No North American Odyssey can be accomplished without road travel. The following images reflect the nature of travel between the Finger Lakes and the Great Lakes shoreline.
Our travels took us from various points of arrival in the North East US and Canada to the Finger Lakes.
Our field trips took us from lakeside by-ways to downtown Rochester by way of older industrial centres, such as Seneca Falls on the canal which still links Cayuga and Senaca Lakes to the nineteenth century artery of the Erie Canal.
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Nineteenth century mills at Seneca Falls and Senaca Lake contrast with State Street, birthplace of Eastman Kodak in downtown Rochester. Seneca Falls was the site of the 1848 Women's Rights Convention, comemorated by a National Historical Park and by a National Women's Hall of Fame
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Mobile History
Even on the highway, appearances are deceptive: service areas on the Thruway are steeped in historical references, both Hollywood and local. In a service area on Interstate 90 a revolutionary war period example of skills transfer form Europe is noted some fifty miles west of the site described.Meanwhile back roads are the site of intense contestation and vacationers bring more than the kitchen sink.
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Cayuga Contention
The Federal and State Governments are dealing with a land claim by the Cayuga Nation along the northern borders of Cayuga Lake. 64,027 acres are claimed to have been illegally taken under New York State legislation in 1790. The treaty made then was already prohibited by earlier Federal legislation. A court case initated in 1980 has led to a decision that means that title of land from Seneca Fall village southward along the lake, and on the opposite bank is now uncertain.
Complaints and narratives are displayed from Seneca Falls southwards to Romulus on the roadside and in shop windows. These contain a number of strands. Some identify government, state and federal, as the source of the problem rather than the native American claim of priority. Others cast the native Americans as no longer competent as custodians of the environment, a task which now falls to the current occupiers. "Born in the USA" is cited as an alternative definition of native American while involvement in foreign wars is also part of a claim to authentic occupation of space.
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Hillary Clinton's run on the New York State senatorship has brought a visibility to social policy issues in Upstate New York. Her entourage of journalists and media personnel has begun to travel the by-ways of Upstate New York. Her path between Ithaca and Seneca Falls has already taken in the Knapp vineyard - albeit some considerable time before she declared her interest. The shop window discourse "framed" above exists along a political corridor "framed" by Hillary Clinton - a path to the National Women's Hall of Fame. |