Friends of the Clyde Blockhouse
Trading Post
Fort
Smugglers' Hideout
1722-1788
Replica Clyde Blockhouse, built 1975-76.
Map, circa 1750, showing the trail from the Sodus Bay to Canadesaga, via the Clyde River.
The early settlements of Lauraville and Blockhouse (1818).
Replica Clyde Blockhouse, built 1975-76.
THE BLOCKHOUSE
Dating to 1722, the Clyde Blockhouse was a fort and trading post built at Clyde, NY. It was located on a rise of ground just west of Blockhouse Creek, near the bank of the Clyde River. Clyde was also the site of an earlier French trading post, an Iroquois village, and least two other blockhouses. A replica of the blockhouse was built near the original site in 1976.
The structure was described as being two stories in height, with the upper overhanging the lower and having loopholes to fire down at attackers. It had a floor of split logs and no chimney.
Blockhouse Online
Blockhouse 2022
The Clyde Blockhouse will reach its 300th anniversary in 2022. Time to start thinking about how to celebrate this momentous occasion.
Legends & Lore
Early in 2017, the Village of Clyde obtained a grant for a Legends & Lore marker, for Butler's Cannon. See the "Sullivan Campaign" page.
Local History
Here are links to local history websites that have information about Wayne County, the Town of Galen, Sodus Bay, etc.
http://www.galenhistoricalsociety.org/visit.htm
http://web.co.wayne.ny.us/office-of-the-county-historian/brief-history-of-wayne-county-new-york/
http://www.historicsoduspoint.com/other/french-fort-on-sodus-bay/
Latest Project
We are working to apply for grant money to establish a "Clyde on the Erie Heritage Trail Center" at Heritage Park, with a connecting "Blockhouse Loop Trail" to and through Blockhouse Park. The facilities would be readily accessible from the Empire State Trail, which is scheduled for completion in the Lyons-Clyde-Savannah-Port Byron area next year.
UPDATE: The "Clyde on the Erie" Heritage Trail Center & Blockhouse Loop Trail grant application was submitted 1-12-18.
NEW EVIDENCE
This website contains recently uncovered information concerning the origin, use and ultimate destruction of the Clyde Blockhouse. It is the first new research to be published since 1905. This website is an ongoing project and will be updated on a regular basis.