Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Outboard Racing on Lake George

three men and a vintage boat

A 1950s race boat returns to its home waters

To understand the history of outboard racing in Hague on northern Lake George, we need to go back to the early days of the Lake George Regatta Association (LGRA), an organization founded in Hague in 1880 and originally called the Hague Rowing Club. The name was a misnomer as they also hosted diving, swimming, and canoeing competitions, along with inboard regattas, attracting competitors mainly from Hague and Bolton.

My grandfather competed regularly in his inboard race boats as did his older son, my Uncle Bob. They both did well, but were no match for Count Casimir Mankowski, who won the Gold Cup in 1913 at Alexandria Bay in his boat Ankle Deep, earning the right for the LGRA to host the 1914 race on Lake George. In 1933, George Reis won the Gold Cup with his boat El Lagarto, returning the race to Lake George, where he also won the Cup in 1934 and 1935.

My dad, Jack Henry, was too young to race the powerful, expensive inboards during those early years. But with a father and older brother who spent their summers tuning, repairing, and racing boats, it was pretty much predestined that he would also develop a passion for boats and speed. But with the advent of the Depression, the LGRA disbanded, and Dad never got to race.

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Saturday, August 19, 2023

Lives Lived: Stories from the Cemetery

stories from the cemetery
Adirondack Death Care Community presents
Lives Lived: Stories from the Cemetery 
Pine Ridge Cemetery-Saranac Lake
Wednesday August 23rd, 5:30-7pm
Rain Date 8/24 5:30
Free, Donations Welcomed
 
Join us for an evening of stories as Jim Clark brings to life some of the amazing people who have their resting place at Pine Ridge!
We invite you to share stories of those resting here as well!

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Saturday, August 12, 2023

Adirondack Architectural Heritage Announces 2023 Preservation Award Winners


Keeseville, NY
– The AARCH Preservation Awards program annually recognizes exemplary historic preservation work throughout the Adirondack region, including sensitive restoration, rehabilitation, adaptive use, long-term stewardship, and individual achievement by a wide range of individuals and organizations.

We are happy to announce this year’s AARCH Preservation Award winners! On Friday, September 22, we will honor the awardees below at our Preservation Awards ceremony. These seven recipients exemplify extraordinary stewardship or restoration of historic properties and individual achievements in preservation throughout the Adirondack region.

The recipients of the 2023 AARCH Preservation Awards are:

The Tahawus Cultural Center, for Ongoing Rehabilitation and Stewardship
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Tuesday, August 8, 2023

History Matters!

Masonic Temple Broadway Saranac Lake

Breaking Ground

Not long ago, buildings were made to last. With care and a little luck, places were passed down to the next generation. And so it wasn’t uncommon to celebrate the birth of a new building.

During the booming years of Saranac Lake’s TB economy, cure cottages sprouted up all around town, and impressive commercial buildings went up at an astonishing rate downtown. New buildings were commemorated with special ceremonies and etched cornerstones, like the Masonic Temple on Broadway.

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Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Event to focus on APA’s future

APA logo.

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the Adirondack Park Agency, and it’s fair to ask:   “Where Do We Go From Here?”

 Join the debate: Thursday, July 27, at 7 pm at the Adirondack History Center Museum, Elizabethtown.

Leaders of the APA and the Local Government Review Board will be on hand to discuss the APA’s first half century and what’s likely to come next.

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Monday, July 17, 2023

Historical marker recognizes 19th-century Adirondack Black farm settlement in Loon Lake

blacksville sign

On Sunday, August 6, a new historical marker will be unveiled at Loon Lake, Franklin County, to honor the settlement of Blacksville and its founder, Virginia-born Brooklyn newsman and Black rights activist, Willis Hodges. The public is invited to attend.

Awarded by the Pomeroy Foundation at the request of educator Curt Stager, this marker honors a forgotten chapter of Adirondack history with ties to the Black suffrage movement and abolitionist John Brown.

In 1848, Hodges and other Brooklyn and Manhattan pioneers moved to remote Loon Lake in south Franklin County. Hodges and several in his party were among 3,000 poor Black New Yorkers who received forty-acre gift lots in Franklin and Essex Counties from the radical New York philanthropist, Gerrit Smith, in 1846 and ’47. Smith hoped to promote a Black migration out of cities, and to ease access to the ballot for voteless Black New Yorkers who could not meet a for-Blacks-only $250 property requirement. Most of Smith’s “grantees” would not migrate. Moving to the wilderness was impractical and unaffordable. But Willis Hodges and others in his party remained for several years in the vicinity of Loon Lake, where Hodges was said to have sheltered and guided self-freed enslaved people making for the north.

