Windows of homes were blasted out, a bicycle rider was thrown to his knees and people miles away felt the shock as a massive pile of gunpowder exploded on the eastern side of town. Join us as we discuss this horrific disaster and how the city remains impacted.

Hosted by Christina Knott and Kelly Burdick. Intro/Outro music from Lithics. Editing is by Christina Knott. 

Special thanks to friend of the show, Larry, for his suggestion of today's topic.

If you have a comment of an idea to share, contact us at [email protected] or [email protected] or find us on Facebook and Instagram.

Kelly and Christina talk about several tragic historical events on her friend's birthday this week, as well as a stories about how colors helped save some feathery lives and how color-blindness led to an uncertain moment for the fate of a family's weekly food supply.

Read the full Sue Mende's full story about the colorfully-collared cats on our website.

Music is "All Hot Lights" by Podington Bear. Episode is edited by Olivia Belanger.

Contact us at [email protected] or [email protected] or find us on Facebook and Instagram.

April 22, 1869: Black River looses one bridge and one saw mill by the freshet. In Dexter, we hear the village is afloat, and that some people can’t get out of their houses, on account of the freshet.

The Great Flood of 1869 roared through communities in the north country 150 years ago, destroying bridges, business and anything else in its path. We talk about how this event wreaked havoc for days on end in villages and settlements all along the Black River, as well as how Watertown refused to let the disaster prevent them from uniting as a city.

 Hosted by Christina Knott and Kelly Burdick. Intro/Outro music from Lithics. Editing is by Christina Knott.

Visit the newspaper website at Watertown Daily Times.

Contact us at [email protected] or [email protected] or find us on Facebook and Instagram.

Charles “Huckleberry Charlie” Sherman, born on Feb. 15, 1842, in Watertown was a conspicuous figure of the north country, with a reputation that continues to intrigue local historians.

Join Christina Knott and special guest host Dennis O'Brien as we discuss this colorful character.

 Intro/Outro music from Lithics. Editing is by Olivia Belanger.

Read about Huckleberry Charlie and visit the newspaper website at Watertown Daily Times.

Contact us at [email protected] or [email protected] or find us on Facebook and Instagram.

It's easy to romanticize the past, but not everyone had gilded storybook lives. Today we talk about Nellie Thompson, who appears in several crime stories in the Watertown Daily Times starting around April 6, 1894.

We don't know much about her, but we reading between the lines, Kelly and Christina take a second look at this woman to try to understand more about her life and the complications of growing up on the bad part of town.

Music is "Skychaser" by Les Rosevere.

Contact us at [email protected] or [email protected] or find us on Facebook and Instagram.

This week we have several highlights in local and national history, a (short) discussion on Civil Rights and Kelly remembers a murder in her hometown that still troubles some today.

Reach out to Kelly and Christina at [email protected] or [email protected]. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram.

Music is "Let That Sink In" by Lee Rosevere.

Our first "Did you know" episodes takes a look at Watertown businessman Frank Olean, the man who implemented set prices for local clothing stores and helped build the fraternal spirit of Public Square that exists today.

Music is "Curious" thanks to the talents of Podington Bear.

Contact us at [email protected] or [email protected] or find us on Facebook and Instagram.

Visit the newspaper website at Watertown Daily Times.

Our first history highlights episode is a quick look at the headlines in this week in history from the New York north country and around the world.

This week we talk about the opening of trout season, the return of Charlie Chaplin, a president's final train ride and someone's clever (?) April Fool's Day trick that made it into the newspaper and more.

Find a free e-edition of the Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.

Music is "Moving On Up" thanks to the talents of Podington Bear.

Contact us at [email protected] or [email protected] or find us on Facebook and Instagram.

Visit the newspaper website at Watertown Daily Times.

Second Look examines the history of the largest, yet most sparsely populated region of New York state to uncover the interesting, surprising and unusual stories of the north country.

If you've ever been through Watertown, N.Y., you're likely to have noticed the name Henry Keep. How did he make such a mark on the north country? We talk about that and how his story reflects his time in history in this third part of a series on Henry Keep.

Links:
www.instagram.com/second_look_history/
www.facebook.com/SecondLookHistory 

Contact us:
[email protected]
[email protected]

 Intro/Outro music from Lithics.

For more about Henry Keep:

Dave Shampine books
https://www.amazon.com/Dave-Shampine/e/B0039T9WMG

Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Keep_(businessman)

The sound isn't great in this episode. Like a lot of our earlier shows, it was recorded as we were still figuring out our sound setup.

Hopefully, you are used to our improved audio at this point, but we decided to go ahead and release this show a bonus episode because I thought it might be interesting for listeners to hear more about what goes on behind the scenes of our show.