New York celebrates quadricentennial of Hudson’s exploration

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(Host) While all eyes have been focused on the quadricentennial celebration of Samuel de Champlain’s journey on the lake, another quadricentennial event has been quietly gaining steam, marking Henry Hudson’s exploration of present day New York. 

VPR’s Jane Lindholm has more.

(Lindholm) Samuel de Champlain wasn’t the only one exploring the waterways of our region in 1609.  Just a couple of months after Champlain’s trip south from Quebec all the way down to what is now Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Hudson traveled north as far as Albany.

Tom Lewis is a professor at Skidmore College, in New York.  He’s written a book called "The Hudson: A History."  Lewis says Hudson was hunting for a northeast passage to China.

(Lewis) "So he sailed all the way up to just a few miles above present-day Albany and at that point his dream of the river that would lead him to the riches of the East turned into dust."

(Lindholm) Hudson called the river the Great River, and the Dutch, who he was sailing for, called it the North River.  Half a century later the British claimed the area and renamed the river after their countryman, Hudson.

Hudson’s journey up the river in 1609 on the Dutch ship the Halve Maen, or "Half Moon," brought him into contact with the Native Americans who lived in the area, and the encounters weren’t pleasant, as Tom Lewis recounts.

(Lewis) "The Dutch called them Wilden, that is to say Wild Men.  They actually captured two and they put them into the hold of the Halvemeen.  The Indians, or the Native Americans, escaped.  And they jumped off the boat and swam ashore and laughed at the Dutch and the English sailors from the shore."

(Lindholm) Hudson’s interactions with the Native Americans may not be worthy of celebration, but Tom Lewis says we owe a great debt in this country to Hudson’s explorations.  The river he first put on European maps became an important corridor for trade.  And later became a passageway from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes with the construction of the Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo.

Tom Lewis says in New York, Quadricentennial celebrations are marking both Samuel de Champlain and Henry Hudson’s contribution to local history.  As part of the celebrations in September, more than a dozen wooden boats from Holland are expected to sail up the river to Albany to celebrate Hudson’s voyage.

For VPR News, I’m Jane Lindholm.

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