Feather in Flight Captures History in TIP

From the Editor:

Andrew Kane, Thousand Islands photographer, sent one of his amazing Feather in Flight photographs to TI Life, explaining that, "I took this for the TI Park Landmark Society. It is a re-enactment of a photo taken in the early 1900’s."

Soon after I was completely engrossed into TIP and its summer plans.

Thousand Island Park Turns 150 in 2025!

First and foremost, Thousand Island Park (TIP) turns 150 in 2025! So already the Thousand Island Park Landmark Society, the TIP Museum and residents are getting ready; they have captured the last 50 years of history into a new book, Thousand Island Park 1975-2025. Preservation, Renewal and Change, with the book taking up where the centennial history called Thousand Island Park 100 Years and Then Some (1875-1975) leaves off.

The new book will cover the preservation movement that began in the late 70s, the restoration of the Wellesley Hotel and the Main Dock, the societal changes that happened over these decades, the storms and the other weather challenges of the last half century, and of course the Guzzle fire.  

For those of us not lucky enough to call ourselves TIP residents, we wondered how and where they find all their material. It is not difficult as this is one of the closest knit communities in the North Country. With the collaboration of the TIP Foundation, the TIP Museum, the TIP Corporation and the TIP Landmark Society, the research and writing is well underway.

Now comes the interesting part - the fundraising.

You, too, can help!

The 2025 Summer Goal is $20,000 and luckily there are many ways to contribute. First, they are looking to the TIP community members to step-up, which many have already done. But those of us who just appreciate the history of the region also can join this special endeavor. Check out their website for more information.

From the TIP Landmark Society:

Another book in the works will be: Dinner on the River: 150 Years of Food and Meals in Thousand Island Park and the Upper St. Lawrence River, to be written by Sandra Rennie, and which also will be available in Summer 2025.

Three years of research into what we have been eating these past 150 years, how it has been prepared and the appliances available to our cooks are in the book.  

TIP has long been focused on its history, and this first time focus on food and meals relies on cookbooks found in cottages, recipes on scraps of paper, oral and journal notes from multiple generations of families long living throughout the Upper St. Lawrence region.  

It should come as no surprise that fish, dairy, and maple sugar products were important in 1875 and are still so today.  In case some of the taken-for-granted techniques of cleaning and fileting the fish in 1875 have been lost over time, there are tutorials for this and other how-to tasks in the kitchen.  

The book has descriptions and pictures of hand tools, old ice boxes and coal and wood-fired stoves found in attics and basements and their various upgrades over time.  Cooking was a demanding task; in 1920, the average cook was spending six hours per day preparing food for the family.  

Early cooks were focused on health too, considering how to balance nutrition  with ingredient choice.  Of course, there were some amusing fads and fancies back then, but we are not immune from that today.  The book contains a recipe section that covers the entire period so that a current cook can test, adjust, and learn.

Several newsletters are sent to TIP residents with interesting information and this caught my eye:

Another new project for Landmark concerns the salvage of original doors, windows, hinges and the like, which are removed from cottages during renovation projects in the Park. The historic materials will be collected and made available to cottage owners who want to use original materials in the restoration and renovation of their cottages. The materials will be free of charge and available to anyone hoping to reuse and repurpose these original materials in their cottage projects.

In closing, as I am not a TIPer, but I am fascinated by the cultural and social history of this community. I want to personally thank all those who are helping - together, you are a fine example of what the word 'community' is all about.  Come on 2025 - we can hardly wait!

By Susan W. Smith, Editor