St Lawrence River - Prescott

Battle of the Windmill  & Fort Wellington

Today I'm heading out to view a couple of historic sites which can be seen from the water and in the case of the battle site we plan to stop and have an early lunch there after which we can do a bit more paddling upstream before returning to Prescott.  This will be a fairly short paddle as the places of interest to us are close by, downstream is the bridge to Ogdensburg USA and some industrial complexes so not too scenic.

Prescott public launch

Our launch is from the ramp in a very pleasant waterfront park with an adjacent beach in Prescott.  There is adequate free parking.   Heading downstream we go past the Prescott Coast Guard station and vessel "Griffon" tied up at the wharf.  She is equipped with a boom presumably for maintenance/placement of navigation buoys a number of which can be seen stacked on the wharf.

Coast Guard Stn.

CGS Griffon

Within minutes we are in front of Fort Wellington built by the British in defense of Upper Canada.   My Great-great grandfather's regiment the 79th reg. of foot, or Cameron Highlanders had a detachment here while they were on garrison duty at Fort Henry in the 1830's.   The fort is open to the public and has a small museum which has the hull of a British gunboat from that era and salvaged from the river.

Fort Wellington

Approximately 3.5 km from the put-in is the site of the Battle of the Windmill, a last attempt by some exiles with their American sympathisers to invade Canada in 1838.   I will reproduce below some images of the plaques which inform the visitor of this failed (thankfully!) attempt.

Battle site

Plaque

We park our kayaks in the reeds and secure to a tree before settling down for lunch at the picnic table on the rocky ledge just a few feet above the water with a magnificent view of the river and the seaway traffic which passes by.

Kayak mooring

Industrial Strength

This vessel registered in Liberia, is enroute to Duluth at the Western end of Lake Superior and is transporting wind turbines.

The story of the Battle of the Windmill

Looking back as we leave the Windmill behind the International bridge can be seen connecting Johnstown ON to Ogdensburg NY.

International Bridge

We retrace our course passing our put in and continue upstream following the Canadian shore.   We notice many docks and a few boathouses badly damaged or torn from their moorings and inquire of one of the residents as to the cause.  Turns out this is down to the high winds and flooding experienced on the St Lawrence upstream of the Cornwall dam, the same flooding I witnessed in the Admiralty islands off Gananoque about a month previous.   There is also a number of very attractive homes, one in particular caught my eye because of the attractive and unusual sculpture in their gardens.  My impression was of a  female in a flowing gown with arms outstretched, and perhaps a crown?  All down to the eye of the beholder!

Sculpture

Shortly after this we turn around and head back to our launch point to take out and head home after a very pleasant and relaxing paddle and a little more appreciative of this great country we live in and those who protected it in the past.

Homeward bound

Happy paddling

from

KayakJock