Let's Just Go Somewhere: 1000 Islands -- The American Side

Ken and Bonnie had told us about the 1000 Islands area and Boldt Castle which were only about an hour north of where we were staying. On Friday morning, we drove to Clayton, New York, which is located on the St. Lawrence River and went out on the Clayton Boat Tours "Two Nation / Boldt Castle" tour. Because I took so many pictures, I broke up the blog post into 3 posts. The American Side of the 1000 Islands, Boldt Castle, and the Canadian side of the 1000 Islands.

The 1000 Islands is actually a group of 1,864 islands located on the St. Lawrence River between the United States and Canada just northeast of where Lake Ontario begins running into the St. Lawrence River.

We left the dock at little after 10 am with a small group of only about 9 tourists plus Captain Chuck (that really was his name) and the tour guide (sorry, I can't remember his name).

A perfect day for a boat ride on the St. Lawrence River!

No, I am not asleep -- unlike other sneaky pictures
my husband has taken of me on boat rides. :)

During the late 1800's and early 1900's, the area became a summer resort for the wealthy and several luxurious hotels were built on the islands like Emery Castle on Calumet Island in the picture below.

Most (if not all) of these luxurious hotels are gone now. According to our tour guide, several of them burned down and the owners didn't want the fires put out so they could collect the insurance money.

Below is what is on Calumet Island now:

We rode past the local post office which was also on an island. I wonder if the mailman delivers the mail by boat??? :)

Next, we rode by Rock Island Lighthouse,

This nice house had an island all to itself,

And then we rode by these summer cottages along the backside of Wellesley Island.

We rode under the American side of the 1000 Island bridges.

The 1000 Island Bridges are actually a series of 5 bridges that span parts of the St. Lawrence River connecting the American and Canadian sides of the river What is really amazing is that the entire 1000 Islands Bridge system only took 16 months to complete at a cost of $3 million in 1937.

It is absolutely amazing to me how many things we have seen during our 4 1/2 years of full-timing that were built during the Depression Era of the 1930's. And are still standing and functional!!

I was hoping we would see some of the big carrier ships like what we saw at the Soo Locks at Sault St. Marie, Michigan, last summer. The first big boat we saw was this very big "pirate-looking" sailing ship.