Re: [[DL] Erie Canal] long

[Celia <dactyle@usa.net>]

Ah the Erie canal -beautiful and eerie.

I went to highschool up in Syracuse area which is right smack in the
middle of the state and the run of the canal.  Beautiful country with
rolling hills just shy of mountainous, and thick with forests. Smaller
lakes, swamps and water falls are in great quantity as well.  Some of the
more famous ones are Buttermilk falls, and Watkins Glen.
Your fear factor might depend on what time of year the posse are going
through. The winters are very bleak, and sometimes dangerous white outs
occur with the lake effect snow fall.  You literaly can have no vision due
to snow and see a mile away the very next second. I once saw a storm
front's approach and cover us inside of a minute.  At first it was a
beautiful morning with amber sky and sun, then a shadow appeared on the
horizon.  Slowly the sky changed from amber to purple as a wall of snow
approached from the left. Then it covered us and the sun was a rapidly
dimming orange spot in a deep blue field.

Mother's day back in '97 my mother had snow on the ground up there. With
cloud cover 7 months out of the year it can be a very depressing area to
live in the winter(perhaps only beat by Seattle.) This is why even to this
day College students in Cornell and Ithaca (Ithaqua!) still occasionally
throw themselves to their death in the beautiful gorges.
In the valley's we have what we call muck lands.  They're the flat old
lake beds from before the lakes shrunk back (some of them are still
swampland), in between the remains of the muddy bands (the muck part)
there are slightly hilly bits -remnants of the old sandbars.

Chances are they just couldn't be using the canal in the dead of winter
-it would be frozen over so I'll try an give you some ideas for warmer bits:

Black flies and mosquitoes would definitly be a problem
peepers at night make a lovely and constant din in the spring particularly
red winged black birds are common especially in wetlands (just a stroke of
red on their wings)
purple loosestrife blooms in the wetlands in the spring and summer
poison sumac is common as well
In the midsummer wheat and barley fields are a rich golden brown with
rippling tufts like the back of an irish setter.

I would emphasize the darkness of the water, even near the bank it's
almost black, and the way the trees overhang and shadow the boat.  It's
cow country (milk cows) and it's amazing how neatly they nibble the grass
down to almost nothing, so that it looks like there's just a skin of green
covering the ground.

Last summer I was up there doing some of the Lake Cayuga wine trail (wine
industry would be pretty new and potentially controversial up there in the
1870's as the furor that led to the prohibition was just begining), I also
went around to some of the beautiful old cemetarys in the area.  (still
have to develop some of those photos) Arches for headstones were pretty
common to the sites.

I'd do some research on the indian tribes of the area - there were a lot
of them banded together into the Iroquois nation.  There were communes and
group marriages(and tons of revialism) check for the one in Oneida I've
forgotten the name but there's a good bit about it in a book entitled "an
underground education..?" I'll check on it tonight.  And remember this is
the state that spawned the mormons. . .

The Antimasonry movement was well over by the 1870's but someone might
still talk about the mysterious disapearance of William Morgan after
printing his expose of the Freemasons. (He was last known to be alive at
Ft.Niagara I believe) His kidnappers never confessed to killing him, he
just disappeared...

(Horseheads NY is where the US cavalry men of the Union buried their
horses, the Confederate surrender demanded their horses death -not that
our alternate history can really use that...)

Just a few tidbits and details that maybe you can use..

;)
Celia




Brad and Lanica Klein <lanicak@att.net> wrote:
> Hi again,
>
> I've got a posse acting as escorts for a very rich lady from Boston to
> Chicago.  They have made it to Albany, New York with no real problems
> and are going to take the Erie Canal to Buffalo and then catch a ship to
> Toledo.
>
> As silly as this sounds I never expected them to take the canal. Do you
> have any ideas for 'weirdness' upon the very calm, peaceful, and quiet
> waters?  Let's see, it's four feet deep, the boats move at four miles
> and hour and they are convinced that nothing can go wrong...that tells
> you how much these players know about the world of Deadlands. Oh yeah,
> I've started my campaign in Jan. 1864 and am working quickly through
> main alternate history points since none are familiar with the game.
> It's now late March, 1864. I would like something subtle, they haven't
> even met undead yet.  Granted it's only the fourth gaming session...
>
> I'm thinking about an encounter with a huckster or a shyster that is
> staying on their 'semi-private' boat. I have a freed-man and an Irish
> servant as extras that travel with their employer.  I was also thinking
> of having someone take offence to either race. Neither of these are very
> spooky but they're my fall backs.
>
> I am going to have one city encounter when the boat is forced to take a
> long wait at a lock, so I'm asking for help while they're on the water.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Lanica
>
>
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"Hah! I'm no longer just a cup of hot water waiting for that teaball of evil!
I've blown out the pyschic red lantern, I've closed the proverbial *pyschic
legs* so GET SNUFFED!  and then we'll talk."


Danielle (Cup o' Hot water) Morneau

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