Tuesday, December 20, 2022

126 Acres of Historic Brookdale Farm Protected in Perpetuity

Mourning Kill Stream running through property.

December 13, 2022 – Saratoga PLAN completed two conservation easements with the Pott and VanVorsts families permanently protecting 126 acres of farmland in the Saratoga County Town of Ballston. Conservation of this fertile farmland means it will be forever available for farming and critical wildlife habitat for generations to come.

 

Both easements include land originally part of the Brookdale Farm, which originated circa 1835 by the McKnight family, a relative of the Potts by marriage four generations prior. The Brookdale Farm is thought to be the original 1800’s hops farm on Hop City Road where wagons were filled with the farm’s hops and transported to breweries in Albany. In addition to hops, the farm also had Merino sheep and dairy cattle, and produced hay and corn.

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Tuesday, November 29, 2022

The Return of “Echoes in These Mountains,” book release & signing set for Dec. 10

echoes in the mountains book

Echoes in These Mountains was my first award-winning book. Published in 2008, it tells the stories behind 55 historic sites in the Township of Johnsburg, Warren County. The book was well received and the original run of 1,500 copies sold out years ago. With folks asking for up to $114 for a used copy “signed by the author” (eBay emphasis, the original retail price was $16.95), I decided it was time
for a second edition. I used the opportunity to fix some typos, but also to expand the original manuscript with additional historic photographs and added new research and analysis.

The expanded second edition, now totaling 512 pages, will be officially released at a special program on December 10 at the Town of Johnsburg Library [located on] Main Street [in] North Creek, NY. The new edition includes additional documentation of a French & Indian War warpath that passed through the area including pictures of a Revolutionary-Era “cannon” found unearthed along a local dirt road years ago, cannon balls of different diameters found in a garden in Bakers Mills by a local resident and a Revolutionary War French bayonet found near the east shore of Loon Lake.

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Tuesday, November 22, 2022

LeClair Family Donates 127 Acres to Saratoga PLAN for New Curtis Preserve in Corinth

In 1986, Patricia LeClair and her husband built a house on nine acres of land in Corinth that they bought from neighbors, Jack Curtis and Mary Curtis. Jack, Mary’s brother, was an old friend of Patricia’s husband. Over the years, Mary and Patricia became close and Patricia frequently walked in the woods that spread across both the LeClair and Curtis’ properties. After Jack and Mary passed away, the Curtis’ property was left to the LeClair family.

 

Patricia LeClair held on to an article about Saratoga PLAN for many years and after thinking about how important land preservation was, she decided to donate a substantial portion (127.5 acres) of her land, the land that had been left to her by the Curtis family, to Saratoga PLAN. The LeClair family has made an outstanding gift to the community; helping to ensure the property’s ecological, educational, historic, recreational, and scenic values are maintained for generations to come. This gift to the community was also made possible by Saratoga County’s Farmland and Open Space grant, where monies were used to pay transaction costs, and from the Nature Conservancy’s Resilient and Connected Network grant which will help with future stewardship needs for the land.

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Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Fort Ticonderoga to Present Living History Event: “A Day Longer in the Field” on Nov. 12

Join Fort Ticonderoga for an exciting one-day living history event this Saturday, November 12, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In honor of Veterans Day, this event is free to active and retired military personnel. Admission is free for Fort Ticonderoga members and Ticonderoga Ambassador Pass Holders. The living history event will feature American Provincial soldiers who were eager to go home at the end of the 1759 Campaign. With Ticonderoga and Crown Point captured, these American soldiers worked alongside British Regulars to prepare Fort Ticonderoga for winter and the following season’s advance into the heart of New France. Witness how the soldiers in 1759 dealt with the harsh realities of winter on the northern frontier.

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Monday, November 7, 2022

Adirondack Center for Writing to host Lorraine Duvall reading/open-mic on Nov. 9

The Adirondack Center for Writing in Saranac Lake is pleased to host another BarkReaders session, this time featuring Adirondack feminist historian, Lorraine Duvall, who will perform a reading of Finding a Woman’s Place on Wednesday, November 9 at 7 p.m. An open mic will follow the reading. Admission to the event is free, with a suggested donation at the door. The reading and open mic will run for a total of 60 minutes, and registration is required.

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Thursday, November 3, 2022

Call for Entries for Festival of Trees at Hancock House Museum

Ticonderoga, NY – The Ticonderoga Historical Society is inviting individuals and community groups to once again take part in the Festival of Trees at the Hancock House Museum. The popular holiday event will take place from November 25 through December 31. This year’s theme is “Christmas Around the World,” although the decorated trees, centerpieces, and other displays do not have to follow the suggested theme.

