Chapter 11- The River
Lock 11 To Lock 10
Discovery: Amsterdam - Where History Abounds
August 13, 2002, 90's predicted, Partly Cloudy.
History abounds along the Mohawk River in Amsterdam. This was an area where Mohawk Indians gathered to catch fish at the mouths of opposing tributaries, where the Johnson family worked, lived and "ruled", and where waterfalls attracted millwrights who created mills, mills and more mills. Today, despite the most confusing highway intersections in the valley (perhaps in New York State) the river passes through Amsterdam, impeded only by Erie Canal dams at Lock 11 and Lock 10.
Guy Park Manor was built beside the Mohawk River in 1763. Today it's part of the
Lock 11 complex and the home of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.
I asked longtime friend and outdoor writer, Ron Kolodziej
to join me on this discovery trip because he lives in Amsterdam and has
a keen interest in the recreational opportunities and history of the area.
After parking Ron's Explorer at Lock 10 on the south
side of the river, we drove to the north side and parked next to the oldest
house in Amsterdam. Guy Park Manor was built beside the Mohawk River in
1763 by Sir William Johnson for his daughter Mary and her husband Sir Guy
Johnson. Today the limestone manor is located in the Lock 11 complex and
is the home of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.
We dragged the canoe across the lawn to the small
bay at the east end of the lock, and pushed off into the river. It was
9 a.m.
Ron had caught many walleyes and smallmouth bass in this area over the
years, but as he pointed out, "not in the middle of the summer" and added,
"early and late in the season are the best times to fish here." Nevertheless,
we headed upriver to the lock dam, crossed to the south side and fished
the rock wall. While Ron cast a tube jig to the edge of the rocks,
I held the canoe in the current below the dam. We drifted down the rock
wall and riprap until we were opposite the upper end of an island where
a large tree was laying in the water. We crossed to the island and Ron
caught a 3-inch smallmouth bass from under the tree. Ron held up the fish
and suggested I take a photo because it might be the only fish we would
see all day.
. . . . and catches the fish of the day.
We
paddled down the south side of the island towards downtown Amsterdam and
the opposing Chuctanunda Creeks. The North Chuctanunda is the larger tributary
and the site of most of the early mills in Amsterdam. Today its impressive
waterfalls are hidden from view by retaining walls and old buildings, and
the lower section of the stream flows under the city, exiting into the
Mohawk through a stone culvert. The South Chuctanunda flows through South
Amsterdam where it too was an early site of mills. On this hot summer day
there was very little water flowing from either tributary
Painted Rocks was re-created on canvas by historical artist, Rufus
Grider in 1888.
In the early days fish congregated at the mouths
of these streams, and the gravel and rocks the streams deposited in the
river created rapids and islands that also attracted and concentrated fish.
Consequently, the earliest inhabitants camped in this area to harvest fish
during spawning runs. It was also in this area that a sometimes famous,
oft-forgotten, Indian pictograph was once visible on a rock ledge close
to the river.
Dewitt Clinton's 1810 Journal describes a journey
by boat westward along the Mohawk River from Schenectady. An excerpt from
an entry in that journal reads:
"About sixteen miles from Schenectady, we saw, on the left bank of the river, a curious specimen of Indian painting. On an elevated rock was painted a canoe, with seven warriors in it, to signify that they were proceeding on a war expedition. This was executed with red ochre, and has been there for upwards of half a century."
The rock ledge became known as the Painted Rocks
and was re-created on canvas by historical artist, Rufus Grider in 1888.
Recent research by Phil Lord of the NYS Museum pinpoints the location of
the ledge. He documents his discoveries on a webpage called the The
"Painted Rocks" of the Mohawk.
Ron and I paddled by the southside boat launch and
bocce courts at Port Jackson Park and made a few casts into the mouth of
South Chuctanunda Creek. Just downstream, high on the riverbank, is an
abandoned building that Ron said was once a button factory and later a
textile mill.
