Posts Tagged ‘Big Moose’

Saturday, August 19, 2023

More loon chicks killed/injured by human predators, witnesses urged to report incidents

Giant swallowtail

Last week had to be the week of rain for the summer. Some [areas got] six and seven inches in just a few hours which washed out trails, roads, and the railroad to Tupper Lake. I talked with one lady up at Twitchell Lake who said the water there came up over her dock and ten feet up on her property. It did some washing out of shoulders along the new paved road to the lake by the outlet. Some culverts were washed out on the snowmobile trail system north of Old Forge, so the system was closed to travel.

» Continue Reading.


Wednesday, May 4, 2022

*UPDATE: Town of Webb to postpone Community Pride Day until tomorrow, May 5 due to today’s rain forecast*

Adirondack area residents are invited to do their part to help clean up their communities in preparation for the summer season during Community Pride Day which is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, May 4. Residents are asked to volunteer their time and take to the streets with gloves and garbage bags in tow to rid their lawns, roadways, and local parks of detritus left over from fall and winter.

The following towns will take part in the event this year: Old Forge, Thendara, Eagle Bay, Big Moose, Inlet, Raquette Lake, Long Lake, Lake Pleasant, Indian Lake, Blue Mountain Lake, Speculator, Arietta, Wells, and Morehouse. Several school districts in the Adirondack region will also participate in the event by taking their students outdoors to lend a hand in the clean up effort.

» Continue Reading.


Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Big Moose Tract up for public comment

stillwater fire towerShare Your Opinion on the Development of a Draft Recreation Management Plan

DEC Region 6 is seeking public input on the development of a draft Recreation Management Plan (RMP) for the Big Moose Tract Conservation Easement in the town of Webb, Herkimer County.

The Big Moose Tract is approximately 23,850 acres and contains commercially managed forestland, several small ponds, portions of Birch, Fourth, Sunday, and Twitchell creeks, the Independence River, and the West Branch of the Beaver River.

DEC encourages the public to provide suggestions relating to the development of the Big Moose Tract draft RMP by mail to Matthew Nowak, Environmental Program Specialist, NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation, 7327 State Route 812, Lowville, NY 13367, or email to r6.ump@dec.ny.gov. Suggestions should be submitted by Feb. 28, 2022.

Visit DEC’s webpage for additional information about the Big Moose Tract Conservation Easement. The webpage includes the Independence River Wild Forest East map, which shows the location of the Big Moose Tract, a map of the Stillwater Mountain Fire Tower Trail, and the Conservation Easement deed.

Photo provided by Friends of Stillwater Fire Tower


Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Hiram Burke, Noted Guide of Twitchell Lake

Hiram Burke Shanty at Twitchell LakeMany of the lakes in John Brown’s Tract had guides who took their sporting parties to their own fishing or hunting camps north and south of the Beaver River. This is how lakes like Hitchcock, Beach, and Salmon got their names.

Bill Marleau, author of Big Moose Station (1986) described the guide Hiram Burke (1839-1903) this way: » Continue Reading.


Monday, December 30, 2019

A Mystery Writer’s Tramp to Twitchell’s Lake

Topographical Map of Lewis County On July 8, 1874, The Lowville Journal and Republican ran an article about a party of six men who trekked to Twitchell Lake in Big Moose, NY, for a nine-day stay. They came by horse and buggy up the Number Four Road through Watson Township from some town to the west.

After a brief stay at the Fenton House in the hamlet of Number Four and an overnight at Wardwell’s on Beaver River’s Stillwater, they crossed Twitchell Creek and tramped a mile south off the Carthage to Lake Champlain Road to Wood’s Lake: » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Twitchell Lake History: ‘A Melancholy Occurrence’

Pencil Sketch of Guide Amos Spafford on Winter Photo of Twitchell Lake“Melancholy Occurrence” was a fairly common expression for a tragic event in the middle of the 19th century.  A search of historic newspapers revealed the phrase was used some 250 times from 1820 to 1870.  Several of these were murder cases, such as the son of the Spanish Consul being stabbed through the heart with a cane sword by an angry neighbor. But most were unexpected events such as a fatal strike by lightening, a young fire victim, or a drowning.

One occurred at Twitchell Lake. In a December 3, 1856 article titled “Melancholy Occurrence,” The Lewis County Banner reported that Briggs Wightman stepped onto ice while hunting, crashed through, and drowned. Adirondack Guide named Amos Spafford (1824-1897) came out on the north shore of Twitchell Lake and observed a hat and a gun lying next to a large hole in the ice. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, October 13, 2019

The Club Camp on Big Moose Lake: A Short History

The Old Club Camp courtesy Roger and Nancy PrattThe Club Camp is often mentioned as the first permanent structure built on Big Moose Lake. The word permanent is rather ironic because this hunting and fishing establishment had a relatively short history of just 28 years. Today the camp’s origins, visitors, and sad end seem largely forgotten.

