July 17 Wednesday 2009 Thousand Islands
We come across a large turtle crossing the road on the KOA grounds. We drive to New York state to go on our Thousand Island tours. We get a shuttle at Schermerhorn harbour for Singer Castle on Dark Island. This was a duck hunting lodge of Frederick G Bourne 5th president of the Singer sewing machine Co. Singer Castle is a 5 story ,28 room mansion designed by New York architect E Flagg. We have a wonderful guide who has worked here for 25 years so she really knows her stuff. What really makes the castle interesting is the secret passageways, an underground tunnel and a
turret dungeon. This was all inspired by description of the Castle in "The towers" in the novel Woodstock by Sir Walter Scott. Singer castle was a private residence for 100 years and wasn't opened to the public until 2003. The lake freezes over in the winter so it is only opened from Mid May to Mid October.