Canoeing into history
By JIM KINNEY, The Saratogian
06/26/2007

Roger Fulton of Glens Falls paddles through Lock 5 in Schuylerville Tuesday afternoon as part of The Common Man Tour '07, a 300-mile history tour of the French and Indian War. Fulton plans to canoe through parts of the Champlain Canal, Lake George, Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence Seaway. JIM KINNEY/The Saratogian

SCHUYLERVILLE - During the French and Indian War, the Hudson River was a highway and a lifeline as two European powers struggled for dominance in North America.
That's why Glens Falls-based author Roger Fulton is canoeing the Hudson, Lake Champlain, Lake George and the St. Lawrence River in order to teach about the war on its 250th|anniversary.
"If you ask someone my age who fought in the French and Indian War, they are likely to say the French and the Indians," Fulton said. "They don't realize that it was a precursor to the Revolution and that many of our Revolutionary generals, including George Washington, learned how to be officers during the French and Indian War."
Fulton was at Champlain Canal Lock 5 just north of Schuylerville Tuesday night. He was greeted by Schuylerville Mayor John Sherman and Carmella Mantello, director of the state Canal Corp., when he arrived.
Fulton and his co-author, Michael Carpenter, run Common Man Books in Glens Falls and have written a series of guide books to area attractions like "25 Short Hikes and Interesting Walks in the Saratoga Region."
"We wanted to do a promotion tour," he said. "This was a great tie-in."
Other books cover Lake George and the Thousand Islands region in northern New York.
It's a 300-mile trip and he's scheduled 46 days of paddling spread out over his 90-day trip. He plans to use 46 travel days and wrap up Sept. 21 back at Rogers Island in Fort Edward, the storied base of Rogers Rangers. It will be his 60th birthday.
"I'll be able to explain everything I've learned," he said.
So far?
"I've learned that the Hudson River is big, and wide," he said.
Fulton has a modern canoe and he carries emergency equipment in case something happens when he's on the water.
He described feeling like a "dot" when he left Albany June 23.
"The French were trying to get control of Albany because that would have given them a path to New York," he said.
Fulton is writing a blog about his experiences, but despite the technology in the boat, he is wearing the clothing a typical person from this part of the world would have worn in the 1750s, right down to the Elk-skin moccasins made by an expert in Illinois.
The French and Indian War, in which the French and most native tribes were allied, lasted from 1759 to 1762.
In 1709, the Schuyler family built a stockade on the south side of Fish Creek near the Hudson River in what is Schuylerville today. In 1745, Old Fort Saratoga and Schuyler's Village were destroyed in an Indian raid Nov. 28. Inhabitants were scalped or taken prisoner.
Reach Jim Kinney at jkinney@saratogian.com or call|583-8729, ext.216.

©The Saratogian 2007