Clinton County Historical Association

06/02/2026

SIGNS ARE UP! PASSPORTS PRINTED!
Museum Day in Clinton County, NY will be held on Saturday, June 20, 2026 ~ 11am to 3pm
Coordinated by the Adirondack Coast Cultural Alliance and the Clinton County Historical Association.
This highly anticipated county-wide event offers free or reduced admission to over a dozen local historic sites, museums, and galleries from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
The region's museums and cultural centers are hosting special programming for 2026 to celebrate both Museum Day and the nation's 250th anniversary.
Thanks to Jim Farnan and Geri Favreau for putting up the signs.
Keep an eye out - one on US Ave and one on South Catherine Street.

05/30/2026

LATEST HISTORICAL MARKER IN CHAMPLAIN
Thanks to Woodmen of the World, David Patrick and Calvin Castine among others for working on this project.
General Izard commanded troops in Champlain which saw more military action than Plattsburgh in the war of 1812.

View Calvin's video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F080eAK4Phk

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05/29/2026

JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION IN THE NORTH COUNTRY

Three days of celebrations will be held to mark the 2026 national Juneteenth holiday in Clinton and Essex counties, which were hotbeds of abolitionism during a transforming time in American history. Juneteenth National Independence Day celebrates the final end of chattel slavery after the Civil War, when Union troops occupied Galveston, Texas, June 19, 1865.

FRIDAY. The weekend kicks off Friday evening with blues guitarist Solomon Hicks from NYC, at Retro Live, 14 Margaret St. in Plattsburgh.

SATURDAY. A bus tour of Underground Railroad sites leaves from the North Star Underground Railroad Museum, 1131 Mace Chasm Rd, Ausable Chasm, at 10 am. The bus costs $10 for an individual and $20 for a family. Register online at https://northcountryundergroundrailroad.com/. The tour will go from Keeseville/Peru to Beekmantown/Plattsburgh stopping at key sites in the area, including churches involved in the abolitionist struggle and local cemeteries, with reenactors. Among the reenactors will be the great, great grandson of local Underground Railroad leader Stephen Keese Smith. Included in the bus tour is a stop at the Plattsburgh Public Library for a special FREE movie that highlights how the Underground Railroad helped a Union soldier get home after he ended up in a Confederate prison. That movie starts at 1:30 pm. The bus will return to the North Star Museum at 4:00 pm.

Also on tap is an art exhibit – “What Remains: Voices from the Margins of History” – followed by a reception at the SUNY Plattsburgh Art Museum, Myers Fine Arts Building, 101 Broad St. This FREE event will be from 5 to 7 p.m.

SUNDAY at noon the celebrations move to the John Brown Farm in North Elba for a family themed fair. Highlights include a concert featuring the well-known Adirondack group, Jamcrackers. Also, the Praise Tabernacle Dancers will perform and there will be a recitation of John Brown’s final speech at his gravesite. All events Sunday at the John Brown Farm are FREE.

Activities will also include children’s games and the presentation of the annual Colors of Freedom Award. Food will be available for purchase from the Dogfather Food Truck of Plattsburgh. ($10 adults, $7 children.)

John Brown’s final speech was a farewell address delivered to the Virginia court as he was sentenced to be hanged for leading the raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859. His body was then transported back to the farm in North Elba for burial.

The Juneteenth events are sponsored and organized by a network of organizations in the North Country, including the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association, Clinton County Historical Association., John Brown Farm State Historic Site, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, John Brown Lives, the Adirondack History Museum, Plattsburgh Public Library, Essex County Arts Council, Paul Smiths College and the SUNY Plattsburgh Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Center and Art Museum.

Details on all the events can be found at:
https://www.northcountryundergroundrailroad.com/forms/web/cof.php

For more information contact:
Jackie Madison, North Country Underground Railroad Historical Assn.
Helen Nerska, Clinton County Historical Assn. [email protected]
Peter Slocum, Adirondack History Museum, [email protected]
Cheryl Craft, John Brown Farm. [email protected].

05/29/2026

LAST EVENING'S TALK - by Curt Stager and David Kanietakeron Fadden - an eye-opening talk on 12,000 years of indigenous people in the Adirondack Uplands.
Thanks again to Calvin Castine to arranging for the video to be made.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81UXO_GoBCc

First Adirondackers: 12,000 Years of Indigenous Peoples in the Adirondack Uplands with Curt Stager and David Kanietakeron Fadden, as part of the Clinton Coun...

05/29/2026

OUR NEIGHBOR - the Plattsburgh Air Force Base Museum is open for the season 2026! - Wednesday through Saturday 10am to 3pm.
The docent welcomed the first visitors of the day while she was putting out the flags.
Visit our museum while you’re here and eat lunch at Valcour Brewery - all within easy walking distance!

05/28/2026

BRINGS PAINTINGS TO LIFE -
Yesterday we had a preview of the video by Randi Christodoulou which brings these paintings to life. The paintings by Randi's father, Clyde Rabideau, represent the forgotten Patriot voices of the American Revolution - Native Americans, Women and Black Americans.
The video is called, "Echoes If We Listen." and it can be found on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be67x-HAlFo
When the exhibit is complete at the museum, visitors will be able to view the video which contains faces, scenes, events and music based in Clinton County. A wonderful production by Randi.

