Steamboat Champlain II Aground

I’d like to introduce an interesting example of adaptive reuse. A little over 150 years ago a handsome passenger, steamboat, the Champlain II, ran aground just north of Rock Harbor in the very vicinity that brought Susan and me together almost 24 years ago.

Way back in the days when the Essex steamboat landing welcomed passenger ships (as did most towns and cities on Lake Champlain), it would’ve been common to see large ships playing the waters. Ferrying people and freight, these ships are difficult to imagine today when a 40 or 50 foot boat on a lake seems large. With the exception of the ferry boats in Essex, Plattsburgh, and Ticonderoga, most vessels on the lake are a far cry from the immense paddlewheel wonder documented in the historic image above.

Here’s the story.

The steamboat Oakes Ames was built in 1868 by the Napoleon B Proctor Shipyard in Burlington, Vermont for the Rutland Railroad. The 244-foot paddle wheeler was designed to ferry railroad cars from Burlington across Lake Champlain to Plattsburgh, New York. She was named after one of the railroad’s directors’ Oakes Ames.

In 1874, the ship was renamed and repurposed for passenger service as the Champlain II. The following year, on July 16, 1875, the ship was wrecked when it ran aground after drifting off course while being guided by a pilot under the influence of morphine. A salvage operation shortly afterwards removed much of the superstructure, leaving about a third of the wreck in place.

The site is now an archaeological site located… near Westport… It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. (Source: Wikipedia)

The steamer built to carry train cars, repurposed for ferrying passengers, wrecked on the Rock Harbor rocks, was salvaged with miscellaneous components becoming architectural and design elements in Essex, Westport, and beyond. As I understand it, the pilot house became an outbuilding at the Higginson property in present day Rock Harbor. the grand staircase was repurposed in a one time commercial, present day residential property on Main Street in Essex. And the immense Rudder adorned the eponymous Rudder Club at a marina in Essex for many years. The restaurant, now gone, ask the question whether or not the Rudder has been reimagined and repurposed once again?

Adaptive, reuse, again and again, on the Adirondack Coast of Lake Champlain. It’s in our DNA!