Previously on “The Secret History of Vermont”
Chapter 2: Paddlewheel Boats on the Missisquoi River
Before the age of the railway train it was the paddlewheel boat that fueled commerce in Vermont. Fleets of majestic steam powered paddlewheel boats would transport goods on Lake Champlain and the Hudson River to the west, on the Connecticut River to the east, and on the mighty Missisquoi River to the north. The Missisquoi River was particularly heavily traveled because it connects Lake Champlain, northwest Vermont, Quebec, and the western side of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Typical cargo was cigarettes and beer, the source and destination of which changed as a function of relative tax rates; fugitives from the Quebec Language Police; and, of course, maple syrup and cows.
Many of the paddlewheel boats were equipped to transport passengers and offered amusements such as gambling and facilities like small expensive boutiques, 24 hour buffets, and heated swimming pools. People would spend their entire vacation on a “paddlewheel boat cruise to nowhere” although everyone had to go ashore when the boat docked at the Town of Richford.
The Missisquoi River starts deep in the Green Mountains and flows north into Quebec where it loops around back into Vermont and eventually empties into the Missisquoi Bay of Lake Champlain. The Town of Richford is located where the Missisquoi reenters Vermont from Quebec. As the paddlewheel boat industry grew so did Richford until, at its heyday, Richford was one of Vermont’s largest commerce centers and the envy of the other Towns. Docks and wharves extended into the Missisquoi and hundreds of boats would be clustered around as cargo was loaded and unloaded. Luxurious passenger paddlewheel boats with names like “The Missisquoi Queen” would come and go announcing their intentions with blasts of their steam powered horns. All cargo and passengers had to be cleared by the Customs House before and after crossing the border and the Master of the Customs House was the richest and most powerful person in the Town. Local entrepreneurs capitalized on the perpetual transient population and the whole Town was lit with thousands of lights advertising large theme hotels and casinos, magnificent star-studded shows, Institutes of Adult Entertainment, and pawnshops.
The problem of keeping the paddlewheel boats running during the winter was solved in a typical Vermont fashion. Instead of trying to keep the water channels open, the paddlewheels were affixed with chains, the entire boat was mounted on sled runners, and a snowplow was attached to the front. As a result, the paddlewheel boats ran considerably faster on the ice during the winter than they did in the water during the summer. The summer slowdown was tolerated because it typically only lasted 15 days.
The era of paddlewheel boats in Vermont ended shortly after The Unfortunate Burlington Cow Wharf Incident when the paddlewheel boat company lost the resulting lawsuit and went bankrupt. Most of the paddlewheel boats were sold to a foreign firm that made use of them on a minor river somewhere down south. The single surviving example can be seen at the Shelburne Museum, but if you go there don’t bother asking about paddlewheel chains, sled runners, or snow plows. Native Vermonters run the Shelburne Museum and they will deny that such things existed.
Interesting, thanks for the read.
A paddle wheeler on ice?…..
*squints suspiciously*
But it’s right there in the picture!
That was before they put the whole city of London on tracks.
Slightly OT: Who schedules posts? I have a couple of submissions but wasn’t sure how they are to be scheduled. Thanks.
If you’re finished with them and you put them in the pending queue, Swiss schedules them.
What’s the best way to request a particular time slot?
If you have Swiss’s email address, email him directly, or hope he sees a name-check here. What time slot do you want? I can pass that along. I took Friday night because no one else wanted it.
I haven’t finished the next item yet. I’m just generally partial to a lunch slot because I’m more active on the site midday.
At night just leave some Raclette out and a note requesting the time slot.
In the morning the Raclette will be gone and your article scheduled.
This also will get the job done.
That, or kirschwasser.
All the Emmentaler (or the spelling of your preference) belongs to me me me mine mine mine.
Michael,
Your two posts are still in “Drafts” – if they are ready, please save them as “Pending Review” and I will get them set!
That is the submit for review button
Go to:
click the status and get a drop down menu:
hit OK, then click “Save as Pending”
THANKS!
The only paddlewheel boat left will be open to the public again this May:
https://shelburnemuseum.org/collection/steamboat-ticonderoga/
Looks like it’s on land, the story checks out.
Wait, if this is the secret history, are we really supposed to be allowed to learn it?
