Boondocks Royalty

11/22/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1FAWGQcGkM/

10/20/2025

Upstate New York’s Lake Ontario Castles Road Trip takes you to seven of the state’s most amazing castles! Start at Boldt Castle on Heart Island, a grand 1900 home with an unfinished love story. Then visit Singer Castle with its stone towers, secret rooms, and lakeside views. Greystone Castle stands proudly above the water, while the ruins of The White Lady’s Castle come with spooky ghost tales. Belhurst Castle & Winery blends a 19th-century stone mansion with great food and wine. Old Fort Niagara shares 1700s battle history in a castle-like fort. Across the border, Dundurn Castle in Canada shows life in a Victorian mansion!

📍Singer Castle (Chippewa Bay, NY)
📍Greystone Castle (Canastota, NY)
📍Boldt Castle (Alexandria Bay, NY)
📍The White Lady’s Castle (Rochester, NY)
📍Belhurst Castle & Winery (Geneva, NY)
📍Old Fort Niagara (Youngstown, NY)
📍Dundurn Castle (Hamilton, Ontario, CAN)

09/05/2025

The Ice-Cutters of the Great Lakes
Before the era of refrigeration, the harvesting of ice from the frozen Great Lakes was a massive, brutal industry. Each winter, crews of ice-cutters would venture onto the thick ice of lakes like Michigan and Erie. Using horse-drawn plows and massive saws, they would score the surface into a grid and cut huge, crystal-clear blocks. Men like "Big Jim" O'Malley, a foreman from Chicago, led teams that worked in sub-zero temperatures and blinding snow squalls, their beards frozen solid with ice. The blocks were then transported to massive, insulated ice houses lining the shores, where they were packed in sawdust to last through the summer. This ice would be shipped on specially designed ice barges to cities across the Midwest, preserving food and cooling drinks. It was dangerous work; men could easily slip into the freezing water or be crushed by shifting ice. O'Malley's saying was: "We're not just cutting ice; we're harvesting winter to make summer bearable." The industry vanished with modern refrigeration, but for a century, it was a vital part of the national economy.

07/19/2025

06/15/2025

05/23/2025

The Kinzua Bridge, also known as the Kinzua Viaduct, was once the world’s tallest and longest railroad bridge. Located in McKean County, Pennsylvania, it was originally built in 1882 to transport trains across the Kinzua Creek Valley. The bridge stood 301 feet high and stretched 2,053 feet long. It was partially destroyed by a tornado in 2003, which caused a large section to collapse. Today, the remaining part has been transformed into a pedestrian skywalk with a glass platform, offering stunning views of the valley below. It is a key feature of Kinzua Bridge State Park and a popular tourist attraction.

05/18/2025

15 Castles You Might Not Expect Hiding In New York > https://www.travellerselixir.com/castles-in-new-york/

05/07/2025

Ultimate Lake Ontario Lighthouses Road Trip > https://www.travellerselixir.com/lake-ontario-lighthouses-road-trip/