island lighthouse was built on the eastern end of the island in 1861...

Tasmania seems like a distant land but for John Carter, Tasmania is a treasure trunk waiting to be opened...

The Pullmans were the first of the islanders to arrive by private railroad car -a sumptuous conveyance, as might be expected of the railroad car builder.

Saw Pansy this am. Took a walk and talked over the affair last night. Did not have our hats on.

“Warning:  Owners of large and medium sized craft, who navigate the St. Lawrence River between Cornwall and Prescot...

In November 1901, Richard Standish Williamson acquired an island in the St. Lawrence River.  Standish, born in 1877...

Mary Lynn Johnston was a Mille Roches girl She had an important chore, while her Mother ran a rooming house And her ...

He wants me to think of him at twelve o’clock and

In 1988 I went to England to carry out research at the National Maritime Archives in Greenwich and the

Down at Zina’s Barber Shop we used to laugh and sing; We’d gather and we’d gossip about everything; we’d talk about the ...

Painted over 40 years before, it is the center line of what once was a two lane highway which ran along the shore of a very different River.

We're not talking "Pony Express", but about a more-personalized mail service than most receive today, a service that is cherished and greatly appreciated.

“No one panicked while they were floundering in the water and scrambling for firm ice. Mothers held their children aloft...

The Thousand Islands Association (TIA) will be holding their annual general meeting on July 25 at the Thousand Islands P...

It was a cold and rainy day on June 1st – but the invitation to meet Mike Franklin, Patricia Tague and Rhea Jenkner and ...

…after four hours of continuous searching bleak coves and small inlets, both groups were almost ready to announce that t...

For over sixty years, “Niagara to the Sea” was one of the most famous travel slogans in North America. The phrase was or...

My family was fortunate to call the Balboa our summer home in the Thousand Islands from 1955 to 2008 and it has served...

What went down in history as the Battle of the Thousand Islands ended when the French and Canadian defenders struck thei...

A  documentary that takes viewers beneath the St. Lawrence River to a wreck at the bottom the Brockville Narrows is...

The tradition of worship in Half Moon Bay began in 1887.  People came from neighbouring islands and from Gananoque ...

In August of 1897, at a meeting of the New York State Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission in Albany a discussion was h...

"Mr. Grey is a beautiful dancer. It is like a dream dancing with him. I wish I knew him better." May Dewey, January 21, ...

Spending the month of August every summer of my youth at my Grandmother's cottage in Thousand Island Park was a child's ...

It started out innocently enough with a cookbook. Then came the song sheets

The year was 1959. The Barbie doll debuted;

The first time we saw the Inn was in spring, on a day bursting with the promise of a fresh season. The grass was almost ...

"I was furious & will tell him what I think of him when we meet again." May Dewey, December 31, 1888.

Whoever controlled the St. Lawrence River controlled Canada. The Americans never cut the lifeline of British supplies during the War of 1812...

Are the remains of Geronimo in the Thousand Islands? The legendary Apache Chief died

Have you seen the terns circling over their nests on the Eagle Wing Shoals? When was the last time you walked the Macshe...

This is the first day of a new month. We all have been hanging around ...

When I was 10 years old, my mother sat me down at her parent’s porch table and showed me her grandmother’s notes written...

In November we received a note from Marnie Ross, a member of the Canadian Thousand Islands Watershed Land Trust, “Would ...

GRENADIER ISLAND: June Hodge was born in a houseboat on the St. Lawrence River.

Our story begins

Rexford M. Ennis is the author of several dissertations on Thousand Islands history; often presented to an appreciative ...

CLAYTON, NY The salad dressing that put this place on the map might have a slight geography Challenge.

Many of the officers who fought in the British campaigns during the War of 1812 are commemorated in the Brock Islands. W...

It is exasperating' said Capt. William FitzWilliam

Throughout the winter, I will provide a number of links to demonstrate how our region of the mighty St. Lawrence River s...

More than a Salad Dressing… Years ago, I met a young medical student and I was telling her about my favourite vacation r...

Thayendanegea’s father, a prominent warrior, died

Obscurity … has hung like a cloud of oblivion over the history of this island

  The saga of navigation on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, in war and peace, is far too vast and rich a ...

  So, as we have seen during two earlier centuries, prior to the nineteenth century, the region already was widely...

Phil Amsterdam, himself an old tour-boat guide and boat-line operator, complains about about sitting on his Cherry Islan...

Standing on the peninsula-like head of Carleton Island ...

  The following presentation has been adapted from an article that appeared in the Thousand Islands Sun Vacationer ...

  In 2006 Paul Malo shared a collection of Carleton Villa photographs.  These historic photographs have been ...