Post on Facebook: Boldt Castle

Editor’s Note

Have you ever looked at an old photograph and suddenly found yourself transported to another time?

Perhaps it brings back memories of your teenage years, a summer vacation, or a place that has been part of your family’s story for generations. Sometimes, an old photograph can even bring to mind the stories our grandparents told us about the way things once were.

That is what happened when Kathy Stephens Posewitz, a member of the 1000 Islands River Rats Now and Then Facebook group, shared the remarkable photograph below.

Kathy's photograph certainly brought memories. Almost as soon as she posted it, the responses began to pour in. To date, the photograph has received 800 responses—and some of them were wonderfully unexpected!

Giggle if you will, but a few responders came up with answers that might have made their mothers blush and their fathers give them a very stern look.

Thanks, Kathy, for sharing your photograph and giving us all a reason to look back at our own visit to Boldt Castle.

River Memories - Boldt Castle

When I was a young teen, about 13 or 14, my best friend Kate and I had the use of her little tin boat, and we went everywhere in that thing. It was inevitable that we would come up with the idea to visit Boldt Castle at night...

We gathered our flashlights, sleeping bags, markers and snacks and headed out for the Castle. We knew that some of the boys had been there and had climbed up to ride the headless hart... I shiver to think how incredibly dangerous and scary it was. Thankfully, no-one was ever hurt…

That's one memory that came to mind one evening as I was reminiscing about my younger years at the River.

I thought of all the graffiti that covered the walls in every room. And it got me thinking about who were the people who had already been there and had left their names.

Wanting to know if there was anyone out there who had snuck onto the island for an adventure, I posted that question on Facebook asking for stories – the number of responses I got amazed me! As of today, October 5, 2026, I got 807 responses to my question – I can't really tell how many of them are “likes” or stories they shared, but there has to be hundreds.

I had no clue so many people – before and after me – had that same idea. It never occurred to me there had to be quite a few people who wandered those rooms with the same sense of adventure. There had to be thousands in order to cover those walls with floor to ceiling graffiti!

For the sake of posterity, I'm including some of their stories… You can see more on the page itself (1000 Islands River Rats Now and Then)

Noni Emmick Novotnak wrote: I was too young for that adventure but heard all the stories from my older siblings who hung out with John Megan on summer visits. They would tell the tales of boat rides in the dark, flashlights, navigating the floors without the staircase and riding the deer on the roof! I still look for their names on the ceiling when I visit now.

Pete Lembo wrote: In the summer of 1973 a bunch of us in canoes went over around 6:00 in the afternoon, beached our boats and squeezed through an opening in the chain link fence. It was hard to get around, but all we did was scare the living hell out of each other. We didn't do any damage or add to the graffiti that was there, but with those memories and now being able to see what it looks like now, what a contrast.

Now what about you? Send us comments and we will put them on TI Life - Send to info@thousandislandslife.com

Kathy Stephens Posewitz

Kathy Stephens Posewitz says, mother was a teacher, so she had summer's off and her father came on weekends from Syracuse - thus she spent the summer in the islands. She has two children, Morgan and Oliver who love the River too. Her father grew up on the River and Kathy remembers that neighbours would come and ask where the shoals were!