Posts Tagged ‘Ausable Chasm’

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration set for Jan. 16 in Plattsburgh

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Ausable Chasm, N.Y. –  For the first time in two years, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration will take place in-person at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, January 16, 2023 at the Newman Center in Plattsburgh, NY. The annual program is free and open to the public. In 2020 and 2021, the celebrations were held virtually, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Committee is looking forward to welcoming attendees back in person.

This year’s celebration will feature speaker Allison Heard, SUNY Plattsburgh Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Allison is a native of Chicago, Illinois. She earned both her bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Vermont in Burlington. Event organizers said Allison will certainly bring a profound and memorable message to recognize this important day. Martin Luther King Jr. promoted nonviolence to seek equality for all people. In her role as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Vice President, Allison will promote and emphasize the importance of recognizing everyone equally.

Photo at top: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Wikimedia Commons photo.

 


Saturday, August 12, 2017

Tim Rowland’s Visit To Ausable Chasm

ausable chasmMany moons ago, not too far north of Old Forge, there was a tourist trap that — apparently believing that honesty was the best policy — gave itself the name of The Tourist Trap. It sold the usual fare of balsam-scented incense burners in the shape of a log cabin, birch-bark lamps and every piece of junk imaginable with a picture of a loon on it — all destined, in time, for some North Carolina yard sale.

As a child in search of a meaningful memento costing south of 75 cents, I invested in a “paperweight” that was a river pebble that had been covered with postage stamps and apathetically lacquered. This artifact stayed with me for a remarkably long period of time, serving not as a reminder of the Adirondacks, but as a reminder to stay out of tourist traps. » Continue Reading.


Monday, February 8, 2016

Adirondack Roots Saved Adgate Schermerhorn’s Life (Part 2)

P2A IdahoMapDuring the first few days, planes had been seen and heard overhead near the site of Adgate Schermerhorn’s crashed Douglas B-23 “Dragon Bomber.” Flares launched by the men had gone unnoticed, however.

On the third night, realizing they were trapped in what could well become a wintry mass grave, the men decided on a plan: Lieutenant Schermerhorn and two others, Staff Sergeants Ed Freeborg and Ralph Pruitt, would undertake a literally do-or-die effort to find help. » Continue Reading.


Monday, February 1, 2016

Adirondack Roots Saved Adgate Schermerhorn’s Life

P1A AdSchermerhornAdgate Schermerhorn was born in 1918 in the hamlet of Ausable Chasm, about a mile northeast of Keeseville. A horseman (he started riding at age five) and outdoorsman who loved the Adirondacks, he graduated from Keeseville High School in 1935 and worked as a lumberman in the North Country. He then attended the St. Lawrence School of Agriculture at Canton, earning a degree in 1939 from the Division of Technical Engineering. He worked as a refrigeration service man in the Plattsburgh area, but moved to Pennsylvania in December 1940 after securing a position with GE in Philadelphia. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, January 10, 2013

The Emancipation Anniversary: A Local Grassroots Victory

What follows is a guest essay by Peter Slocum, a volunteer and board member with the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association, based in Ausable Chasm.

Almost lost in the recent “Fiscal Cliff” spectacle was the anniversary marking one of the major positive milestones of our history — President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

On January 1, 1863, some 3 million people held as slaves in the Confederate states were declared to be “forever free.” Of course, it wasn’t that simple. Most of those 3 million people were still subjugated until the Union Army swept away the final Confederate opposition more than two years later. And slavery was not abolished in the entire United States until after the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution passed in 1865.
» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Bike Ride to Benefit Ausable River Association

The Ausable River Association will host a Ride for the River bike ride on Sunday, September 16.  The event will include a  37-mile scenic bike ride following the river from headwaters to lake designed to raise awareness of issues affecting the Ausable River’s vital natural resources and raise funds for the Ausable River Association (AsRA), a local organization that stewards the watershed’s resources and connects communities around protection of the river.

Ride for the River  will start near the source of the Ausable East Branch by the Ausable Club and follow the gentle path of the river valley to conclude with a picnic on the Main Stem at the famous Ausable Chasm. For the more adventurous, a ride back to start will accomplish a total of 74 miles. The Ride has an intermediate grade along the river and is entirely on state roads, the majority of which have wide shoulders. A portion of this route is used in the Ironman Lake Placid Triathlon. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Adirondack Family Activities: The Au Sable Bridge

Located near Au Sable Chasm, the Au Sable Bridge in itself is a child’s playground. After coming out of the woods from a hike we passed through Clinton County via Route 9 when both my children yelled for us to stop the car.

The water rushing over the falls is breathtaking so we pull over at the nearby parking area and go for a stroll. I watch my kids run across with snowball in hand to toss over the side.

I am leery of heights, to put it mildly. I can climb mountains and sit on the edge of a cliff but my brain is never at ease on a manmade object of any significant height.

This highway bridge that spans the gorge dates from 1934 so my children are quick to reassure me of their safety. (What about me?)

We find out this isn’t the first bridge near this spot. The earliest bridge was built in 1793 of logs and located about one mile downstream. Various other wooded bridges were built but consumed by flooding or rotted from the mist from the falls. In 1890 a one-lane iron bridge was erected and can still be seen upstream from the 1934 stone bridge.

The current bridge’s most distinguishing features are the 212’ steel arch span and the concrete arches faced in local granite and sandstone. My children’s eyes start glazing over with the history lesson. They always amaze me with their ability to retain information while acting disinterested only to parrot back information later to their friends.

For now they just want to watch snowballs drop and disappear into the rushing waters of the Au Sable River. According to the Au Sable Chasm website the Route 9 bridge was the main route that connected the northern communities such as Plattsburgh and Montreal to the southern sectors like Albany and New York City before in the Interstate was built in the mid 60s. It is said that remnants of the original railroad bed foundation is underneath the existing bridge but I wasn’t about to peer over the side to look for it.

Photo: Au Sable Bridge (Courtesy Diane Chase)

 Diane Chase is the author of Adirondack Family Time: Tri-Lakes and High Peaks Your Guide to Over 300 activities. Her second book of family activities will cover the Adirondack Lake Champlain coast and in stores summer 2012.



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