I figured that if I post this stuff here the only people to know about it are us and a bunch of FBI agents.
*Golf clap
The summer slowdown was tolerated because it typically only lasted 15 days.
Sounds right.
I know nothing of mighty Missisquoi River but for some reason it does not sound navigable by paddle boat
Do you suppose the snowplows could have pushed the boats instead of pulling them? Paddlewheel curling could have been the best thing for tourism since the invention of autumn leaves.
Question for computer nerds: is it possible to get Windows 7 and load it on my old laptop?
no. buy a new laptop. help the ailing tech sector
Legally? Not unless you’ve got an old license file floating around. Also keep in mind that security patches dried up a while back. Is there a specific application you’re looking to use? If not, one of the *nix builds may suit your needs better.
Linux, Unix, Nixbeard.
The software is available
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1311&_nkw=windows+7+professional&_sacat=0
I’d like to get rid of Windows 10 on my desktop and Win11 on this laptop. I used to do it with a DOS boot floppy and wipe the hard drive but haven’t tackled the job in years.
Yes. I still run Windows 7. It’s best if the laptop originally came with 7 because then there’s no licensing silliness.
Use an off-line updater like Portable Update:
https://www.portableupdate.com/
To get all the updates in one go without the horrible Windows Update system.
Green Mountains seem rather small not like the mighty Carpathians
They are part of the Appalachian Mountains that run from Georgia to Maine. Some beautiful summer hiking and winter skiing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Mountains
Hiking? Sounds dangerous. are there wolves? Bears? Agressive sheep dogs? Cannibal mountain people?
Cue the banjo music!
In Romania I would not go hiking alone in the mountains. I do not do well with large aggressive sheep dogs. We don’t have the herding kind in Romania we have the wolf/bear fighting kind
In the Appalachians there are plenty of bears, and also some mountain lions. I don’t think there are wolves but there are likely some large feral dogs, especially down south.
See I knew Drake wants to get me killed
Don’t worry, there’s a lot of forest, so you should be out of the sun.
Hiking without a sidearm?
hello Romania
timber rattlesnakes
Oh yeah, lots of copperheads too.
Hiking? Sounds dangerous. are there wolves? Bears? Agressive sheep dogs? Cannibal mountain people?
Venomous ducks. Wear thigh high boots for protection.
Scotland to Morocco actually.
“The era of paddlewheel boats in Vermont ended shortly after The Unfortunate Burlington Cow Wharf Incident when the paddlewheel boat company lost the resulting lawsuit and went bankrupt.”
Awesome call back.
Your fictional world is the perfect blend of the real and surreal such that the reader doesn’t know exactly where the truth ends and fabrication begins.
Loved this one.
“The summer slowdown was tolerated because it typically only lasted 15 days.”
My favorite line and too true.
buy a new laptop. help the ailing tech sector
You slay me.
What’s the best way to request a particular time slot?
Bribery.
For a while there was some discussion of wind powered paddle wheels that would store the excess power on a spring that would be used when the wind wasn’t available. It never gained traction though.
Thanks Richard, I can understand the Vermonters solutions, cutting edge.
the Quebec Language Police
I don’t think those came into existence until long after the era of the paddle wheelers was over.
Their existence is fully documented in “The Secret History of Quebec”. Unfortunately it’s in French.
The real secret history of Quebec would be in English.
That’s not real French.
Yeah, I would’ve thought it was Acadian.
Oh, great, now I guess we just shoot down anything in the sky:
White House says a leading explanation for the 3 downed unidentified objects is that they were commercial or benign
Romania recently detected a unknown baloon. I doubt it. we just dont want to feel left out
IT FLIES, IT DIES!
Birds don’t exist.
Wait, what have I been eating?
Answered in the FAQ with question 5.
👎
🙁
Those guys are frauds selling merch that tracks the gullible for future schemes.
The “If It Flies, It Spies” t-shirt should be a big seller right about now.
https://birdsarentreal.com/pages/who-are-we
I’m glad I don’t have to fly anywhere anytime soon.
737MAX launch program slogan?
I saw exactly that on the side of a Hawk battery.
Sort ‘em out on the ground!
Biden administration announces appointment of William C. Rogers III as new air defense czar
Not Buck Turgidson?!
That looks like General George S. Patton to me.
