1000 International Islands on the St. Lawrence Seaway… That’s what the literature says but our tour guide told us that there are closer to 1800, but now I’m getting ahead of myself.
Yesterday we drove up the “Seaway Trail” from Niagara Falls to our campground just short distance west of Clayton, a small village alongside the St. Lawrence River.
Yesterday we drove up the “Seaway Trail” from Niagara Falls to our campground just short distance west of Clayton, a small village alongside the St. Lawrence River.
We were lucky in finding a campground. As long as we only stayed 2 nights we were ok as the weekend was filled. Our weather has really changed. Our drive yesterday was accomplished while driving in and out of a heavy rain storm which had set in the night before and today it’s off and on with a little sun to make an appearance. This morning we drove up to an area called Cape Vincent. It is filled with great homes lining the St. Lawrence River, but we were there to see and explore the Cape Vincent Lighthouse.
The lighthouse is much like those we see along the lakes, but most of them aren’t nearly as well kept as this one. There was one thing that the Cape Vincent Lighthouse had that no other lighthouse on the Great Lakes has, a working Hostel Hotel. The lighthouse and the gift store are run by a local couple. In their agreement to run both of them, all the profits go to the efforts of keeping the lighthouse in good shape. The hostel has a separate agreement but the lady from the gift store didn’t want to talk about it…sounds like there might be a problem between them. On the way back through the little village of Cape Vincent we stopped at Crazy Jacks for lunch. It sits next door to the ferry terminal so we had some extra “entertainment” to enjoy during lunch with.
The ferry travels a short distance of less than two miles with a full load of cars not exceeding 8 across the river to the terminal in Canada. They can’t take anything larger than a small commercial van but all they had today were 5 cars and 3 bicycles. We finished lunch and headed back up the road past Clayton to Alexandria Bay to catch a tour boat that would take us out into the St. Lawrence River for a couple of hours.
It was a tour that would take us around 50 to 60 of the islands and feature some of the most amazing private homes you’ve ever seen. One of those homes (a castle that was designed after a full sized Rhineland-style that is…)
was the gift from millionaire George C. Boldt, who was the proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City to his beloved wife Louise.
This dream was well into the fourth year of construction when George got a cable from New York that Louise had died unexpectedly. For George this was just too much and he stopped construction immediately. He never returned to the castle, which remained vacant for over 73 years. Construction on this 6 story 120 room castle began in 1900. The grounds consisted of Italian gardens, a children’s playhouse,
powerhouse, and across the channel an amazing Yacht House.
Today the castle is owned and operated by the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority and since 1977 has been investing millions of dollars for restoration. There were a lot of homes that didn’t meet the Rhineland Castle description on the river, from modern villas to small 2 room homes that all sat on their own island.
By the way, requirements to be an island here at the 1000+ islands, is that it must have a tree and had never been covered with water, that’s it. We saw one “island” that was about 12’ in diameter but it didn’t have a house on it just a tree... Unfortunately we saw some of the results of the economy even here
…a little damage from a storm that will not be repaired because the ex-owners have walked !!!