CRAB ISLAND, N.Y. (WCAX) – Just a short distance from Plattsburgh by boat, a volunteer and patriot of a different kind, has maintained a historic island on Lake Champlain for going on three decades.
On a hot July day, many North Country residents may be relaxing in the shade, but Roger Harwood is loading up his boat with his lawnmower as he gets ready to jet out to Crab Island.
“Asked permission to come up here and do something and I have been here ever since,” said the Peru resident.
The island just outside Plattsburgh Bay played a pivotal role during the War of 1812 and was utilized as a military field hospital during the Battle of Plattsburgh, as well as a final resting place for roughly 150 Canadian, British, and American soldiers.
“Their names are on the monument down at the flagpole — some of those names. So, it’s a pretty special and historic place, and some of us get caught by it,” Harwood said.
Every summer, Harwood and his crew mow countless trails and monuments to get the site ready for September’s Battle of Plattsburgh commemoration.
“The first September 11th that we honored men out here was the day of the Trade Center bombings and I said to the man in charge of the veterans, What do we do? He says there is no better day. So, we had been doing it a few years before that but that was a real significant day,” Harwood said.
Through the years, the crew has rediscovered old trails that had been reclaimed by the island’s dense vegetation, also remnants of a former steward’s house and what was believed to be a gun battery.
It’s a hard job that Harwood says is his duty to remember those who died on the island almost 210 years ago. “I’m not a veteran. That’s part of what brings me here. It’s a way to honor those people — and I enjoy mowing,” he said. But at 82, he knows it won’t last forever. “My hope is from the very beginning is that somebody would pay attention to it and take it over.”