New Year gifts for you! And the Walleye Drop for New Year's Eve (Midnight).

Happy New Year to you! I am accepting any interesting stories or photos regarding the Thousand Islands area or the St. Lawrence River that will help us get through this winter. If I choose your story or photos to run here, you will instantly win a brand-new 1GB USB Flash Drive (also known as a Thumb or Jump Drive). It is a full gigabyte in capacity! Great for transferring data from computer to computer, or for storage. This blog concentrates on the area's two famous castles (Singer Castle and Boldt Castle), but the whole area is tied in together and therefore relevant. Please email to: mailbox [at] gold-mountain [dot] com (remember the dash), or send to P.O. Box 123, Jamesville NY 13078.

For our diehard fishing crowd (and for anybody looking for something very unique), have you ever watched the live walleye fish drop in Port Clinton, OH at midnight on the web? ("Live" meaning you can see it in real-time through their webcams on the web). If you are watching the New Year's Eve ball drop down in New York City on your TV anyway, you can have this on your computer going at the same time. Yes, a very exciting life indeed!

Cool News from Boldt Castle!

Boldt Castle across the River from this blogger.

The Watertown Daily Times reported today that Boldt Castle is working on having an online ticket sales system with Gateway Ticketing Systems Inc. that will go live before the next operating season. You will be able to buy tickets to Boldt Castle at anytime from your computer. The new system will cost the owners (the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority) $171,000. 

Boldt Castle, located on Heart Island (St. Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands, Alexandria Bay NY), is also making major dock repairs (at a cost of $16,600), as well as building a new movie room, all to be completed before the next tourist season. This is all great news for such a popular destination spot.

Merry Christmas!

For your online Christmas celebration, here is an extraordinary site with all kinds of interesting links: Peggy's Christmas Place.

Beaver sets up winter home at Singer Castle, Dark Island

Scott Garris, the caretaker of Singer Castle (and therefore the king of the castle for the winter) has a new subject. A beaver has set up shop in Singer Castle's South Boat House which also houses Dark Island's Gift Shop. The beaver photo above is courtesy of Wikipedia. The report and actual pictures of the beaver's new home below are from the scene by Scott Garris.

"The south boat house had part of it decked over to make room for a gift shop. The boat bay is under the decking. I have noticed that a beaver has been taking small trees and branches for a few weeks  now, but have not seen him. There is snow on the ground now and I have not seen any tracks. I thought he was gone.

On December 18, 2010 I was letting the boat warm up. The sun was shining and I could see a pile of branches in the boat slip under the gift shop. I know that the wind has been blowing down stream so I wondered how long the branches had been there. As I looked further in I could see a small beaver home in the back on the right. I have also been seeing short branches (8 to 12 inches long) with no bark and sharp on both ends, floating in the boat house for the last week. I guess I have a  guest for the winter." 

---Scott Garris, Singer Castle on Dark Island

Below is a picture of the South Boat House with Singer Castle looming in the background.

Castle photo by Robert J. Mondore. Click on the photos to see them larger.

Paradise Market - Dewitt/Syracuse NY & Gold-Mountain

Do you live in central New York State and are looking for an interesting and inspiring gift related to the Thousand Islands? Gold-Mountain's inspirational multimedia (DVDs, CDs and books) which features documentaries and music videos with the lovely St. Lawrence River's region as the backdrop. We are well represented in the Islands and Watertown, but now are represented in the Syracuse area at the Paradise Market with an enormous parking area. 


[Update 1/2/11: The holidays are over and our rep is no longer available at Paradise. But I still recommend the wonderful Paradise Market, and you can still order at Gold-Mountain.com with our renowned service and free surprises.]

Paradise Market is located at 3179 Erie Blvd. in Syracuse/DeWitt NY 13214 in what used to be the Hechinger Plaza. Billed as "fun for all", it is an 80,000 square feet shopping bazaar with over 200 shops and restaurants under one roof, and is well heated. The market is only open every Friday (12 p.m. through 8 p.m.), Saturday and Sunday (10 a.m through 6 p.m.).

Where can our multimedia be found in this enormous bazaar?

We are located right in front of King David's Restaurant stand near the enormous "rest rooms" sign. 

Below is the floor plan where we easily can be found.

The red dot below is where Photos by "K" (owned by Karen) can be found and prominently displayed there is a boat with our unique gift DVDs, CDs, and books. The green dots are at the main entrance of the building. Also featured in this (red) spot are photos by Linda Long Photography. (Click on any of these pictures to see them larger).

Note the boat-shaped display below which contains the special booty.

Visit us at www.Gold-Mountain.com online to get a taste of Bob and Patty Mondore's works.

Items on the boat at this time include:

"Dark Island's Castle of Mysteries" - the renown Singer Castle on Dark Island documentary DVD; 

Singer Castle Revisited - book; 

River-Lations - music video DVD; 

A Good Paddling - book; 

Heaven & Nature Sing - music video DVD (music CD also available); 

Proclaim His Praise in the Islands - music video DVD (music CD also available); 

Wondrous Love - music CD; 

Treasure of Your Love - music CD.

Please email  me with any questions. Let me know how your experience is at the Paradise Market.

[1/2/11 UPDATE:   The holidays are over and our rep is no longer available at Paradise. But I still recommend the wonderful Paradise Market, and you can still order at Gold-Mountain.com with our renowned service and free surprises.]