Thousand Islands Life Magazine > Latest Issue Features Loon article by Patty Mondore

Loon photo by Patty Mondore

The very popular online magazine, Thousand Islands Life, is currently featuring an article by Patty Mondore reporting on her encounters with Loons on the St. Lawrence River in the Thousand Islands. Be sure to check it out for great pictures and videos, along with many other excellent articles. Go direct to her article through the following link:

Songs in the Night, by Patty Mondore

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CROSS-RIVER, CROSS-BORDER (USA/Canada) FIELD TRIP COMING to Antique Boat Museum

Ontario, New York State, St. Lawrence River from space.

Photo courtesy of NASA.

CLAYTON, New York (October 9, 2014) – The Antique Boat Museum (ABM), North America’s premier freshwater nautical museum based in Clayton, New York, will host a cross-river, cross-border field trip on Tuesday, October 14.

Students from the Gananoque Secondary School in Gananoque, Ontario will venture across the St. Lawrence River aboard a Gananoque Boat Line tour boat to the ABM for an educational visit.

As part of an outreach program being offered by the newly formed Thousand Islands Boat Museum (TIBM) in Gananoque, students in wood shop classes (grades 9 through 12) will be working on building an International Optimist Dinghy, better known as Opti, throughout the school year. The goal will be to have a small fleet of boats ready for use in a sailing program at the TIBM in 2015.

The primary objective of the trip will be to introduce and educate students about the Opti and to expand their knowledge of the unique boating history in the region, which touches international borders, through their visit to the ABM. The field trip will be led by ABM Educator Julie Broadbent, along with staff of the TIBM.

This will mark the second trip in as many years for Gananoque students.

Located on the St. Lawrence River in the 1000 Islands, the Antique Boat Museum features a collection of over 300 antique and classic boats, among thousands of recreational boating artifacts. In 2015, the ABM will host the 51^st annual Antique Boat Show and Auction, the longest running such show in North America. For more information, please visit the Museum’s website at ABM.org.

Taking the Gold, by M.A. Noble - Exciting new book with Singer Castle as its setting.

Author M.A. Noble presenting Singer Castle president Tom Weldon with her new book, Taking the Gold. Set on a tall ship, the plot culminates with numerous scenes in Singer Castle.

Maybe you know about Singer Castle’s hidden levers and secret passages. Maybe you know the manicured north lawn hides tons of imported topsoil. But have you ever wondered what that dirt conceals? Have you heard claims of a ghost that stalks the grounds on full-moonlit nights?

Fact blends with fiction in M. A. Noble’s novel Taking the Gold, set on a tall ship returning to the 1000 Islands. The author, also known as Margaret (Mag) Hockett, fell in love with the castle as a young woman employed by Dr. and Mrs. Harold Martin in the 70s to do housecleaning.

“Every detail of this replica of an old English castle and its island setting arouses a sense of romance, mystery, and magic. I was thrilled when Tom Weldon invited me to revisit the castle. I learned things I never knew as I dusted and vacuumed each room.”

Margaret worked for several educational publishers in California before returning to the North Country. She now writes novels, nonfiction, and lyrics. In her first novel, Taking Hart, also set in the Islands, teenaged Corey Worder solved the mystery of his War-of-1812 ancestry and his mother’s disappearance. Now, in Taking the Gold, he must set sail to face his father. As they race to find the British gold, an SOS from Singer Castle means Corey must forfeit the treasure. Or does it? The castle holds more secrets than anyone could have guessed.

Blount Small Ship Adventures Catalog and Singer Castle

Image of Blount Small Ship Adventures 2015 catalog.

Click on catalog link below to see actual catalog online.

Singer Castle on Dark Island is featured on the cover of the 2015 Blount Small Ship Adventures Cruise Catalog.  

Blount’s elegant ships, the Grande Mariner and the Grande Carribe stop at the castle during September and October each year bringing visitors from all over the US and from as far away as Australia. The ships also stop at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, NY.

Classic Boats Cruise to Singer Castle

Photo by Jean Papke

(Click on image to see it enlarged)

On Saturday, September 27^th a group of 24 classic boat enthusiasts took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and cruised from the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton to Singer Castle on Dark Island for a tour of the castle.  The five classic boats looked right at home tied up at the castle’s South Boathouse while the group enjoyed the tour. 

---Jean Papke, Administrative Assistant to the president at Singer Castle, Dark Island Tours.

Antique postcard picturing the South Boathouse & castle on Dark Island.