Posts Tagged ‘Fourth Lake’

Friday, January 21, 2022

A look back at the Eagle Bay Hotel, 1897-1945, Fourth Lake

The Eagle Bay Hotel on Fourth Lake opened in June 1897 and operated until it burned on August 7, 1945. On the former Hotel grounds today is Eagle Bay Village, formerly the Eagle Bay Villas. At its demise, the Hotel was part of a group of large, popular early 20th century hotels that included The Arrowhead, The Wood, Rocky Point Inn, Holls Inn and Neodak Lodge on the shores around the Head of Fourth Lake. Only The Wood, now The Woods Inn, remains.

fourth lake

This history is based not only on my research, but also the files of the Goodsell Museum, and information in books such as God’s Country and Fourth Lake Early Camps and Hotels.  Looking at the Hotel’s knoll in Eagle Bay from a boat, it is hard to picture the Hotel’s structures that served Fulton Chain guests for almost fifty years.

» 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.


Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Fourth Lake Great Camp Open House To Benefit View

albedorOn June 24th, from 5 to 7 pm, owners of The Adirondack Cheese Company,  are welcoming View arts center members and the public to a cocktail reception, open house, and wine tasting event at their great camp on Fourth Lake, the Albedor, to benefit the Old Forge-based View arts center.

Monk Rowe, Utica area jazz performer, will provide musical entertainment, and Bremer’s Wine & Liquor will be sponsoring the wine tasting. Food sponsors include The Woods Inn, Great Pines (formerly the North Woods Inn), the Big Moose Inn, and the Seventh Lake House. Besides food and spirits, guests will be welcome to tour the 17,000 square foot Albedor house and its grounds and boathouse. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, August 30, 2015

Cascade Lake in the Pigeon Lake Wilderness Near Old Forge

Carol_mist-600x436When I suggested to my girlfriend Carol that we jog around Cascade Lake in the Pigeon Lake Wilderness, she endorsed the idea without hesitation. Not only is Carol a trail runner, but she also is an avid swimmer. You might say she is a little obsessed. When I mentioned that Cascade Lake has a sandy bottom, I could barely hold her back.

I had my own reasons for wanting to visit Cascade Lake. I was just finishing a guidebook (published in June by the Adirondack Explorer) called 12 Short Hikes Near Old Forge and wanted to take a few photos for the Cascade Lake chapter. » Continue Reading.


Monday, May 18, 2015

APA Seeks Comments On 3 Management Plans

Polaris Bridge and the Upper Hudson (courtesy Protect the Adirodnacks)The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) is accepting public comments on Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan conformance for proposed amendments to the Alger Island and Fourth Lake Unit Management Plan (UMP), the Meacham Lake Campground UMP and the Community Connector Trail Plan (Newcomb, Minerva, North Hudson).

Public comments are sought on whether the proposed activities conform to the guidelines and criteria of the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan (SLMP). » Continue Reading.


Thursday, May 14, 2015

Traveling To the Fulton Chain In 1892

1892 fulton chain club 1_0In March, 1889, a group of Jefferson County business men and a Thousand Islands cigarette magnate (Charles G. Emery of Calumet Island Castle) purchased a block of overt 6,000 acres extending from Fourth to Seventh Lakes over to Limekiln Lake.  They formed a club, the Fulton Chain Club, and advertised the region to attract wealthy investors, but failed at this venture and began selling lots to anyone.  Within the Prospectus for this club is a description of the Fulton Chain region containing a valuable snapshot in time, 1892, of this area’s history.

A copy of the prospectus is held by the Adirondack Museum, from which the excerpts below were taken (my comments are in brackets): » Continue Reading.


Monday, April 13, 2015

Comments Sought On Fourth Lake Management

alger island campground dec photoChanges to public use facilities at the Fourth Lake Day-Use Area and enhancements to the Alger Island Campground are proposed under the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) draft Alger Island Campground Unit Management Plan (UMP). The day-use area and campground are located in the Herkimer County Town of Webb.

