St. Kateri At Her Shrine (And An Update On A Fountain Photo)

My friend who lives in Upstate New York passed the Kateri Shrine and stopped for a quick visit.

While there, he took a photo of Kateri, for me.

I did visit the shrine back when I visited Oswego in 2012, so this was not totally new to me.

Though it was wonderful to see her, once again.

Especially in this time of Covid.

While researching old posts about this area of Upstate New York, I came upon a POST with this photo I had taken down the road from the shrine, at Palentine Bridge. At the time I took the photo the Internet had nothing on the water pump. I have since found information on it and thought I would post it here.

Right across the Mohawk River was a different town. A quarter mile and a world away, so it seems. It is known as Palentine Bridge and it is a very small rural area. Just a wide spot on the road I took to get to the St. Kateri Shrine. As a matter of fact, it was the only town on that 10 mile stretch of road.

I had seen this park and monument as I drove down to the shrine, so on the way back, I stopped. It was just a piece of grass, some picnic tables along the river...and this structure. It didn't even have a legitimate place to park, but I did so in spite of that. Once I got up to the structure, I saw that it had a water pump inside it. No sign to indicate why the town would go out of its way, to build a castle like structure around a water pump. No searches are coming up with a reason, either. So here I am, showing it to you so that you can see that there is a monument to water, in the tiny town of Palentine Bridge.

Update: 9/13/2021

I did a search in 2021 and found out this fountain marks the beginning of the Continental Road.

The Continental Road leading from this village to Otsego Lake has been marked at this terminus by a drinking fountain of Vermont granite, by the DAR.

The why of what is the Continental Road, I found on another article.

"Washington appointed General John Sullivan to lead the expedition with Brigadier General James Clinton second in command. In 1779 Sullivan moved up the Susquehanna River from central Pennsylvania, while Clinton gathered 1,500 men on the Mohawk River in New York. Setting out from Canajoharie, Clinton moved south to Otsego Lake, the headwaters of the Susquehanna, to follow the river and link up with Sullivan near the New York-Pennsylvania border. It took Clinton’s men two weeks to cut a primitive road through the forests from the Mohawk Valley to a location on the Otsego Lake just below the current site of Hyde Hall. The approximate route of Clinton’s road is now known as the Continental Road, named after the Continental Army." You can read more about it, HERE.