Visit Sackets Harbor

A recent TV documentary about Ulysses S. Grant omitted mention of his time in Sackets Harbor. In autumn 1848, newly married Lieutenant Grant and his wife Julia ...arrived in the village at the army post Madison Barracks. Julia wrote after the trip from Detroit: We had a long, fatiguing, and expensive trip to Sackets Harbor, as navigation was closed and we had to hire any conveyance we could to reach this far-off and out-of-the-way place. The Grants likely watched completion of the Navy Yard Commandant’s and Lieutenant’s Houses. September 1848 payroll records show 13 men applying finishing touches to the two immense structures on the bluff opposite Madison Barracks. Very likely the Grants socialized with Navy Yard commander Charles T. Platt, a War of 1812 veteran. (gold framed portrait) Although Sackets Harbor wasn’t Julia and Ulysses army assignment choice, they made the best if it. Months later she reflected: We had a lovely winter, made many friends, and when we left for Detroit by the first boat in the spring, I really shed tears at parting with them. Returning in 1851, the Grant family, now with their little Fred, again spent time at Madison Barracks. They enjoyed sleigh rides and visiting a maple sugar camp before setting off from Grant’s second posting in the village. In 1908, Brigadier General Frederick Dent Grant, son of Ulysses and Julia, arrived at a place about 20 miles from Sackets Harbor with 2,000 regulars and 8,000 militia. That place, Pine Plains an ideal military training location, became Camp Drum and eventually Ft. Drum, today home of the 10th Mountain (Light Infantry) Division. (group image - second from right)

On June 23rd we posted a selection of Galloo Island Coast Guard photos. Here is another connection to Galloo Island. This time it’s sailing vessels. In 1969, Ra...y Gowing wrote his memories about growing up in Sackets Harbor in a family with a long history of building watercraft. He recalled stories that his father Fred told recounting numerous vessels around the turn-of-the-century. The Gowing’s boat building workshop was located at the harbor near today's Village boat launch, the site of major military ship building during the War of 1812. One of the two images with this post shows a boat being built at the harbor with the Commandant's and Lieutenant's Houses in the background. The other image is an engraving of the harbor just at the close of the War of 1812. The E. B. GANNETT, a Sackets Harbor based wooden schooner, was built in 1864 on nearby Galloo Island. It sunk in 1870 with a load of plaster of water lime while sailing between Oswego and Sackets Harbor on a trip to Ogdensburg. The crew escaped in her yawl landing at Nine Mile Point.

The 1817 Union Hotel building commands a prime corner on the Sackets Harbor waterfront. Part of the Sackets Harbor Battlefield historic site properties, this li...mestone structure once offered overnight accommodations for those traveling on Lake Ontario. In the yard stands a panel dedicated in 2012 as a stop on the Bi-national Heritage Peace Garden Trail. The War of 1812 Bicentennial years drew visitors to Sackets Harbor for re-enactments, history lectures, monument dedications, and to celebrate the American Girl doll and stories set in the village. The peace garden emphasized a desire many sought at war's end in 1815, and continues today as a cross-border reality.

Some new snacks in today. Mmm. Look at this dill pickle popcorn.

Yes! The tea shop returns to Sackets Harbor! Soft opening this weekend! Artisan loose leaf teas and teaware. Pick up a cup of your favorite tea to go -hot or iced and every weekend...bubble tea!