Director's Report
October 12, 2021 marks the official sunset date for the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership. The authorizing legislation that created the CVNHP requires that the U.S. federal funding for most National Heritage Areas end after an initial 15-year period of federal support.
LCBP and CVNHP Director Eric Howe
We are fortunate to have the support of our four U.S. Senators—Leahy and Sanders of Vermont and Schumer and Gillibrand of New York—who introduced new legislation earlier this year to re-authorize the CVNHP for another 15 years. The continuing resolution passed by the U.S. Congress at the end of September allows for the National Heritage Areas that are scheduled to sunset October 12th to continue operations through December 3, 2021, in anticipation of continued federal funding support. The CVNHP has come a long way in the past 15 years, and we have a lot more to do. Thank you to our congressional delegation for your support!
October 18: Clean Water Act Knowledge Café
Photo: Rachel Hamm Vaughan
Next year, the country will mark the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. The Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership (CVNHP) and the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) are spearheading efforts to mark this important milestone in our region. The CVNHP will host a knowledge café on Monday, October 18th at 10:00 a.m. to identify opportunities to commemorate the Act.
The virtual meeting will begin with remarks on the 1972 Clean Water Act by Chris Korleski, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office. The meeting features a keynote presentation by Dr. Brendan Wiltse, of the Adirondack Watershed Institute: “The Clean Water Act: Progress and Challenges in the Lake Champlain Basin.”
The knowledge café breakout discussions will focus on how partners can collaborate in marking the watershed date, explore what educational programs and interpretive materials are needed for 2022, and brainstorm on how we should market the 50th anniversary.
“The knowledge café is a great opportunity to not only learn about the progress we’ve made as a nation in cleaning up our waterways, and Lake Champlain in particular,” said LCBP and CVNHP Director Eric Howe, “but it brings together historians, scientists, interpreters, and educators to discuss how we can emphasize the importance of clean water, celebrate how far we’ve come, and focus on next steps for clean water policy nationally and in the region.”
Register for the Meeting Via Zoom on October 18, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.
“the very existence of what we know as freedom”
Diagram of the Battle of Valcour Island by William Faden, 1776. Photo: Fort Ticonderoga Museum.
Lake Champlain, October 1776
Control of Lake Champlain had become a key element in the plans of both British and American policymakers in second summer of the American War for Independence. With 13,000 British and German troops under General Sir Guy Carleton waiting to move south from Canada and a badly outnumbered army at Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence serving as the rebels’ northern line of defense, naval dominance on the lake was a major goal.
Read the complete blog by John Krueger →
Chair of the LCBP Heritage Area Program Advisory Committee.
Vermont African American Heritage Trail Guide Published
A brochure published this summer guides visitors to African American heritage sites in Vermont and New York.
The ALANA Community Organization/Vermont Partnership for Fairness & Diversity used a 2020 CVNHP Making of Nations interpretive theme grant to upgrade and distribute promotional materials for the Vermont African American Heritage Trail (VAAHT). Three sites in New York complement the guide’s 12 heritage sites and 15 historical markers in Vermont.
“Vermont has an array of African American heritage sites, ranging from the well-preserved Underground Railroad site in Ferrisburgh, to a train car in Manchester that interprets the Pullman Porters, to the Grafton homestead of Daisy Turner, who was interviewed by Ken Burns for his Civil War documentary,” said Vermont State Historic Preservation Officer Laura V. Trieschmann, a key partner in the project. “The Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership’s grant allowed us to broaden the list of significant sites and partners into New York, which has generated greater interest in the African American story.”
The project also revised and updated educational and promotional materials for sites along the VAAHT to encourage learners of all ages to understand the significant impact the fight for civil rights has had on Vermont, the broader CVNHP region, the country, as well as those involved in the movement. The guide can be accessed online and hard-copies of the brochure are available at partner sites.
Cover of the Vermont African American Heritage Trail brochure.
Work on the Gunboat Spitfire Continues
Photo: Lake Champlain Maritime Museum
The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM) continues to study the gunboat Spitfire, which sank after the October 11, 1776, Battle of Valcour Island. An LCBP-funded underwater survey of the entire lake bottom located the vessel in 1997. The historic wreck was discovered in New York waters, upright with its mast intact and bow cannon in place.
Using a 2021 CVNHP Special Project grant, the LCMM worked with the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command—245 years later, the vessel is still considered part of the U.S. Navy—to develop a special use permit, which allowed Middlebury College to conduct an updated sonar survey of the Spitfire site this summer.
The CVNHP awarded the LCMM a subsequent 2022 Special Program grant that will allow the museum to take photos of the wreck and plan for photogrammetric documentation that will be used to develop 3D models of the gunboat. The grant will also allow the museum to create a Spitfire resource web portal, develop an engineering plan to mitigate mast entanglement during in-water documentation/excavation, host public presentations and social media engagement for the project, and compile a full permit proposal submitted to U.S. Navy for future work.
Lake George Historical Association Museum Protects and Enhances Collection
The Lake George Historical Association (LGHA) inventoried, catalogued, and protected thousands of artifacts and ephemera thanks to a 2020 CVNHP Collections Grant. The award allowed the LGHA to inventory 5,000 artifacts in a database accessible to the public. Artifacts were catalogued, organized, and stored in proper archival containers to allow for ease of location and to improve their lifespan. The LGHA also installed treatments to the museum windows in the main exhibit room to protect documents, artifacts and historical fabrics from harmful UV rays.
Visitors can experience a new interpretive narrative developed for the volunteer docents as they lead tours of the museum. The tour also includes a new exhibit for a 15th century dugout canoe. “The LGHA did an amazing job with this $7,500 grant,” said Jim Brangan, CVNHP Assistant Director. “The museum, right in the center of Lake George Village, is a gem that does an amazing job conserving and interpreting their unique collection.”
Photo: Lake George Historical Association
Bixby Library Repatriates Native American Remains
In addition to its work as a traditional library, Vergennes’ Bixby Memorial Free Library serves as a repository for local, regional, and national cultural material dating from the pre-contact era to the mid-twentieth century.
This year, Bixby staff were able to build upon previous CVNHP-funded efforts to further develop its collections management plans by submitting inventories and summaries of the Native American artifacts in its custody to the National Park Service. The museum began the lengthy and important process of repatriating and rematriating the ancestors and belongings to their
homelands.
Using a 2020 CVNHP Collections grant, the library completed the entire repatriation and rematriation process for three funerary belongings to a Native group in the Great Plains. The Bixby hopes to continue this work with the more than 200 collection items in consultation with the National Park Service. (Note: the repatriation and rematriation process disallows publishing specifics on locations and description of the artifacts.)
Photo: Bixby Library
Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership
54 West Shore Road
Grand Isle, VT 05458
www.champlainvalleynhp.org