05/27/2026

LOVELY VOLUNTEER LUNCH TODAY

Thanks to those who came - These photos represent THOUSANDS of hours of volunteer time - Couldn't run the museum without them!

And thanks to Helen Nerska for organizing this year's event - lots of laughter and good conversation.

Contact us if you'd like to volunteer at 518-560-0340 or [email protected].

05/27/2026

TOMORROW NIGHT - TWO GREAT SPEAKERS
Thursday - May 28th, 6 pm, Plattsburgh Memorial Chapel, Old Base, Plattsburgh, First Adirondackers: 12,000 Years of Indigenous Peoples in the Adirondack Uplands with Curt Stager and David Kanietakeron Fadden. The newly released book by Curt Stager and David Kanietakeron Fadden “challenges the widespread, long-standing belief that the Adirondack uplands of northern New York were uninhabited before the arrival of European colonizers. Through local indigenous traditions and supporting findings by natural science, authors Fadden and Stager expose, document, and honor the long human presence in the Adirondacks, helping not only to redefine what it means to be an Adirondacker, but also contributing to a more complete understanding of America itself.” We will be privileged to have both authors at this presentation. This is a great opportunity to ask questions and hear reflections on the extensive research Curt and Dave did in order to provide us with this book.

05/27/2026

CCHA'S JUNE EVENTS

Saturday, June 6th – 10:30 am, Town of Clinton Town Hall, 23 Smith Street, Churubusco. Churubusco and the 1837 Rebellion with Town of Clinton Historian Rebecca Le Clair. Join us to discuss the demographics of the Town of Clinton (Churubusco). This presentation will reveal why the Churubusco populus is primarily French Canadian and Irish by delving into the history or settlement in Churubusco and how it ties into the Canadian rebellion of 1837.

Saturday, June 6th, 11 am - Flag Ceremony beginning at Point au Fer with American Legion Post 912 and Post 1619’s Revolutionary War Honor Guard to honor Revolutionary War Veterans interred in cemeteries in the Town of Champlain: Point au Fer, Maple Hill, Glenwood, Shutes, Waters and Wiley’s Point.

Monday, June 8th – 6 pm, American Legion, 29 Pratt St., Rouses Point. Struggle in the Snow: The invasion and storming of Quebec with Thaddeus Booth Trudo. New Year’s Eve 2025 was the 250th Anniversary of the attempted storming of Quebec City by American forces under the command of Generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold. Learn more about this event and the brave patriots who participate in this early revolutionary war battle.

Tuesday, June 9th – 6:45 pm, Lake Forest Retirement Community, 8 Lake Forest Drive, Plattsburgh. Walk Around the Block – a photographic view of the Plattsburgh City Center in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries with Pat Loughan.

Friday, June 12th - 12:30 pm, Plattsburgh Senior Center, 5139 North Catherine Street, Plattsburgh. Walk Around the Block – a photographic view of the Plattsburgh City Center in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries with Pat Loughan.

Thursday, June 18th – 6:00 pm, Clinton County Historical Association, 98 Ohio Avenue, Plattsburgh. Churubusco and the 1837 Rebellion with Town of Clinton Historian Rebecca LeClair. Join us to discuss the demographics of the Town of Clinton (Churubusco). This presentation will reveal why the Churubusco populus is primarily French Canadian and Irish by delving into the history or settlement in Churubusco and how it ties into the Canadian rebellion of 1837!

Wednesday, June 24th, 6 pm – Lecture, Peru Free Library, 3024 N. Main St, Peru. Peru Veterans and the founding of the Town with Military historian Thaddeus Booth-Trudo and Town of Peru historian Helen Nerska

Thursday, June 25th – 6:00 pm, Plattsburgh Memorial Chapel, 100 US Oval, Plattsburgh. History Matters: Revolution, Independence and Valcour Island by John Krueger. History matters because liberty is not self-sustaining; it must first be imagined in the minds and hearts of ordinary people and then defended through sacrifice, leadership, and endurance. Using figures such as John and Abigail Adams, Joseph Warren, and William Emerson, this engaging illustrated presentation will explain how the American Revolution grew from conviction into action, while the Declaration of Independence gave that struggle its clearest moral and political purpose. Its central regional argument is that Valcour Island deserves lasting
historical importance because Benedict Arnold’s improvised naval stand on Lake
Champlain delayed the British advance long enough to preserve the northern
defenses and help make Saratoga possible. A familiar story will be told in an
unfamiliar manner, something you won’t want to miss.

All events are free and open to the public. For further information contact is at 518-561-0340 or [email protected].

05/23/2026

Baker Cemetery Marker Rededication 5-23-26 for Patriot James Call

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL-6MGYj0_o

Thanks to Calvim Castine again for videoing this ceremony at the Baker Burying Ground in West Plattsburgh and for your remarks.

Saranac Chapter, NSDAR Marker Rededication Ceremony for James Call ...