As of 7:00 PM on February 22, 2018 the ice jam is building just upstream from the I-87 Northway Bridges …Thaddeus Kosciuszko Bridge over the Mohawk River.  Water is over the Clutes Dry Dock Parking lot and this eastern entrance to the Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve.  The water is over the trails not too far from the Main Whipple Bridge Entrance to the Vischer Ferry Preserve.  Use caution when traveling the Byway along Riverview Road between Boyack Road west to the Hamlet of Vischer Ferry.  Don’t drive through any standing or flowing waters.

I will post and up date in the morning.

Stephanie Bandosik telling the oral histories of the Mohawk Valley.  Photo by Richard Yacco.

The name “Mohawk” comes from Algonquin-speaking neighbors (then enemies) of the Kenien’ke:ha who called them a pejorative term loosely translated to “bear people” which the Dutch misheard as Mohawk. Known for their fierceness, The Peacemaker decided to approach the Mohawk with his ideas first. In those days one did not walk into a neighboring village. You stayed at a distance and built a smokey fire. The village would send out a runner to investigate. The visitor would only enter the village after being invited. The Peacemaker, according to Mohawk history, was tested by surviving a trip or a plunge over the Cohoes Falls.