Bicentennial Peace Garden

Modeled on the International Peace Garden concept that originated in Canada in 1990, a permanent trail of peace gardens was established along the historic route where events of the War of 1812 determined the future of Canada, the United States, and the fate of many First Nations and Native American people. The garden trail covers over 600 miles in the USA and Canada and was undertaken cooperatively by the International Peace Garden Foundation, the 1812 Legacy Council, and many volunteers. It is intended to attract international visitors and residents of this historic region to enjoy the natural beauty of the gardens while commemorating the peace that has existed between Canada and the United States over the past 200 years. At this location, the garden also honors Brown's Berry Patch and the pioneer tenacity and diplomacy of Bathshua and Elijah Brown. Married in 1774, they rented a farm on Fishers Island off Connecticut, where in 1776 during the Revolutionary War a British captain took their livestock, possessions, and buildings. After moving elsewhere in Connecticut and then to Sodus, New York, they purchased a farm from the Holland Land Company and in 1804 settled on the Oak Orchard River near Lake Ontario. During the War of 1812, when British armed vessels on Lake Ontario hindered commerce along the south shore, a British captain was captured in a raid and brought before Bathshua Brown. She recognized him as the same captain who had plundered her family on Fishers Island in 1776 and gave him three choices: be turned over to American forces at Ridge Road, let her sons have at him, or return to his ship and never come back to the area. He chose to leave and was not seen again. Eight generations later, the farm had grown from a subsistence farm into a larger modern fruit farm and summer attraction, and in 2004 Brown's Berry Patch marked its 200th anniversary by receiving the New York State Bicentennial Farm Award and the I Love New York Governor's Agritourism Award. The War of 1812 began when the United States declared war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812, the first time the United States declared war on another nation. Fought from 1812 to 1814 between the United States and Great Britain, not between the U.S. and Canada, it grew from trade tensions, impressment, British support for Indian raids, and U.S. territorial expansion. In August 1814, British forces captured and burned Washington, DC. Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner in 1814 after witnessing the bombardment of Ft. McHenry by British naval ships, and it became the national anthem in 1931. After five months of negotiations, the Treaty of Ghent ended the war in late 1814, though news reached the U.S. weeks later, so the Battle of New Orleans took place after the treaty was signed. The war ultimately led to independence for both the U.S. and Canada.

Carlton, New York · United States