TAUNY, Traditional Arts in Upstate New York, will present a screening of two Niagara Mohawk promotional videos, Floating Islands and Workhorse River, on Thursday, September 28 from 7 to 9 pm at The TAUNY Center in Canton.

These videos will give viewers the chance to witness the Raquette River power project – and one of the river’s most distinctive and challenging features, the “floating islands” of Higley Flow – through the eyes and ears of the Colton building boom era.

In the 1960s, the power company Niagara Mohawk (NiMo) made these two short promotional videos to present the scope of their accomplishments over the previous decade with the hydro projects on the Raquette, to show how they handled the boggy islands that kept mucking up their works, and to highlight the generating power of the river itself. There will also be one or two special guests on hand at the screening to share their own memories of the floating islands and the Raquette River power project.

There is a suggested donation of $5 for this program. Light refreshments will be served.

This program is a part of the program series for TAUNY’s latest exhibit, “‘Look Down, You’ll See Our Tracks’: Raquette River Dam Stories.” This exhibit tells the stories of people involved in or significantly affected by the construction of the hydroelectric dams and powerhouses along the Raquette River. The exhibit will be on view at The TAUNY Center until October 21, 2017.

The TAUNY Center is located at 53 Main Street, Downtown Canton. TAUNY, Traditional Arts in Upstate New York, is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping people understand and appreciate the folk traditions and local culture of everyday life – present and past – in the North Country.

For more information, click here.

Photos: Niagara Mohawk brochure cover, c. early 1950s; Floating islands going over Higley Dam, c. 1943, courtesy Potsdam Public Museum.