Monday, August 27, 2018

A Lake George Mystery (Conclusion)

No one knew for certain what had happened to Alma Gatti and Jerry Walker after their disappearance on Lake George in summer 1949. To a certain extent, dragging for the bodies was a crapshoot because no one knew for sure where the presumed accident had occurred. There were no reported sightings of them that day, and no way to determine how far their canoe had drifted before reaching the shore.

Within a few days, first one paddle and then another, both stamped as belonging to Lamb’s Boathouse, were found in the vicinity of Watch Point, indicating that searchers were dragging the area likeliest to yield results. A Conservation Department boat continued working a five-square-mile area between Watch Point and Shelving Rock. Meanwhile, four state police divers spent an entire day probing the depths, but came up empty. » Continue Reading.


Friday, August 24, 2018

Cold Water Shock: A Mysterious Lake George Tragedy

The combined stories of Alma Gatti and Jerry Walker reveal two offspring any parent would be proud to claim as their own. Their young lives were filled with activities and accomplishments, suggesting a promising future ahead.

Jerry (Cuthbert Orton Walker Jr.), an Arkansas native, spent most of his childhood in Little Rock. He attended the University of Washington in Seattle in the early 1940s, and roomed with three friends while working as a furniture-store clerk. Life was interrupted by World War II, and beginning as an army private barely a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he spent 30 months in Europe, the Pacific, and the Middle East. His service ended in 1946 as a first lieutenant whose awards included the Philippines Liberation Medal and the Bronze Star. » Continue Reading.


Friday, August 24, 2018

Women’s Equality Day Commemoration In Plattsburgh

A Women’s Equality Day Commemoration has been set for Sunday, August 26, from noon to 4 pm at the Clinton County Historical Association, located at 98 Ohio Avenue, in Plattsburgh.

August 26 was set-aside in 1971 as an annual event to celebrate the August 26, 1920, adoption of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. The Commemoration’s goal is to raise awareness about the importance of gender equality and to commemorate the work and sacrifices made by women during the suffrage movement. » Continue Reading.


Friday, August 24, 2018

Blue Mountain Lake Flotilla Festival Sunday

Prospect House on Blue Mountain LakeThe 2nd Blue Mountain Lake flotilla has been set for August 26, 2018.

136 years ago on Blue Mountain Lake, a steamboat glided through towing some 75 rowboats and their passengers. An orchestra played, a cannon roared salute, Gospel singers raised their voices, and shining Chinese lanterns hung from the boats, and floated on the waves.

Last summer, the Blue Mountain Lake Flotilla sailed again. It marked the first time the event took place since the original was held, on the same waters in August of 1882. And now the boats are returning again, highlighting a day of music, food and fun for the whole family. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Newcomb’s TR Weekend Set For Sept 14-15th

Newcomb is set to celebrate Theodore Roosevelt’s journey out of the Adirondack High Peaks to the White House to become the 26th President, following William McKinley’s assassination. TR Weekend will be celebrated September 14-15, 2018.

This year’s event coincides with the 125th anniversary of the completion of Camp Santanoni. The camp was built in 1892 for Robert C. Pruyn, a banker and industrialist from Albany.  When Camp Santanoni was being constructed on the shores of Newcomb Lake, the property included 13,000 acres. The compound eventually included a gate house, a farm and dairy complex, and the main camp. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Washington County Battles and Brews Tour

Replica of 123rd Monument in GranvilleThe Washington County Historical Society is set to conduct a Battles and Brews Tour through Northern and Central Washington County, on September 8th, from 9 am to 5 pm. The trip’s focus is the contribution Washington County’s people made to the Civil War effort.

Traveling north from Greenwich, the tour bus will visit Salem, Granville, and Whitehall. After lunch in Whitehall, the tour will continue on to the Hartford Recruiting Center where a first person performance of Rice Bull, a Union Army Soldier in the Civil War and author of the book, Soldiering: The Civil War Diary, will take place. The trail turns south to Hudson Falls to visit memorials at Union Cemetery. » Continue Reading.


Monday, August 20, 2018

Adirondack Historic Roadside Marker Grants Available

pomeroy foundationThe William G. Pomeroy Foundation has announced they are now accepting 2018 applications for fully funded Historic Roadside Markers to commemorate the history of the Adirondacks, including locations in Essex, Warren, Hamilton, Saratoga, Washington, Clinton and Franklin Counties.

Municipalities and charitable 501(c)(3) organizations in New York State are welcome to apply for the Historic Roadside Marker Grants. Local historical organizations or municipal historians will often apply for the grant on behalf of property owners.

» Continue Reading.


Monday, August 20, 2018

Champlain Valley Cultural Heritage Grants Available

The Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership (Champlain Heritage) is seeking proposals for projects to protect, restore, interpret, and showcase the historical resources and cultural heritage of the Champlain Valley.

Champlain Heritage anticipates awarding over $100,000 across four grant categories: » Continue Reading.


