Introducing Corn Hill Navigation’s “Unlocking the Past Speaker Series”
Happy Birthday Erie Canal! Find out how “Clinton’s Ditch” turned a remote village on the country’s western frontier into America’s first boomtown, and the many reasons we have to celebrate that muddy little ditch’s 200th birthday this year.
This season, in honor of the Erie Canal’s Bicentennial, each Wednesday will feature a different guest expert who will regale passengers with tales and music of the canal. Hop onboard Sam Patch or Riverie to learn more about the canal’s design and construction, its economic impact on our city, its role in spreading ideas and social movements, and the people who lived, worked, and traveled on the canal.
- Hear the music and instruments that reflected the life and culture of the canal
- Step into the shoes of an Irish immigrant traveling through a strange new land aboard a packet boat
- Learn the military and strategic uses of the canal
- Examine the role the canal played in resistance to slavery and the Underground Railroad
- Explore the ecological change that occurred when a waterway was carved across the state
- Find out about the intersection of alcoholic spirits and the Erie Canal
Unlocking the Past Speaker Series cruises take place on Riverie on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. and on Sam Patch on Wednesdays at 4:00 p.m. Check out the speaker schedule for both Riverie (docked at Corn Hill Landing in downtown Rochester) and Sam Patch (docked at Schoen Place in Pittsford) at cornhillnav.org.
Book a Speaker Series Tour:
- Click Here to Book a Speaker Series Tour on Riverie
- Click Here to Book a Speaker Series Tour on Sam Patch
Interested in attending four or more Speaker Series cruises? A discount is available for packages of four cruises of your choice.
Our first speaker of the series will be Nancy Uffindell, expert tour guide from the Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery. She will provide a riveting presentation about our neighbors to the south – the permanent residents of Mount Hope Cemetery. Nancy has spent years investigating owners of basins and boat yards, boat captains, construction workers, business owners, and travelers who had strong connections to the Canal and are now buried in the cemetery. Nancy will present on Riverie at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday June 11 and will repeat her presentation on July 9, August 13, and September 10.
Make it a surf and turf combo! Mount Hope Cemetery will host an Erie Canal-focused walking tour on Sunday, September 14 at 3:30 p.m. Mount Hope Cemetery, one of the most remarkable Victorian cemeteries in America, is a magnificent 196 acres of lofty hills and picturesque valleys created by glaciers and transformed into a beautiful historic cemetery. A diversified forest of trees forms an arboretum shading thousands of marble, bronze, and granite monuments. The cemetery is a veritable museum of funerary sculpture and mausoleums spanning more than a century and a half. Cemetery tour tickets are available on the Friends of Mount Hope website.