Freighter commemorates Lake Champlain’s heritage

ABOARD THE LOIS McCLURE — The Lake Champlain shoreline creeps by from the deck of the Lois McClure. The vessel wasn’t built for speed, it was built to commemorate the commercial heritage that linked New York City, Buffalo, and Montreal to the Champlain Valley.

The 19th-century Lake Champlain schooners it’s based on would sail past the same rocky New York cliffs and green Vermont peninsulas. But the boat — a replica — is crewed by summer volunteers, not families that made a living moving cargo.

And now the Lois, as it’s known to its crew, is playing a new role as international ambassador: The boat is the flagship of the 400th anniversary of the European discovery of Lake Champlain and the Hudson River valleys.

Last week, the Lois left its home port at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Ferrisburgh, Vt., and headed north, down the Richelieu River on its way to Quebec City, where it will take part in a weeklong celebration next month of the July 3, 1608 founding of the city, the first permanent French settlement in North America.

After that the Lois will spend a month heading home, stopping at ports on the St. Lawrence and Richelieu rivers, offering Canadian visitors a glimpse of history.

“The boat is a time machine. We’ve seen the way it almost magically transforms people from the present to the past almost as soon as they step aboard the deck and start looking around,” said Art Cohn, executive director of the museum. “They realize they’ve just traveled some place.”

Next year, the Lois will again travel the waters of Quebec, Vermont and New York to celebrate the 1609 explorations of Lake Champlain and the Hudson River by separate European explorers.

It was coincidence that French explorer Samuel de Champlain and English explorer Henry Hudson made their voyages within weeks of each other. In the summer of 1609, Champlain canoed south into the lake that now bears his name from the St. Lawrence River.

About six weeks after he left, Hudson made his way up the river that now bears his name.

The Canadian government and Province of Quebec are spending at least $150 million for events and major infrastructure improvements as part of this year’s celebration. The state of New York is spending about $3 million, the National Park Service about $500,000 (including about $100,000 to help pay the $300,000 cost of the voyage of the Lois) and this year the state of Vermont is spending $50,000 for the Quadricentennial celebrations.

“They see this as a major cultural anniversary, it’s very profound for the province and the country,” Cohn said. “They are clearly making a really big deal about it.”

Cohn said he’d like there to be more money, but he isn’t dwelling on the lack of resources. Rather, he’s thrilled the Lois was invited to Quebec.

“It’s a real opportunity to highlight this linked history through time and to talk about the past and talk about how we want to live on these waterways in the future,” Cohn said.

Vermont Tourism Commissioner Bruce Hyde said planning for next year’s events is still going on. More federal funds are possible, and private fundraising is going on as well.

“Could we use more money? Absolutely,” Hyde said. “We’ve got an awful lot going on.”

By WILSON RING

Associated Press