(Host) In a few weeks, a reproduction of a 19th century boat that plied the waters of Lake Champlain will set sail for Quebec City.
The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s replica canal schooner, the Lois McClure, will visit Quebec to help mark the city’s 400th anniversary.
As VPR’s Ross Sneyd reports, the festivities in Quebec also start the observation of a big anniversary in the Champlain Valley.
(Sneyd) Four hundred years ago this July, Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec City.
The early 17th century was a time of avid North American exploration by the European colonial powers of the day.
The French got an early toehold in our region. Quebec was the first permanent French-speaking settlement on the continent.
Organizers of Vermont’s Lake Champlain quadricentennial events wanted to highlight the region’s close ties to Quebec City.
(Cohn) “It’s probably the best illustration of the shared history we have with our neighbors in Quebec.”
(Sneyd) Art Cohn is director of the Maritime Museum. He says the Lois McClure will have a prominent role during Quebec’s big celebration in July.
A year after setting the French flag in Quebec, Samuel de Champlain joined a flotilla of 24 birchbark canoes. They set out to explore a lake the natives referred to as the “Waters Between.”
Champlain would give the lake his name – and the region his culture.
Cohn says it’s a good opportunity to celebrate that history – and the 10,000 to 12,000 years of human habitation that preceded it.
(Cohn) “It’s just a remarkable, well, once- in-every-hundred-year opportunity to have that perspective.”
(Sneyd) 50 official events are already planned when 400th anniversary observations turn from Quebec to the Champlain Valley over the next year-and-a-half.
Vermont wants to promote tourism as part of the celebration, but education is also a top priority.
Vermont Tourism Commissioner Bruce Hyde.
(Hyde) “It’s a combination of really celebrating the Franco heritage of Vermont, along with the native American component. We’re not just concentrating on what happened in 1609, but looking back thousands of year and really taking a look at the settlements of the indigenous folks who have been 10,000 years or more.”
(Sneyd) In Quebec City, observances and celebrations begin on June 30th.
Vermont and New York open a year of anniversary events on New Year’s Eve. At the same time, New York will be observing a 400th anniversary.
Just two months after Samuel de Champlain poked around what would become Quebec, New York and Vermont, Henry Hudson sailed up a river that would take his name.
So New York will also be celebrating next year the quadricentennial of the exploration and settlement of the Hudson Valley.
For VPR News, I’m Ross Sneyd.