Probably right.
Edward Snowden says the hysteria over UFOs being shot down over America and Canada is a distraction from Seymour Hersh’s story about the U.S. being responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines.
Legally? Not unless you’ve got an old license file floating around. Also keep in mind that security patches dried up a while back. Is there a specific application you’re looking to use? If not, one of the *nix builds may suit your needs better.
I have an old laptop I want to try to raise from the dead, and I have a (possibly) irrational loathing for Win 10. As usual, I am overcomplicating things. Does M$ have a way to brick it if I go on line with it?
There is a specific engine management software I want to play with.
I rebuilt my Windows 7 computer last year in August. It doesn’t go on-line a lot but it does happen. I’ve had no problems.
Tech stuff needs replacing on a yearly basis. Phone laptop etc
*eyes Pixel 4*
*eyes 2017 iMac*
I don’t like upgrading, either, and I’m on Win10, which I will stay there until I die because IIRC Win11 allows you to do a lot fewer things on your own. For instance, I have a utility that makes Win10 look and behave more like XP. It’s called Open Shell and I LOVE it. (You should hear the comments I get by IT people who need to get on my machine, like, “Can you show me where X is?” SURE I CAN!)
But of course, my desktop is still Win3.x green rivets, so I’m a little stuck in the past. However, Open Shell makes the upgrades bearable and, dare I say, unnoticeable (as long as you turn off Windows automatic updates). So, I THINK I heard that Win11 won’t let you bypass it this way.
MS won’t have a way to brick it, they’d just flag it as unlicensed. If you’ve still got a valid license key, you shouldn’t need to worry about that. If you don’t, you’d be buying a (most likely shady) license key from someone and installing it.
Yeah, specific software would usually override any suggestions for trying an alternate OS.
Assertions reported as fact in today’s wire story
Must be the invisible ink copy where the role of Congress is merely to rubber stamp whatever the deep state presents.
Yep, rubber stamp it is. I hope someone is labeling that Schoolhouse Rock episode of How a Bill becomes a Law as misinformation.
Well if you had the special invisible ink-reading glasses, you would see the part where it’s all just ceremonial.
Pence, as vice president, had a ceremonial role overseeing the counting of the Electoral College vote, but did not have the power to impact the results
Ceremonial like the electoral college?
The laptop I want to revive originally came with 7, but the hard drive got screwed up. I think it went to sleep in the middle of an attempted partitioning operation. For a long time I booted it straight off a linux CD, but the CD drive quit working. It has been on the shelf for years. Meanwhile the laptop I currently use every day, with linux on it, is getting awfully long in the tooth. It’s getting to the point I breathe a little sigh of relief when it powers up.
I could just go buy a new one, but where’s the fun in that?
If the sleeping laptop came with 7 then it should be permanently licensed for 7. No new license key needed.
It’s usually not hard to replace a hard disk drive, it depends on the manufacturer.
One of my computers is my mother’s original XP notebook. I replaced the hard drive with a solid state drive, maxed out the RAM, and installed a dual-frequency WiFi chip. It runs Linux very well.
All cargo and passengers had to be cleared by the Customs House before and after crossing the border and the Master of the Customs House was the richest and most powerful person in the Town.
Well, that I believe.
Thanks, Richard! Another great installment!
What about “public broadcasting” is independent?
But at West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Jim Justice has decided that’s got to go too. So he’s gotten rid of the professional leadership. He installed his own communications director as the new CEO and now they’ve started firing reporters who have reported on scandals and failures in Governor Justice’s administration.
I could describe that West Virginia situation as a scandal. I think for most Americans who value the idea of a free and independent press, it would be seen as a scandal. But just watch. If what Jim Justice is doing with the media in West Virginia, if that starts getting national attention.
You don’t like taxpayer funded propaganda?
More farther OT:
This repressed memory lurched into my consciousness this morning. Did I, or did I not, see an ad for pubic hair during the Super Bowl? There were so very many WTF? moments during that game it’s hard to know what’s real.
It was something for shaving pubic hair. Don’t remember if it was the razor or the cream. Don’t care. Not buying.
Probably. Something like this?
https://youtu.be/u2eSnvB5D3k
Disney princess version https://youtu.be/HGC59QokXh8
Mojeaux-
I’ll definitely take a look at that open shell app if I ever manage to retrieve my Win 10 desktop from storage. Thanks.