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Friday, July 14, 2023

Tales of the Adirondacks, Past & Present: The Ladies Climb by Jerilea Zempel

a group of women who duplicated the clothing women wore in the 1800s and recreated an expedition.

Our next OurStoryBridge Inc. story share is called The Ladies Climb by Jerilea Zempel. Her story is about a group of women who duplicated the clothing women wore in the 1800s and recreated an expedition. Jerilea put extensive research and planning into the trip in order to honor those women before her. To listen to this story in its entirety, please visit this link: https://app.memria.org/stories/public-story-view/c9a5d576bc9444a5b6faa02db7edaeba/

The Adirondack Almanack will share stories written by those who live, work, and play in the ADK, courtesy of OurStoryBridge Inc. These stories, which will be a combination of current and past events, people, outdoor activities and more, will be published on a weekly basis. The stories will focus on various locations situated in the Adirondack region, including the High Peaks, the town of Keene, and many other areas around the Park. Story topics include arts & culture, catastrophes, work, people, outdoor activities, daily life, community, and natural & man-made environments.

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Tuesday, July 11, 2023

White Pines: Colossal in Many Ways

white pine

The eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) isn’t really a crop-bearing tree, but it has borne priceless “fruit” for American democracy. Physically as well as culturally massive, there are many accounts from the early 1800s of white pines over 200 feet tall being harvested. One credible report pegs a white pine at 247 feet, and unverified accounts have claimed that 300-foot-tall leviathans were cut back then. It’s a long-lived species, with 400 years considered a rough maximum. Working for a tree service in the Adirondacks in the early ‘90s, I once tallied 450 rings on a storm-thrown specimen.

The white pine is the official tree of Maine and Michigan, with the current U.S. champion standing at 180 feet, 10 inches in Cook Forest State Park in Pennsylvania. Sadly, one of New York State’s tallest white pines, which I visited several times, toppled in 2021. At 160 feet, 10 inches, it was in a stand of old-growth habitat near Paul Smith’s College. In today’s second- and third-growth forests, the average mature white pine is often between 100 and 130 feet tall, with diameters of 25-35 inches.

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Saturday, July 1, 2023

Adirondack Experience: Artists & Inspiration in the Wild exhibit opens today

Blue Mountain Lake, NY – Adirondack Experience (ADKX) will hold a grand opening celebration for “Artists & Inspiration in the Wild” on Sat., July 1. This permanent exhibit, which showcases an inclusive and wide-reaching interpretation of Adirondack art, is the most comprehensive showing of the museum’s art and design collections in its history. In celebration of the exhibition unveiling, the day will be filled with art-related activities and programming, including artist demonstrations, live music, live muralling and screen-printing.

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Thursday, June 29, 2023

ADK Park: July 4 events on tap

Kids take part in games during a previous July 4 celebration in Long Lake.

Several Adirondack-area towns have announced an array of family-friendly festivities to celebrate the Fourth of July, ranging from craft fairs to concerts, kids’ games, guided history hikes, and much more. Please see a roundup of a few of these events below.


Friday, June 23, 2023

Wiawaka Center for Women celebrates 120th year with workshops, retreats, events & programs

Women do yoga on a beach.

Lake George, NY– Wiawaka is thrilled to announce they’ll be celebrating their 120th year this summer. The upcoming season is brimming with an array of enriching workshops, retreats, events, and programs.

 

“We take great pride in this historical milestone and express our deep gratitude to all our supporters who have been instrumental in helping us reach this significant achievement,” said Doreen Kelly, Wiawaka’s Executive Director.

 

Wiawaka’s co-founder, Mary Wiltsie Fuller, passed away on July 6th, 1943.

 

“We are immensely grateful to her, even 80 years later, for envisioning a sanctuary where women could find support during the times we needed it the most,” said Doreen.

 

Noteworthy highlights of our programming include our Georgia O’Keeffe Week, Artists in Residency Week, and SWIM Week honoring the remarkable women swimmers of Lake George, including Diane Struble, who made history as the first woman to complete the lake swim. Additionally, we have a captivating Storytelling weekend planned, along with many other exciting offerings.
Join us for our engaging Historical Tours, taking place every Monday at 5 p.m.

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Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Fort Ticonderoga presents Robert Nittolo Collection, new exhibit Success: The End of the Seven Years’ War 

Rare artifacts from the Robert Nittolo Collection on view for the first time by the public enhance Fort Ticonderoga’s newest exhibit, which is also heavily illustrated with historic maps and prints.

