New York Almanack

The St. Lawrence River’s ‘Slick of 76’ Oil Spill

North Country Public Radio — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:00:44 +0000

Fifty years ago, on June 23, 1976, a National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) oil tanker ran aground, spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the St. Lawrence River.

The so-called “Slick of ‘76” has become a thing of folklore and a warning of environmental devastation in the Thousand Islands and beyond. It even spawned a musical.

North Country native Emma French wanted to preserve the oral history of that time.

An Intoxicating History of the American Revolution

Editorial Staff — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 15:00:36 +0000

America’s founding generation drank a staggering amount of alcohol by today’s standards. It influenced their politics, built and sustained their relationships, and drove the economy.

Booze was not a small part of colonial society, nor covertly consumed in private spaces — it was integral to American life.

Americans in the era of the American Revolution drank an average of nearly 3.7 gallons of hard liquor per person annually, compared to modern averages of about 2.5 gallons.

Peggy Shippen Arnold: Wife of the Famous Traitor

Clare Sheridan — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 13:00:37 +0000

The latest episode of the Crossroads of Rockland History turns attention to the complex story of Margaret “Peggy” Shippen Arnold (1760–1804), the second wife of America’s most notorious traitor, Benedict Arnold.

Historian Char Weigel joined host Clare Sheridan their research, which centers entirely on primary source documentation, offering a nuanced and fascinating look at Shippen’s role in the infamous plot to surrender West Point to the British during the American Revolution.

‘Distance Scarcely Bounds’: An 1822 Visit to the Catskills

Guest Contributor — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 11:00:45 +0000

The following essay was first published in the Commercial Advertiser (NYC) on November 15, 1822.

On the 18th of September, 1822, a large party of ladies and gentlemen visited the Pine Orchard [two years later the Catskill Mountain House would officially open here], situated on one of the lofty summits of the Catskill mountains, and about twelve miles from the village of Catskill [Greene County, NY].

The road from Catskill to the base of the mountain, is tolerably good; and although it is over some considerable hills, the traveller feels little inconvenience, until he arrives at Lawrence’s Tavern, near the foot of one of the cluster of mountains, and about seven miles from Catskill.

William Gilliland: An Irish Immigrant Lake Champlain Settler

Guest Contributor — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 18:00:14 +0000

William Gilliland was born in 1734 in Caddy, Northern Ireland. His father died while he was a boy and his mother re-married. He was said to have been talented and ambitious and initially sought to establish himself in business and society in the city of Armagh.

However, a frowned-upon liaison with the daughter of a local upper class family caused him to seek his fortune elsewhere.

He enlisted in the 35th Regiment of the British army.

Capital Projects Dashboard Offers Insight into State Spending

Editorial Staff — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 17:00:56 +0000

New York State Office of General Services (OGS) has launched the Capital Projects Dashboard, a new digital tool that offers the public insight into the multi-billion-dollar construction and rehabilitation portfolio managed by the OGS.

The dashboard enables New Yorkers to see how and where state investments are being made in communities across the state.

The dashboard offers:

Community-Level Views: An interactive map allowing users to filter and locate investments happening in their specific county or region.

‘Strung Up’ Explains How White America Learned to Lynch Black Children

Editorial Staff — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:00:40 +0000

Strung Up: How White America Learned to Lynch Black Children (Beacon Press, 2026) examines how the lynching of Black children became not an aberration, but a normalized feature of American racial violence.

Drawing on meticulous archival research Strung Up traces how white supremacy trained itself socially, culturally, and psychologically to tolerate and ritualize the destruction of Black childhood, including the unborn.

Nationally recognized child advocate Dr. Stacey Patton locates the roots of this violence not solely in the United States, but in Europe’s long history of anti-child brutality.

Road to Independence: The 1776 Lee Resolution

Dr. Liz Covart — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:00:45 +0000

On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence. But that vote didn’t begin with the Declaration of Independence.

It began on June 7, 1776, when Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794) of Virginia introduced a three-part resolution that would set the American Revolution on its definitive course to independence.

Lee’s resolution called for independence, foreign alliances, and a confederation of states. Think of it as a three-legged stool. Without all three legs, the United States couldn’t achieve or sustain its independence.

Fake Turkey Shot From Road; Poaching Canada Geese; Illegal Fishing

Editorial Staff — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 11:00:40 +0000

An angler caught in the act filleting his illegal catch, and a large group ticketed for poaching more than a dozen striped bass are just some of the cases NYS Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) encountered in recent weeks.

The most surprising occurred on Sunday morning, May 10th, ECOs Brown, Dorrett, Heckler, and Hilton were using a robotic wild turkey decoy to catch people illegally road hunting in Williamstown, Oswego County, NY– it didn’t take long.

Burning Bushwick & The 1977 New York City Blackout

Guest Contributor — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 18:00:40 +0000

In 2010, The New York Times Magazine called Bushwick, Brooklyn “the coolest place on the planet,” four years later Vogue Magazine named it the “7th coolest neighborhood in the world.”

Whether or not you agree, there is no denying the transformations the neighborhood has gone through since the 1600s, when the Dutch named it Boswijck, or “heavy woods.”

One of the most drastic transformations the neighborhood went through was from the 1960s until the 1990s.