FWIW, I did a post on the utilities I use.
I use it still, W10 running an xp shell, winning!
I want to know about the Burlington Cow Wharf Incident. You are tease!
Click on the “Part 2” link at the top.
Probably. Something like this?
That looks disturbingly familiar. So I didn’t just imagine it. Good to know, I guess.
I mean, it makes sense that Gilette, after chasing away their male customers, is making an effort to go after womxn.
One of my computers is my mother’s original XP notebook. I replaced the hard drive with a solid state drive, maxed out the RAM, and installed a dual-frequency WiFi chip. It runs Linux very well.
That sounds awesome. That’s kind f what I’m thinking of. My desktop has a solid state drive and I was amazed at how fast it is.
Libertarian pickup lines:
https://i.redd.it/fts8zc64c8ia1.jpg
😆
https://twitter.com/TRHLofficial/status/1625467676704350208
https://twitter.com/JessicaVaugn/status/1625573552601837568/photo/1
Fer *bleep*’s sake, that first card. You don’t have to melt the beams, they’re already loaded to near capacity especially after a chunk get knocked out by the impact, you just need to soften them so that their compressive strength is compromised.
And finding torch cut beams on the site during the cleanup – how else to you break down tangled rubble but cut the beam scrap to shorter segments.
Sorry, I know you were just sharing funny stuff. There’s so much evidence of actual malfeasance I’m starting to think the real false flag was the truther movement so as to discredit revealations of actual schemes with their ranting.
Lol.
Happy VD, UCS!
What is it with you guys an venerial disease?
Oh look it’s the end of my workday. I should go outside, see the sun. It’s 49 out so I should be okay.
Wen UCS 9/11story?
Which one of you is this?
TOS had a decent one on Facebook.
“I’d let you violate my non-aggression principle. “
Seymour Hersh gives an interview over the Nordstream bombing.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/radio-war-nerd-78596220
He’s pretty funny. Says it wasn’t a hard story to investigate or write since nobody else was trying.
I love how he’s “discredited” now, because he uses anonymous sources (nothing new) and the government issues denials to his reporting (haven’t they always).
Of course, in the old days, other reporters would rush report on the breaking story themselves. Now they do nothing but “debunk” them based only on what the government is telling them.
I never bought into Hersh, but in this day and age?
‘Unspeakable botch’: Spain spends €258 million on trains that are too big for its tunnels
https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/02/10/unspeakable-botch-spain-spends-258-million-on-trains-that-are-too-big-for-its-tunnels
Around here they are throwing hot dogs down hallways.
Looks like they caught it before the trains were actually manufactured, so the headline is a little misleading.
Imma need a fainting couch.
Obligatory meme:
https://tenor.com/view/train-funny-innuendo-crack-train-tunnel-gif-13545983
So better than NJ. The whole article neatly sums up somebody having zero guiding principles.
Senator’s party switch is a bald move to cling to power
The Blue fundraising wing, the Red fundraising wing. Same-same.
In the near future it will be “The Republicrats” and we won’t need to vote anymore.
Thompson thinks it’ll be easier to hold onto his seat if he runs as a Democrat.
Democrats do not stray from the hive.
If D, then vote.
Whell! That was a nice dinner out with my husband for VD. That’s about all we do for it nowadays.
Outback is too expensive for a
hashsteak house.My dad’s allergic to seafood, so I usually get the fish when we go out to eat as I never got to eat it growing up.
I don’t blame you. I like fish, too, but it wasn’t much a part of the childhood diet. I think it’s because my mom wasn’t quite sure how to cook it.
Anyway, I didn’t like how they season their shrimp, so I gave the rest of mine to my husband. OTOH, I don’t really go to steak houses to get fish. I do that at Red Lobster or whatever redneck diner I’m at where they have catfish and trout.
Yeah, but I’m not normally the one picking out where to eat.
Ah, I see. Yes, I see your point.
Nice! I am making little steaks at home with asparagus. A quiet valentine’s at home.
redneck diner I’m at where they have catfish and trout.
.And walleye. One of the few things I miss about the midwest
We have them here, but the slot limits are kind of absurd.
*dreams of Lake Vermilion*