Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Second World War and the Adirondacks Stories, Artifacts Sought

WW2 Uniform courtesy the Lanphear familyAdirondack Experience (ADKX), formerly the Adirondack Museum, is set to host a free open house event and community collecting day on November 11th, from 10 am to 4 pm, in support of the ADKX 2020 seasonal exhibition From Wilderness to Warfront: The Adirondacks and World War II.

This exhibition, planned to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, is devoted to the connections between Adirondack people and the global conflict. From regional industry and tourism to first-person accounts, the exhibition will explore diverse stories — those previously untold as well as those well-remembered — of regional mine workers, Mohawk code-talkers, Tuskegee airmen, and the countless local men and women who bravely served on the homefront or abroad during the world’s deadliest conflict. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Haunted History at the Hancock House

Adirondack Ghosts at Hancock House provided by Ticonderoga Historical SocietyThe Ticonderoga Historical Society is set to end its program year and celebrate the Halloween Season with a free program entitled “Haunted Adirondacks: A Horrible History” on Friday, October 18 at 7 pm at the Hancock House, 6 Moses Circle, Ticonderoga. » Continue Reading.


Saturday, October 5, 2019

Audio, Visual Preservation Workshop Set For Elizabethtown

Audio Visual Preservation WorkshopThe Adirondack History Museum in Elizabethtown has announced a Historians Day Workshop, set for October 16th, from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm.

Prof. Gerald Zahavi, historian and Director of the Documentary Studies Program at the University at Albany, will present a workshop on strategies for film, video and audio media preservation, restoration, and digital conversion and reformatting. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, October 3, 2019

Early American History Collections At Fort Ticonderoga

Erin Benz provided by fort ticonderogaFort Ticonderoga holds one of North America’s largest collections of military material culture, covering the colonization of North America and the ensuing colonial conflicts, the Seven Years’ War (a.k.a. French & Indian War), the American Revolution, and the War of 1812.

The collection includes rare books, manuscripts, weaponry, accoutrements, textiles, uniforms, headgear, paintings, prints, maps, ephemera, personal effects from across the Atlantic World and a complementary archeological collection consisting of tens of thousands of artifacts recovered from the grounds of Fort Ticonderoga in the 20th century. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Twitchell Lake Settlement and the Carthage to Crown Point Road

Map Showing Twitchell Creek in the 1870s provided by Adirondack AtlasEver wonder how one of the hundreds of lakes and ponds in the Adirondack Mountains got its name? Around Brown’s Tract, there are lakes named from nature such as Loon, Beaver, Trout, Gull, Bear, and Moose.  There are also a dozen or more lakes named for noted guides or people who lived in or frequented the area during the Sporting Era (1860 to 1890), including Mosier, Francis, Hitchcock, Beach, Tuttle, Thayer, Smith, Salmon, and Wood.

An Adirondack historian who knew some of the nineteenth century Beaver River and Fulton Chain guides, Joseph F. Grady, reported in his 1933 history of the Fulton Chain and Big Moose region that Twitchell Lake  “derives its name from Charles Twitchell, an amateur sportsman of Lewis County, who frequented its shores in the mid-century period [the mid-1800s].”

It turns out, that’s not true. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, October 2, 2019

History of the Beaver River Country’s Rap-Shaw Club Published

history of the rap shaw clubEdward I. Pitts’ new book The History of the Rap-Shaw Club: 1896 until 1958 tells the story of the early days of the Rap-Shaw Club, one of region’s surviving nineteenth century Adirondack outdoors clubs.

Founded in 1896, Rap-Shaw has continuously existed in the Beaver River country of the west central Adirondacks for what is believed to be longer than any other institution in that region. It has had rustic camps at Witchhopple Lake, Beaver Dam Pond, and since 1940 on Williams Island in the Stillwater Reservoir. It has outlived all the earliest settlements of the area, outlived Webb’s great camp Nehasane, and the passenger railroad that originally brought its members to the wilderness. Pitts offers an epic tale of adventure, wilderness recreation and the work required to build and maintain a voluntary organization during changing times. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Depot Theatre Works To Protect Its Historic Home

Depot Theatre in WestportThe Depot Theatre in Westport has been awarded a Preserve New York grant of $4,712 to complete a condition analysis of the 1876 train station in which the theatre resides.

The Depot Theatre is a nonprofit, professional theatre located in a historic, functioning 1876 train station owned by the Town of Westport, and it is the only theatre in New York’s Adirondack Park that operates under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. The theatre is also the caretaker of the station on behalf of Amtrak. » Continue Reading.


Monday, September 30, 2019

Heritage, Harvest, & Horse Festival at Fort Ti

Heritage Harvest Horse FestivalFort Ticonderoga is set to host a Heritage, Harvest & Horse Festival on October 5th. The full day of autumn fun will be set in the midst of the King’s Garden heirloom apple trees and a landscape of mountains and Lake Champlain.

Guests are invited to discover the historical importance of horses and other working animals during demonstrations; meet friendly farm animals; stroll through Fort Ticonderoga’s farmers’ market featuring local food, beverages, and crafts; participate in family fun activities; and tackle the six-acre Heroic Corn Maze. » Continue Reading.


Monday, September 30, 2019

Traveling Erie Canal Talk Miner Museum

everything worthy of observation

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.


Thursday, September 26, 2019

How Gore Mountain Got The Name On Its New Logo

Gore Mountain Ski Area Map With Gore It IS Named After (Courtesy Adirondack Atlas)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.


Monday, September 23, 2019

Northern Heritage Economy Grants Available

$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.


Monday, September 23, 2019

Adirondack Paper Makers Innovated Industry

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.


Sunday, September 22, 2019

Whallonsburg Grange Lecture Series Announced

Whallonsburg Grange HallThe 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.


Sunday, September 22, 2019

Rural Skills and Homesteading Festival at Paul Smiths

homesteading festivalThe 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.

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Brown’s Raid On Ticonderoga in Context

cannon aimed at Fort Ticonderoga from Mount Defiance provided by the Lake George MirrorDuring 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.



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