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Tuesday, October 25, 2022

What’s in a name: Jabe Pond

Photo #1 - Chimney on Chimney Island - Photo credit John Hastings

My first opportunity to paddle on Jabe Pond was while I was doing some summer loon research, recording and observing loon behaviors.  The pond was then, and is still, an interesting and rewarding paddle.  The loons were quite cooperative.  That summer I found their nesting site and observed them socializing, incubating their eggs, caring for their two chicks; teaching them to fish; to avoid predators; eventually fledge and fly south.  At times fellow loons visited from Lake George (especially when the lake was well peopled).  Over the duration of the summer I often saw ducks, osprey, deer, turtles, an occasional Bald Eagle and other wildlife.  I even saw paw prints of a bear in the sand.  

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Tuesday, October 25, 2022

ADKX to offer virtual series of Adirondacks for All events first week of November

Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX) will offer a week-long symposium highlighting a series of free virtual Adirondacks for All events during the first week of November. These events will include roundtable discussions featuring a variety of panelists. Schedule of events: Reframing Adirondack History on Tuesday, November 1, Wilderness for All on Wednesday, November 2, and Using Policy and Preservation to Foster an Adirondacks for All on Friday, November 4.

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Saturday, October 22, 2022

John Brown Farm Receives Listing in National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom

(Lake Placid, NY, 10/18/22) – John Brown Farm State Historic Site was added to the National Underground Railroad “Network to Freedom,” state officials announced. John Brown had a lifelong connection to the Underground Railroad, through his assistance of freedom seekers and his work in the abolitionist circuit alongside self-liberated people. Owen Brown, John’s father and ardent abolitionist, played a role in Hudson, Ohio’s Underground Railroad community when John Brown was a child.

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Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Haunted Hancock Program Returns to Ticonderoga Museum on Oct. 21

Ticonderoga, NY – The Ticonderoga Historical Society will celebrate the Halloween season with a free program entitled “Haunted Hancock” on Friday, October 21 at 7 p.m. at the Hancock House located at 6 Moses Circle in Ticonderoga.

 

“We will be taking a look at the dark and unexplained side of history,” said program presenter Diane O’Connor. “The supernatural is woven throughout history in a powerful way.”

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Sunday, October 9, 2022

John Brown Lives! receives $26,500 from Parks and Trails New York to expand strategic planning initiatives

On October 6, Senator Dan Stec (R,C-Queensbury) joined several state and regional representatives and John Brown Lives! Executive Director Martha Swan at a press conference and check presentation on the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid. John Brown Lives!, which runs programs year-round dedicated to preserving and advancing the legacy and mission of the famed abolitionist, received a $26,500 check from Parks and Trails New York to advance its strategic planning initiatives.

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Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Fire in The Adirondacks

The burning of the Straight House Hotel in North Creek also set the adjoining Methodist Parsonage on fire. (courtesy Johnsburg Historical Society)

Out west the summer of 2022 will long be remembered as the year of fire, but the Adirondacks also has a history of fire.

The years 1903 and 1908 were two great fire years in the Adirondacks. An article titled “Years of Fire” in the March/April 1981 Adirondack Life notes that “During both years the northeast suffered from drought. Due to sloppy logging, the woods were filled with piles of slash, the discarded tops, and limbs of trees. The railroads, which crossed the Adirondacks in the 1890s, failed to equip their wood and coal burning locomotives with spark arrestors. Although mandated by state law the penalties for violating the equipment law were so insignificant the railroads ignored them, and fires started all up and down the rail lines.”

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Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Proposed dams on the Upper Hudson: A look back

upper hudson dams

While researching an article on the Gilchrist bridge, I was asked about a river feature on the Hudson River, river left, just north ( up-river ) of the Washburn Eddy, or approximately 2 miles south of the Riparius Bridge.   To some the feature appeared as a “C” shaped “dug way” that could have allowed water from the river to “circulate” (be diverted) into the “C’.  To do what ?  Might this be a “channel” for water to be diverted into a hydroelectric powerhouse ?  A review of property / tax maps indicate that there was, across the river, an adjacent small piece of property approximately the same shape and size.  After some deed history research I may have found a possible explanation.  There was proposed (in 1911), several storage dams or containment dams with small power plants with penstocks or water pressure tunnels, planned along the Upper Hudson River in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.   This led to my exploration of these various proposed dams.

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Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Adirondack Mountain Club launches ADK Voices Project 

September 19, 2022 — Lake Placid, NY — As ADK (Adirondack Mountain Club) celebrates its centennial anniversary, the organization has launched an online oral history project called ADK Voices in partnership with Our Story Bridge. Told from the perspective of ADK supporters, the project details the organization’s rich history and notable impact on New York’s public lands and waters.

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Monday, September 19, 2022

Adirondack 102 Club annual gathering slated for Oct. 7 in Inlet

All are invited to attend the Adirondack 102 Club’s annual gathering which is scheduled for Friday, October 7 at noon at The Ole Barn in Inlet. Local author, Charles Herr, will serve as this year’s guest speaker. The get-together is open to the public, as the Adirondack 102 Club is self-described as “a friendly group that is loosely organized.” Anyone in the Inlet/Fulton Chain area who would like to attend is welcome, however all guests must register for the gathering and pay in advance.

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