We crossed over to the north side of the
river to photograph the stone culvert at the mouth of the North Chuctanunda
before passing under the Route 30 Bridge. Ron had heard the Painted Rocks
were in this area but were destroyed when the bridge was constructed.
(I usually prefer to explore, discover and then
research, but this time I should have researched first, because, miraculously,
the rock ledge was not destroyed. I returned a week later to discover and
photograph it.)
Just downstream from the bridge on the north side
of the river an old canal docking area was recently developed into Riverlink
Park that includes boat dockage, a bandstand, restaurants, and a summer
and winter and skating rink.
After
photographing the park, we continued downstream and beached the canoe at
the tip of an island. I didn't know at the time that we had beached the
canoe on the very spot that inspired the Painted Rocks, for it was here
that war parties gathered before embarking in their canoes. Legend has
it that one of these war parties never returned and were remembered and
honored by the pictographs on the Painted Rocks.
We paddled down the southside of the big
island and past two more islands. On the north shore of the river we could
see an old mill that was once a glove factory, and a new mill that makes
corrugated boxes. Just downstream from the new mill is a DEC Boat Launch.
Ron noted that vandals had damaged vehicles parked at this launch recently,
so many locals used the southside launch.
By
11 o'clock it was getting hot. We didn't fish much, casting occasionally
into stream outlets, around the points of islands and near trees lying
in the water. It wasn't until 11:15 that we saw another boat on the river,
and it was a canal workboat.
Around noon the four smokestacks of the old power
plant on the south side of the river came into view. Our discovery trip
was almost over. Ron noted that the power plant building was now owned
by a company that makes cement blocks. We could see piles of them in the
yard near the building.
After fishing below the rusted water gates at
the bottom of the plant, we paddled down to the Lock 10 dam and then paddled
back to the upper end of the docking wall where the water was shallow enough
for us to get out of the canoe safely. There were huge piles of rocks along
the bank, so we had to carry the canoe down the edge of the concrete docking
wall, lifting it now and then to clear the old barge ballards.
When we returned to pick up my vehicle at Guy Park
Manor, it was 96 degrees in the shade. As Ron predicted we didn't catch
another fish all day, but we had enjoyed a run through history.
Return to Painted Rocks
August 20, 2002, 70 degrees, Sun predicted 
Bridget and I stopped at the northside boat launch
at 8:45 a.m., intending to paddle up to the Painted Rocks outcrop. Unfortunately,
it was too cloudy for good picture taking. We returned later that afternoon
when the sun would most likely illuminate the rock face. Despite Ron's
warnings about vandalism and the "Temporarily Closed" sign at the launch,
we carried the canoe to the river and paddled upstream.
pictograph survived the construction of the canal and the railroad.
We discovered the Painted Rocks ledge one-mile
up from the boat launch, a little over a thousand feet down from Riverlink
Park and directly across from the upper end of the big island. It is not
the flat-ended ledge of old. It's rough, eroded and in some places overgrown
with vegetation. Considering the canal was built in front of it and the
railroad built on top of it, it's a miracle the ledge has survived at all.
We photographed the ledge from every angle and returned
to the boat launch. After seeing this historic landmark, and considering
its significance as the site of one of the few Indian pictographs in New
York State, it would seem that some kind of historical marker or kiosk
would add greatly to the understanding of the unique history of Amsterdam
and the Mohawk Valley.
Please Note: Boat Lauch Closed
The launch ramp at Quist Road, just off Route 5 at the eastern edge of Amsterdam. was recently (October 2003) closed and blocked off by DEC. They said it was too steep and that algae often made the ramp too slippery to use. They hope to re-engineer it in the future but with many other projects already on the docket it may be some time before they get to it.
For more information, paintings and photographs of the Painted Rocks, see: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/history/paintedrocks/painted2.html
For more information about the history of Amsterdam see: http://www.rootsweb.com/~nyherkim/amster.html
For more information about present day Amsterdam see: http://www.montgomerycountyny.com/intro.html
Follow the path of this discovery trip by clicking on Mohawk
Valley Maps: by Maptech.
Type Amsterdam, select New York, press GO!
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