Age Doesn’t Matter in the Wheelhouse

By Mike Costanza

For Capt. Frederick Folsom, the best part of working for the Corn Hill Waterfront and Navigation Foundation is taking local elementary school children out on the water.

“Sometimes, two-thirds of the kids have never been on a boat before,” the 64-year-old said. “To be able to offer that experience for them is huge.”

Each year, Corn Hill Navigation’s boats take thousands of kids and adults out onto the Genesee River and the Erie Canal.

More than just pleasurable rides on the water, the trips are opportunities to learn about those waterways, their histories and how to preserve them for the community and its people. The nonprofit is based at Corn Hill Landing in Rochester and has a kiosk on the waterfront at Pittsford’s Schoen Place.

Corn Hill Navigation’s history goes back to 1991, when the late Edward P. “Ted” Curtis co-founded the nonprofit.

Curtis, whose resume included a stint in the CIA, several years at the Eastman Kodak Company and a brief time as city manager of Rochester, had a keen interest in the badly polluted Genesee River. Fran Gotcsik came to know him back then through her position at the nonprofit Parks & Trails New York, which works to expand, protect and promote the use of the state’s trails, parks and open spaces.

“He felt…there wasn’t enough attention paid to the health of the Genesee River and that the only way that the condition of the Genesee River would improve was if people actually experienced it,” the 78-year-old said.

Curtis and Corn Hill Navigation’s other co-founders led the effort to give people that experience. In 1991, the nonprofit’s first boat, the Sam Patch, docked at Corn Hill Landing on what is now Rochester’s Exchange Boulevard.

“It was the first commercial vessel to dock in downtown Rochester in 30 years,” Gotcsik said.

The craft, a custom-build replica of a classic canal packet boat, is named after the daredevil Sam Patch, who earned fame and money in the 1800s by jumping from great heights. He died in 1829 after jumping into the Genesee from Rochester’s High Falls.

Gotcsik eventually became the director of programs and policies for Parks & Trails New York and retired. The Lima resident began volunteering for Corn Hill Navigation in 2016.

“I have had a lifelong commitment to historic preservation and environmental stewardship in my professional and volunteer activities and felt that Corn Hill Navigation’s mission combined both these interests,” Gotcsik said.

She currently sits on the nonprofit’s board of directors and was once its chairwoman.

Corn hill Navigation has grown since the Sam Patch began plying the Genesee and the Erie Canal. In 2005, it acquired the Mary Jemison, which was named after a colonial woman who was captured by Native Americans as a child and was eventually adopted by a Seneca family. The nonprofit took that boat out of service in 2013 and eventually sold it. In June of 2023, it put its latest acquisition, the sleek Riverie, into service.

Nowadays, the two boats run from mid-May to as late in the year as the end of October, depending on the weather and when the Erie Canal closes for the year. The Sam Patch usually cruises the canal from Schoen Place in Pittsford to Lock 32 and back, while the Riverie generally runs from Corn Hill Landing south to just inside the Erie Canal, then turns around. Both trips usually take about 90 minutes, though some of Riverie’s trips can take as much as two-and-a-half hours.

Older adults help make those trips possible. Twenty-seven of Corn Hill Navigation’s 42 paid employees and 10 of the 14 members of its all-volunteer board are 55 years old and older. In addition, the nonprofit can call upon another 30 volunteers or so when the need arises, some of whom are older adults. All come together to help the nonprofit accomplish its goals.

“Education is a thread that runs through everything that we do,” said Lisa Wing, who chairs Corn Hill Navigation’s board. “We want to make sure that people experience and enjoy our local waterways, but also walk away with a new sense of pride and understanding in the role of those waterways in our history and the development of our community.”

To those ends, the 64-year-old retired school principal helped write “Environmental Education on the Genesee,” an instructional program for use with elementary school students.

“It focuses on ecology, water quality and the health of the river and canal as habitat for all of the wildlife that make their home there,” the Webster resident said.

Each year, thousands of Rochester City School District fifth graders board one of Corn Hill Navigation’s boats — usually the Riverie — to learn about the Genesee. Once aboard, they rotate through three stations at which they assess the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the water.

Environmental educators or educational assistants stand by at each station to assist them.

Once the kids have gathered their data, Corn Hill Navigation downloads it to the Finger Lakes Regional Stream Monitoring Network’s database, where it can be accessed by other researchers.

“They’re like young citizen scientists, because the information that they’re collecting is actually going to inform other people about the status of the river,” Wing said.

In addition to its science program, Corn Hill Navigation offers onboard instructional programs to school children and adults that focus upon the histories of the Genesee and the Erie Canal, and their contributions to this area.

“We have regular narrated cruises that provide adults with information on both the river and the canal,” Wing said.

In addition, some of the nonprofit’s cruises feature live music and
other attractions.

About 15,000 people traveled on Corn Hill Navigation’s boats in 2023 alone, including about 3.000 children. One of them made a strong impression on Capt. Folsom as she boarded his boat.

“She was coming on the boat in tears, and had never been on a boat and was terrified,” he said.

After just a short time on the water, her tears vanished.

“She had the biggest grin on her face and was so happy,” Folsom said. “That’s something that’ll be in my memory for a long time.”

The little girl might not have been so afraid if she’d known how carefully Corn Hill Navigation safeguards its passengers. In keeping with federal regulations, every one of the men and women who guide its ships has been licensed by the US Coast Guard to take their helms. To qualify for that license, they had to undergo extensive training, pass numerous examinations and spend a full year at sea aboard vessels of the appropriate size.

Prior to signing up with Corn Hill Navigation nearly three years ago, Folsom captained boats up and down the Eastern Seaboard, on the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River and the Caribbean Sea and in other parts of the world.

“I ran 150-foot supply boats for the oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico and a private yacht from Washington State up to Alaska,” he said.

These days, the Rochester resident particularly enjoys watching the seasons change as he cruises the Genesee while on the job.

“You can see it in the spring and how green it is now and in the summer and in the fall with the leaves turning and the migratory birds that are along the Genesee River,” he said. “It’s spectacular.”

When not doing his paid gig for Corn Hill Navigation, Folsom volunteers for the nonprofit and sits on its board.

In addition to having licensed, trained officers at the wheels of its boats, Corn Hill Navigation carefully maintains the vessels. Their engines are inspected at least once a day while in service.

“Every piece of that engine, the water intakes, the cooling (system), everything is checked before the boat leaves,” said Capt. Kathryn Tingley, who has been taking the nonprofit’s boats out on the water on and off for about the past seven years.

The inspections are very important. Like all engines, those that power the Sam Patch and Riverie can suffer breakdowns, though they occur only occasionally.

“Both boats are very safe,” Tingley said. “There are no issues with them that are out of the ordinary for your general motors and serviceability of any passenger vessel.”

If a boat breaks down, its captain is ready to deal with the problem. That might involve something as simple as tying up at a canal lock and having a crew from Corn Hill Navigation take the passengers back to their cars.

Prior to joining Corn Hill Navigation, Tingley worked as a deckhand on a local tour boat, a deckhand and purser on a replica of an 1812 naval schooner and captained boats in Florida. Though her current job takes her out on the water, it doesn’t take her completely away from her family. Her husband, Capt. Larry Sill, also helms Corn Hill Navigation’s boats.

For more information on Corn Hill Navigation and its programs, go to: https://cornhillnav.org.