Ticonderoga, NY – Fort Ticonderoga opens a new exhibit for 2023, focusing on the dramatic and wide-ranging end of the global Seven Years’ War. This new exhibit Success: The End of the Seven Years’ War spans both sides of the Atlantic and is anchored by many never-before-seen artifacts.

This new exhibit features artifacts from the museum’s newly acquired Robert Nittolo Collection that complement pieces from Fort Ticonderoga’s existing collection, to visualize the final campaigns in North America, partly launched from Lake Champlain.

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Saturday, June 3, 2023

Historic marker unveiled at Glove Theatre

glove theatre historic marker

The Gloversville Theatre Corporation Board of Directors will host a ceremony to unveil an official NYS Historic Marker under the marquee of the historic Glove Theatre, 42 N. Main Street, Saturday, June 3 at 2 pm, prior to the Southern Adirondacks Food and Wine Festival and Glove Cities Arts Alliance 2023 Arts Walk.

At the unveiling, speakers include NYS Senator Mark Walczyk (SD 49), NYS Assemblymember Robert Smullen (AD 118), Fulton County Board of Supervisors Vice Chairman John Blackmon, City of Gloversville Mayor Vincent DeSantis, Executive Director of the Fulton County Historical Society & Fulton County Historian Samantha Hall-Saladino, and Glove Theatre Vice President Alex Miller.

The NYS Historic Marker was fully funded with a grant from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation. The Pomeroy Foundation is committed to “supporting the celebration and preservation of community history by providing grants to obtain signage in the form of roadside markers and plaques”. While there are other markers in Fulton County, The Glove Theatre marker is only the Foundation’s second granted in Gloversville. The first was awarded in 2022 to Post 137 of the American Legion, of which Gloversville native and U.S. Congressman Lucius N. Littauer was the sole financial donor.

The Glove Theatre will be hosting Wonder Women, an evening music festival on Saturday, June 10th, which will feature a mix of local and regional musical talent and honor local females for their positive impact within the Fulton County community. The show will commence at 7 pm with tickets at $10. Musicians include JoAnn Sifo, Olivia Hanifan, Cosby Gibson, and Journey Blue Heaven. The honorees include Jennifer Donovan, Indiana Nash, and the late Barbara C. Henry. The evening will be hosted by WENT’s Patti Noble.


Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Keeping forests as forests: Clarence Petty’s vision

clarence petty memorial

Clarence Petty (1905-2009) grew up in the Adirondacks and eventually had a career with the state conservation department. His biography by Chris Angus, The Extraordinary Adirondack Journey of Clarence Petty. (Syracuse University Press, 2002) is still available.  After a few years with the new APA, upon retirement in 1974 Clarence became one of the great citizen advocates for conservation. I first met him in 1987 in the board room of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, where his voice stilled the room. He never dominated a meeting, but when he did speak his voice carried to good effect. He declared his point of view firmly, born of his life’s experience, with a chuckle or two to lighten the atmosphere and to illustrate his point.

Clarence’s core message cut through the many emergencies we were addressing at any given time to remind us that the surest way to protect Adirondack land was to acquire it as Forest Preserve or as conservation easements, and to follow up those actions with more DEC real property staff and forest rangers to ensure that the state could compete for the real estate, as part of the statewide open space plan, and also be a good steward of that land over the long term.  “We’ve got to get busy protecting more of the Adirondacks” was his frequent take-away message, followed quickly by “and we’ve got to take care of the Forest Rangers,” points well taken and easily remembered between meetings.

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Saturday, May 20, 2023

Thanks for everything, Robert!

man in brown shirt and baseball cap

By Emily Martz, Executive Director, Great Camp Sagamore

At Great Camp Sagamore, we believe that everyone should have the chance to experience the transformative powers of connecting and learning in the remote Adirondack mountains. For the last seven years, Great Camp Sagamore’s retiring Historian, Robert Engel, has been integral to this vision. As he retires, we ask you to join us in thanking Robert for his dedication to historic preservation and life-long learning, and for all that he has done to inspire staff and tens of thousands of visitors over the years.

For Robert’s first two seasons at Sagamore (2016 & 2017), he was camp’s sous chef. “Despite my History Museum Studies degree and 30+ years working in the field,” Robert says, “including as Director of the Rensselaer County Historical Society, my dream was to create the best restaurant in the Adirondacks. Great Camp Sagamore’s kitchen was practice for that. Then, I became the historian – phew!” We will miss Robert’s sense of humor rooted in his desire to help make everyone feel welcome.

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