Monday, March 22, 2010

The Small Town of Youngstown, NY: A great place to go on a history vacation



This Great Fort, Fort Niagara was built by the French in 1679. It still stands now in a small town called Youngstown in NY. Two forts are still on the coast of the Niagara River, there is Fort George in Canada and of course Fort Niagara in the United States. I have been to both of them and I like Fort Niagara better. They are across the river from each other. They were built to help protect the Great Lakes. Every year in the summer we go there. We always go along River Rd and we always go to my cousin’s house. 

On the way out of the town there are lots of things to see. 1st on your left, you’ll see a very large church and then on your right like 2 seconds later if you look down and very closely you’ll spot a chapel. Did you know that this chapel could have been destroyed? No? Well then here’s the story. A long time ago some Nuns from the church above came down and discovered the chapel and it was not pretty it was a disaster. A man from Buffalo said he would fix it up and he did. Many people know that on the Niagara River the river had many slabs of ice come on top of it in the winter of 1955. The nuns were afraid that the little chapel could get destroyed. But not a single piece of ice touched the chapel, it all formed around it because the nuns and the students prayed it would be saved.

On the way out of town you might also see the house of the 7 basements! Margaret Goff Clark wrote the book Freedom Crossing about this. This house was a stop on the underground railroad.

So next time you want to go on a vacation, go there its awesome!

There are a lot of other things to do while you are there like Niagara Falls and much more. I’m not going to tell you everything. You’ll have to check it out yourself.

P.S there’s a water park/amusement park called Fantasy Island (on Grand Island between Niagara Falls and Buffalo).



3 comments:

  1. Great travel review! I'd love to go to Fort Niagra. I wish I had traveled to the East coast more when I lived in Ypsilanti and worked with your mom and dad. I really wanted to visit D.C. and New York because they seemed so close to MI. I don't have as much opportunity to get over there now that I live in Seattle, but I'll just have to take my kids there for a vacation.

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  2. Maxine: You will have to take Grandpa and me to Youngstown and the Niagara area. You would be such a fun tour guide. You could show us some things that we didn't see when we were there before.
    I love reading your blogs. Keep them coming.

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  3. A future travel writer! Thank you for your great account of your adventures to the Niagara River Region! Fort Niagara is definetly a treasure that we love to have here. The little white chapel is a beautiful reminder of the work that the sisters at Stella Niagara still do today!

    Thank you for your great review of the Niagara River Region! We hope you visit again soon!

    P.S. I LOVE Fantasy Island! A great place for fun!

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