In the pre-dawn hours of August 2nd, 1826, Alexander Stewart Scott stepped aboard the steamboat Chambly in Quebec City, Canada. He was beginning a journey that not only took him across New York State but also ultimately changed his view of America and her people.
A keen observer, the 21-year-old Scott meticulously recorded his travel experiences, observations about the people he encountered, impressions of things he saw, and reactions to events he witnessed. » Continue Reading.
When the earliest Adirondack maps were drawn, Gore Mountain’s true summit could not be clearly identified. As colonial surveyor Verplanck Colvin put it “the highest point always seemed to disappear in the intricate group of peaks of which the mountain was composed.”
As the area around the mountain was increasingly surveyed, a “gore” developed between two large tracts of land, Hyde’s Patent, and the southeast line of the Totten & Crossfield Purchase. It was in or near this gore – a surveyor’s term indicating an unmapped triangular or tapered area between two surveyed areas that does not connect (or close) along a common line – that the mountain sat. » Continue Reading.
$1,000,000 in grants from the Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC) is being made available through a new four-state program dubbed the “Northern Heritage Economy Grant Program.”
The grants are offered to nonprofit organizations and municipalities undertaking locally driven historic preservation projects with strong community and economic revitalization potential. The grant is expected to be split evenly among the four states. » Continue Reading.
Innovative Adirondackers are responsible for countless innovations in the paper industry, according to paper historian Dr. Stephen Cernek.
Cernek is working to convert the former International Paper building in Corinth into a museum with local, regional and international support. He will be be in Luzerene to discuss Adirondack paper making pioneers and their influence on the international history of paper making. » Continue Reading.
The fall Lyceum lecture series at the Whallonsburg Grange Hall is set to kick off on Tuesday, September 24th.
The theme of this season is “Hidden in Plain Sight,” and the five lectures will examine well-known things from unusual angles and look at objects and ideas that have been hidden from plain view. » Continue Reading.
The Paul Smiths College and Cornell Cooperative Extension are set to host their Annual Rural Skills Homesteading Festival, on Saturday, September 28th, from 10 am to 4 pm, at the Paul Smiths College VIC.
The Festival features rural skills demonstrations, workshops, food tastings, kid friendly activities, and more.
During the French and Indian Wars, control of Lake George could determine control of the North American continent.
During the War of Independence, not so much. The lake was a relatively placid place as veterans who had won land grants for service during the war with France took up residence and began to cultivate the hillsides. Barges rather than bateaux passed down the lake, winning barely a glance from the grazing cattle. » Continue Reading.
The William G. Pomeroy Foundation has officially opened a new grant round of its Historic Transportation Canals Marker Grant Program. This historic marker program commemorates the history of canals across the U.S. Grants cover the entire cost of a marker, pole and shipping.
The Pomeroy Foundation is a private, grant-making foundation based in Syracuse. One of its main initiatives is to help people celebrate their community’s history through a variety of roadside marker grant programs, including its historic transportation canals program. » Continue Reading.
Applications are now being accepted for the fifth round of competitive grants through the NYS Park and Trail Partnership Grants program, funded through the NYS Environmental Protection Fund.
The grants, this year doubled to $1 million, are available to organizations, typically referred to as “Friends groups,” that support parks, trails, historic sites and public lands. » Continue Reading.
The Saranac River Basin and the farms located within it have a rich agricultural tradition that stretches back generations. The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) invites Bike the Barns participants to engage with the region’s agricultural heritage through interpretive exhibits and farm tours at its fourth annual farm-by-bike event. » Continue Reading.
The subject of cannons in the woods came up while I was sharing a cup of coffee with retired DEC Forest Ranger Terry Perkins at our camp on Stillwater Reservoir. In the middle of our discussion of the old roads and trails of the area Terry paused. “Did you ever hear the story of how a lost hunter once found an old cannon back there in the woods?”
“Yes,” I said, “I’ve heard that story before connected to the old Albany Road.” » Continue Reading.
During a recent discussion concerning pre-Civil War roads in the Adirondacks I mentioned to a friend that I am amazed by the number of people who insist on calling certain roads “Old Military Roads” even though they never had a military purpose.
My friend told me he heard that a hunter once found the remains of an old cannon somewhere near Terror Lake deep in the Pigeon Lake Wilderness. His point, I think, was that the cannon must have been abandoned in the course of some American military expedition along a long-vanished woods road. » Continue Reading.
After or before you’re witnessing the heroic efforts of all the participants of the annual Adirondack Canoe Classic “90-Miler,” take time to visit Newcomb.
The Adirondack Park plays an important part in the history of the United States, from the Great Camp culture to its land preservation. Newcomb is the area that began Teddy Roosevelt’s historic ride from Mount Marcy to the Tahawus Club to the North Creek Depot. » Continue Reading.
The Northern New York American Canadian Genealogical Society’s (NNYACGS) Annual Fall Conference is set for September 27th, 28th, 29th, at the Dannemora Civic Center, 40 Emmons Street, in Dannemora, NY.
Free genealogical research help will be available on Friday and Sunday between 11 am and 4 pm. The Society has thousands of books relating to family histories in Northern New York and can help with research on ancestors here and elsewhere. Saturday will feature two speakers, one at 10 am and another at 1 pm. » Continue Reading.
Protect the Adirondacks recently won a major victory in its lawsuit to enforce Article 14, Section 1 of the state Constitution, the well-known forever wild clause. The case challenged the excessive tree cutting undertaken by state agencies to build a vast network of Class II Community Connector snowmobile trails in the Adirondack Forest Preserve.
The case began in 2013 and this result has been six years in the making. Previously, the Appellate Division, Third Department, of the state Supreme Court had issued a preliminary injunction against this tree cutting in 2016 after the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Adirondack Park Agency (APA) had constructed or roughed out over 20 miles of new trails.
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