French Frontiersmen in Greater Western New York

We might not know who the first human to step foot in the Greater Western New York Region was, but we have a good idea who the first European was. Can you guess? Click the link below for this week’s episode of The State of Greater Western New York Report to see if you can Parlez Vous “First Frontier.”

Christopher Carosa, Deputy Historian for the Town of Mendon, NY, starts the show off by sharing what initially drove the French to the New World. After a litany of explorers from Giovanni da Verrazano to Jacques Cartier, to Samuel de Champlain, he explains how the search of the Canadian El Dorado shifted to establishing settlements and more rational economic goals.

Carosa moves the story to the Western New York Frontier in the show’s second half. He even reads from eyewitness descriptions of what these European travelers saw and felt about their “Ne Discovery.” He relays the story of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. He even includes a favorite tourist attraction that was the home of not one, not two, but three French forts.

Our guest happily answered questions from the live audience. In fact, these are probably some of the same questions you had. Would you like to be a live audience member so you can ask our guests questions? Click here to join the growing number of members who share your feelings on StateOf.GreaterWesternNewYork.com because then we can automatically send you the link to watch our shows live.

Theme music by “mansardian” courtesy of FreeSound.org under Creative Commons License Attribution 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/