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Sharing Memories With Earl Spaulding That Include The Champlain Bridge And Both Sides Of Lake Champlain

photo by Warren Case The Lake Champlain Bridge links two states and joins Earl Spaulding in a lifespan that continues to be remarkable.

photo provided Earl and his granddaughter Shelby appreciate the importance of a good hat and the lifestyle that holds family as the center point.

Tuesday December 22, 2009

By Cookie Steponaitis

   Earl Spaulding was born in Cheever, New York but was nine years old, and living in Crown Point when the Champlain Bridge opened on August 26, 1929. He remembers all the “hubbub” and “…that you couldn’t get real close on that first day cause all the important folks were down there.”  While Earl was not impressed by the host of visiting dignitaries including FD Roosevelt, he was awed by the construction of the bridge linking two states at a point twelve miles from Crown Point on the New York side to Chimney Point on the Vermont side. “We used to go down to watch the construction,” Earl recalled. “It was sure something to see them build, even the road out to the bridge itself. They used horses and old dump carts. We would drive out an old Ford car at night out to where construction ended that day. We didn’t care about the ruts and the mud. We just wanted to see how the bridge was coming. That bridge was a jewel to both states.”

     The Champlain Bridge and Earl’s life would be linked many times over the years at key juncture points in the story of both man and bridge. Earl and his family were in one of the first cars to drive across the new structure when it opened to traffic, and October 16th, 2009 was a day that would again connect him to the bridge’s story. Earl was running late that day and needed to get to Vermont to attend his grandson Jeremy’s wedding. Upon arriving at the New York side, Earl was chagrined to find a single line of traffic and a lot of activity. “I was just grateful to get over,” he remembered. “What I didn’t realize was that two cars after mine, the bridge was officially shut to traffic permanently. We had to take the Grand Isle ferry home that night after the wedding.”

    Earl’s life story included almost weekly trips through the years over the bridge with large loads of lumber and timber from his sawmill. A resident of Crown Point since he was four months old, Earl has lived and worked with people on both sides of the lake since his birth in 1920. “I am nearly the youngest of a family of nine,” he said and knew from a young age how to work and treat people in business dealings. He worked several jobs as a youth including farmer, lumber jack and machinist in Springfield, Vermont during the war years of 1941-1945. While he was there Earl remarked that he, “met a girl, and the truth be told, she thought they should get married right away.” Earl, however, had no intentions of marrying and came back to Crown Point to buy a homestead and get started on having a place. He had two cars and sold one to make the down payment on the house and 171 acres that is still the Spaulding homestead to this day. However, Earl and his girl Virginia kept in close contact and she even, “…wrote a letter to him every day, but after a while when he got a letter stating she was thinking about going to New York to become a stewardess,” he put his plan into action. He took Virginia to Canada and proposed to her. Their marriage and life long partnership lasted fifty-eight years until her death in 2004 and included three children, Joseph, Chris and Mary Lynn, ten grandchildren and one great grandchild.

     Throughout all those years, Earl’s sawmill on the property in Crown Point was running full tilt with customers that included Republic Steel  in Mineville, New York, Mastercraft in Homesdale, New Jersey, wood for unfinished furniture and hundreds of customers who needed timber for barns, homes, Adirondack siding and many other projects. The saws were always humming and Earl was always busy. “Over the years,” Earl remarked, “it is impossible to know exactly how much lumber we cut, but I know it was an awful big amount. We rebuilt the mill three times and it still is in working order. I shut it down six years ago, but just last summer my son Chris fired it up for a special project. Some friends were getting married at a camp and needed a wooden dance floor. So, sure enough one appeared.”

    With no two orders alike, the diversity of lumber produced at the mill included cedar, hemlock, pine and a mixture of hard and soft woods. Business linked Earl with farmers and mills on both sides of the lake and he spoke at length about the great people he dealt with. “Mr. Johnson, over in Bristol,” commented Earl. “Now that was a superb man and one of his word. It seems I was always in the mill or in the truck hauling over across the lake, down to Albany, or maybe New Jersey. It was a 94 mile trip to Lion Mountain and the mines as it was. When I look back at some of the loads we took up those roads in the dead of winter we always got through. Some mornings it would be negative maybe 30 below at the mill and I would say to the workers ‘if that motor starts, we have to work.’ You know the dang thing never quit, not even once! So, we worked.”

     Driving up to Earl’s home for the interview, it wasn’t surprising to find him missing. He came in from the barn with no apology but the declaration, “Sorry, but a man has chores to do. Last night the furnace quit and I was up seeing that something got done with that.” With a smile and a shake of his head, the interview had begun. While  he’s approaching 90, no one who meets Earl would have a clue. With a handshake that would drop many younger men to their knees and a gleam in his eye, Earl is just as busy at 89 as always. “Well,” he grinned. “I kinda got to admit that I am slacking a bit. Since I closed the mill I don’t work as near as much as I used to.”

     Glancing around the home and the sawmill and at equipment that sits meticulously cleaned and in working order, it is hard to imagine that Earl sits down too long on any given day. His tractor from 1950 runs just as good as it did then and other pieces of farm equipment sit ready for use. “When I think about all the timbers we sawed out there,” Earl remarked, “I just get a huge grin. I kind of like to work and saw you know.” Listening to the memories shared also by his two daughters-in- law who were present, it is apparent that little slows Earl down, until recently that is.

    “That bridge being closed is more than just inconvenient,” he stated. “It is a death sentence to business and people on both sides. Why just yesterday I went over to go to Shaw’s in Vergennes to get my Christmas ham and I was almost an hour on both sides of the ferry waiting to get on. The people who rely on that link between the two sides of the lake are struggling. It is more than a bridge. It is a way that business moves.”

    When hearing about the planned demolition Earl’s eyes sparkled and he was quick to want to reserve his seat at the event. “Probably won’t be able to get too close,” he commented. “But I will have my son Chris take me up on a mountain I know where you can get a view of the whole thing. I want to see her go and then I will want to be there for the raising of the new one.

     The passing of the bridge documents an era in the history of two states and stands as testimony to the active life of Earl Spaulding. Loved by his family and known on both sides of the lake as a man of his word and for his ability to cut a timber to any size or shape, Earl Spaulding looks at 90 with the same zest that has carried with him his whole life. “That bridge was a jewel, and that best be remembered,” he commented.

    Earl stands ready to drive over the new bridge when it opens in a couple of years. He’s got people to see, visiting, and business to do, and since his life has always been on both sides of the lake, the bridge is his connection to home, work and the people who call him a friend. The staff of the Valley Voice salutes Earl Spaulding and his strong willed work ethic that carved a homestead out of the woods in Crown Point and forever joined a man and a bridge together in history as partners in shaping the development of two states.

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