Lake Ripples - August 2009

LCC’s 46th Annual Meeting will be held amidst the cultural and natural history presentations, live music, and film showings of the bi-state Festival of Nations. All the programs are free and open to the public! Bring friends and family and immerse yourself in the celebrations. Pack a picnic or plan to buy food from on-site vendors. Make sure to bring a flashlight or headlamp if you plan to stay through the evening.   

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Join LCC board and staff members on the porch at Chimney Point Historic Site for morning coffee and bagels and informal discussions about the lake, then take advantage of the extensive cultural programs held at both the Vermont and New York historic sites.   

At Chimney Point Historic Site you can learn how to throw the atlatl – the ancient spear that was in use before the bow and arrow – and see atlatl competitions, tour French 17th and 18th century encampments, watch Native American craft and skill demonstrations, view the award-winning film Champlain: The Lake Between, listen to an LCC presentation on natural history, and enjoy music by the Seth Warner Fife & Drum Corps and Atlantic Crossing.   

At Crown Point Historic Site hear performances and presentations by Martin Sexton, the The United States Merchant Marine Corps Band, Piers Faccini, Justin Jones and the Driving Rain, Pulitzer Prize Winning Historian David Hackett Fischer, Stephane Wrembel, Bear Tracks, Tim Jennings and LeAnne Ponder, Mohawk historical journalist Darren Bonaparte, and a Special Screening of the soon to be released Documentary Dead Reckoning.  

Crown Point Quadricentennial Day will also feature historic, cultural, educational, nature, and family activities, including a Lake Champlain Committee program on the future of the lake, a special ceremony rededicating the Crown Point Historic Lighthouse, and evening fireworks.    

Note: The Festival of Nations celebrations will continue on Sunday, September 20, 2009. LCC will provide further details on our website and via email once the schedule is finalized.

Imagine sitting in a lounge chair with your feet in the water looking out over a tropical sea. The sun blazes away and the reefs around you teem with life. There was a time, nearly half a billion years ago, when the area we now call Lake Champlain hosted such an environment. This was before life existed on land, before the bedrock of the region had even formed.  

At the time, the continental plate upon which Lake Champlain sits today was located in the lower latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. Carbon dioxide levels exceeded today’s levels by 14 to 16 percent, and the earth was so warm that practically no ice existed.  As a result, sea levels were much higher and the continental shelf was covered by a shallow arm of the Iapetus Ocean. In this arm, some of the world’s earliest reefs developed. MORE