According to Joseph F. Grady’s The Adirondacks: Fulton Chain-Big Moose Region (1933), the Club Camp was constructed in 1878 at the request of several sportsmen from New York City who had been spending summers on the lake in previous years.

At the time, Big Moose, near Old Forge, NY, was difficult to reach — the railroad would not arrive in the area until 1892. Before 1878, only lean-tos or shanties were available on Big Moose, notably that of businessman William “Billy” Dutton, which was built in 1876, and that of guide Jack Sheppard which was set up around the same time. » 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.


Saturday, August 3, 2019

How Twitchell Lake Was Named, And A Poem

Hiram Burkes Log Shanty on Twitchell LakeThe Twitchell Lake History Committee is working on documenting the story of Twitchell Lake in Big Moose, NY, and how it was named, with an account of the individual camps, hotels, and highlights down through the years. Twitchell Lake is 5 to 6 miles south of the old Champlain Road, now under the Stillwater Reservoir.

For over 12 years the Conables have hosted a social event at their camp on Twitchell Lake with a poetry competition, the winner receiving honors as “Poet Laureate of Twitchell Lake.” » Continue Reading.


Saturday, February 4, 2017

The Crego Family: Three Generations of Adirondack Guides

Crego Farmhouse,In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, three generations of the Crego family worked as wilderness guides in the Western Adirondacks. Along the way, they raised families, worked for prominent employers, adapted to new forms of transportation, and helped lay the groundwork for the conservation movement in New York State. » Continue Reading.


Saturday, April 2, 2016

F. C. Moore’s Big Moose Lake Retreat

big moose campIn the late 19th century, the Adirondacks became a prime summer destination for sportsmen and their families who enjoyed the region’s hunting, fishing, and fresh air. By the 1880s, wealthy businessmen were building permanent camps on even the remotest lakes, including Big Moose, near Old Forge. Sometime after 1880, local guides Jack Sheppard and Richard C. Crego built a summer camp on South Bay of Big Moose Lake for F. C. Moore of New York City.

Francis Cruger Moore was born in Houston, TX in 1842. After the Civil War, he headed north to New York City, where through hard work, he became president (1889-1903) of the Continental Insurance Company.

Moore, his step-son Henry Evans, and their wives summered at Big Moose regularly. To reach the camp, Moore and his guests had to travel north to Boonville, NY, and then survive a tortuous 43-mile journey on primitive roads, a rickety wooden-railed railroad (The Peg Leg Railroad), a riverboat, and finally a guide boat across several lakes. Moore invested heavily in the main camp which stood near the present Manse of the Big Moose Community Chapel. By 1889, a second camp was built nearby for the Evanses. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Anne LaBastille’s Lands Donated To Forest Preserve

Anne LaBastille at Sagamore (courtesy Lorraine Duvall)The estate of author, conservationist, and former Adirondack Park Agency commissioner Anne LaBastille has donated her 32-acre “West of Wind” property on Twitchell Lake, north of Big Moose in the Western Adirondacks, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

LaBastille, the famed writer and conservationist who died on July 1, 2011, envisioned that her land be protected to “preserve the natural, ecological, and historical integrity of my 30 acres of North Country wilderness, where writers can find inspiration in the Adirondacks.”

Anne LaBastille inspired many through her writings and work to protect wildlife and wild lands. Her autobiographical Woodswoman (1978) chronicled her journey from urban New Jersey to cabin dweller on an Adirondack lake. She lived without electricity, running water, or even a road to her 12′ by 12′ “West of Wind” cabin she built with friends and neighbors in 1964. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, November 29, 2015

Official Responses To Rail-Trail Plan Comments

Adirondack Scenic RailroadThe wrangling over the future of the state-owned rail corridor that stretches 119 miles from Remsen to Lake Placid has proved to be one of the most contentious issues in the Adirondack Park in recent years.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Transportation received hundreds of public comments, raising many of the same questions that have appeared in articles and comments on Adirondack Almanack.

In their final plan for the corridor, the departments summarized the comments and provided their official responses. Given the public interest in this topic, the Almanack is reprinting those comments and responses. The result is a post that is much longer than usual. Of course, you don’t have to read all the comments, but we bet some people will.

» Continue Reading.


Monday, November 9, 2015

State Plans To Give Lake Placid Train One More Season

Adirondack Scenic RailroadThe state will allow Adirondack Scenic Railroad to run its tourist trains for just one more season on the tracks between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, according to a final proposal by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and state Department of Transportation.

In the proposal, released last week, the departments are sticking with their original plan to remove 34 miles of track between Lake Placid and Tupper Lake – the north end of a 119-mile rail corridor owned by the state. » Continue Reading.


Monday, September 14, 2015

900 Rail-Trail Comments, Few Endorse Compromise

Adirondack Scenic RailroadIt comes as no surprise that the state has received hundreds of comments on its two-part proposal to (i) replace 34 miles of railroad tracks between Lake Placid and Tupper Lake with a recreational trail and (ii) rehabilitate 45 miles of tracks south of Tupper Lake to Big Moose. » Continue Reading.



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