The Seaway at 50

We’ve got special coverage coming this week on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. It was a huge project, that changed lives on both sides of the St. Lawrence River. Islands disappeared — villages, farms, homesteads, cemeteries — all under the water rising behind the big Moses Saunders power dam. And it’s recent history…lots of those people whose lives were never the same are still alive. My life wasn’t changed, but my grandmother, Pearl Fincham Vallance was born on Croil’s Island (now mostly underwater) and I remember driving from home near Glens Falls to Massena to catch a glimpse of the island as the river came up. Years later we visited my great aunt Grace on Wilson Hill, in a camp/house that took the place of the house she lived in before it was flooded.
We’ll hear about the “Lost Villages” in two stories this week, Wednesday and Thursday.
Tomorrow we’ll hear about the people who built the massive locks and hydro dam.
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