"Near this spot, Pierre Huet de La Valinière, Sulpician missionary, built the first Catholic church in N.E. New York, 1790"

"Matthew Sax erected the first steamboat wharf between Whitehall, NY and St. Johns, Quebec, 1808"

"1763 Homestead site of Jean La Framboise, first settler in Clinton County..."

"Near this spot Capt. de Chazy, soldier of France, was killed by Mohawk Indians, 1666"

The blue and yellow signs that mark historic sites are so familiar that sometimes they simply blend into the landscape. As local history...