Friday, August 17, 2018

AARCH Homesteading Tour Embraces Modern Builders

For the first time, Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) is hosting a modern homesteading tour, according to Deputy Director Virgina Siskavich.

“We want to continue to embrace modern builders,” says Siskavich. “We feel that at some point these modern buildings will be a part of history and we want to remember them. We also want to continue to offer tours that have not been offered before.”

Additional AARCH tours are scheduled from May to October at a range of historic and modern locations. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, August 16, 2018

Space Force History and the Plattsburgh Air Base

Whether you see a stable genius or a bumbling buffoon in the White House (there seems to be no middle ground), no one should credit him as a visionary for the idea of adding the Space Force as our nation’s fourth military branch. Security and defense officials discussed the idea openly in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. In fact, if a special committee and a certain famous senator had their way, the Space Force might well have had a base right here in the North Country.

After a February 1958 interview with author and scientist Willey Ley, the Canton (Ohio) Repository wrote: “He mentioned the separate service, or ‘U.S. Space Force’ idea proposed by Mr. [Werner] Von Braun, who feels that such a service could better obtain the cooperation required from the present army, navy, and air force.” Von Braun was referring to the intense competition among the branches to develop long-range missiles and take the technological lead in a future of rocket launches and space missions. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, August 14, 2018

20 Years After Canoe-In for Wilderness at Little Tupper Lake

Motorless lakes protest courtesy Nancie BattagliaWednesday marks the 20th anniversary of the Canoe-In for Wilderness on Little Tupper Lake. On August 15, 1998, over 300 people in over 200 canoes, kayaks, guide-boats, rowboats, and one small sailboat, rallied on the sloping lawns of the Whitney Headquarters on the shore of Little Tupper Lake and then paddled out onto the lake in a massive flotilla in the Canoe-In for Wilderness at Little Tupper Lake.

This event was the biggest environmental rally in a very challenging and divisive time in Adirondack Park history. Those who gathered that day were unabashed in their support for a Wilderness classification for the newly purchased Little Tupper Lake. A number of important motorless waters were created in the years after the Canoe-In for Wilderness. In 1998, there had not been a major piece of land classified as Wilderness since the late 1980s when the Blue Ridge and West Canada Lake Wilderness Areas were expanded around Cedar River Flow. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, August 12, 2018

Ti History Presenting ‘The Other Milhollands’

Vida MilhollandThe Ticonderoga Historical Society is set to present a free program entitled “The Other Milhollands” on Friday, August 17 at 7 pm at the Hancock House, 6 Moses Circle, Ticonderoga.

This program will focus on the lives of Inez’ father John and sister Vida.

John E. Milholland, born in 1860, was a journalist, politician, inventor and publisher, who helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was an owner of the Ticonderoga Sentinel newspaper and a key progressive figure of the early 1900s. » Continue Reading.


Friday, August 10, 2018

Rev War Ethnic Diversity Talk at Mt Independence

mount independenceOn Sunday, August 12, 2018, at 2 pm, the Mount Independence State Historic Site in Orwell, Vermont, is set to host a talk on “Ethnic and Cultural Diversity at Mount Independence” by historian and site interpreter Paul Andriscin.

This talk looks at how a rag-tag force from six states and Vermont managed to maintain the Northern American Army here during the American Revolution. They faced lack of supplies, disease, starvation, bad weather conditions, and having to overcome prejudices against their fellow soldiers. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, August 9, 2018

A Partnership For Wilderness, 1946-2018

In July 1946, Howard and Alice Zahniser drove with their children to the Adirondacks for the first time. Howard had started work as the first executive of The Wilderness Society in Washington D.C. the year prior. Howard would begin drafting the federal Wilderness Act of 1964 (66 drafts in all) from a cabin he acquired in the Adirondacks.

Howard kept a journal of his first trip to the Adirondack Park.  The rest of us know about it thanks to his son Ed Zahniser’s small book, Where Wilderness Preservation Began – Adirondack Writings of Howard Zahniser (Ed Zahniser, Editor., North Country Books, 1992). For 72 years the extended Zahniser family, now including the fourth generation, has returned to the same place in the Adirondacks. This August I held a cook-out to welcome them back. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Ruth Williams: A World War One Nurse Overseas

The word hero is often tossed around loosely, but when it comes to wounded soldiers, no one argues that it’s fitting — so what does it say about someone else when wounded soldiers call them heroes? Consider American women during World War I. Although many wanted to, they didn’t have to serve because of their sex, and could support the troops by important actions at home. But some chose to place themselves near the front lines, and with no weapons to defend themselves. Their only protection came from nebulous agreements by both sides not to bomb hospitals and care centers.

That’s what nurses did, risking their lives to comfort, save the lives of, or ease the deaths of, soldiers. Which explains why so many wounded men referred to nurses as the real heroes. A fine example of that circumstance, with an unusual twist or two, involved Ruth Williams of Ogdensburg. » Continue Reading.



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