The public is invited to comment on the draft plan by April 30th. The plan is expected to guide management of the campground and day-use area for the next five years. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Holls Inn On Fourth Lake (Part II)

1915a 638k_Pratt charles carolineIn 1896, Charles O’Hara had come from Glenfield and built Inlet Inn along the channel from Fifth Lake on land purchased from David Frank Sperry in 1897, operating it as a boarding house.

In November 1907, O’Hara purchased the Arrowhead from Albert C. Boshart and operated both hotels.  But on the morning of September 23, 1913, the hotel originally established in 1893 on the shores at the head of Fourth Lake by Fred Hess, renamed in 1898 the Arrowhead by William Moshier, burned to the ground.  While determining whether to rebuild, O’Hara leased the Eagle Bay Hotel for the 1914 and 1915 seasons. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, January 6, 2015

A Short History Of Holls Inn, Fourth Lake

1960 holls inn P000094 Aerial View of Holls InnOn the south shore of Fourth Lake near the Herkimer – Hamilton County boundary is Holl’s Inn.  According to a real estate ad in the Adirondack Express, the three story hotel on the six-acre parcel closed in 2006. However, Holl’s Inn continued to advertise rooms and meals as late as 2008 and housekeeping cottages until 2009 in the local summer guides.  The hotel sold in 2013.

Operating as Holl’s Inn since 1935, the hotel and its property has had a long history beginning with the first travelers to the head of Fourth Lake.  One of those travelers was Charles Pratt of Brooklyn, NY. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Town of Inlet Beginnings (Part II)

1892 fulton chain club 1_0For many property owners in Inlet, the abstract of title invariably lists James and Jennie Galvin as early, if not the first, owners.  But until I began researching this narrative, I believed, as have other Inlet landowners and early 20th century newspapers, that the Galvins were sole owners of the 6,000 acres surrounding the Head of Fourth Lake.  I learned that Galvin was an agent for the Fulton Chain Club and it was through his efforts that the land was sold for hotels and camps, and ultimately to the first residents of Inlet.

James Galvin, the son of an Irish immigrant, was born in 1835 in Wilna, Jefferson County.  His father Edward was a successful farmer and also managed a prosperous charcoal production trade.  James was listed as a farmhand and a farmer on the 1850 and 1860 censuses, respectively, but from the age of fifteen, he dealt in horses and cattle and became successful in buying stock both in New York and Canada.  He commanded large credit with banks in both regions. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The Origins Of The Town of Inlet

scythe herrershoff manor_2On November 27, 1901, the Hamilton County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an act that created a new town from northern Morehouse, with the South Branch of the Moose River dividing the two towns.  Afterwards, Inlet held its first town meeting on January 14, 1902.  Presently (2009), the Adirondack Park Agency reports that Inlet consists of 42,446 acres of which just under 4,000 acres is not state land.

But this narrative is about the over 6,000 acres in the northerly Part of Township 3 of the Moose River Tract surrounding the “Head of Fourth Lake”, as Inlet was formerly known, and the connections among the speculators who owned it prior to Inlet’s creation.  This square tract covers the lands from Fourth Lake to Seventh Lakes down to Limekiln Lake at its southwest corner. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Forge House History: The Garmon And Crosby Years

1880 front porch forge houseP323AEunice B. Lamberton sold the 1,358 acre Forge Tract in 1888 for $10,000 to Dr. Alexander Crosby and Samuel Garmon.

Dr. Crosby was born in Martinsburg in 1836. He began his medical practice in 1862 and moved to Lowville in 1867.  He rapidly built up a large practice and was for many years considered one of the most skilled physicians and surgeons in the state, often called in to testify at criminal cases.  In 1875, Crosby was elected to the State Assembly, was later a Democratic Party state chairman and was on both the State Board of Charities and Lewis County pensioners’ board.  Crosby died in 1911. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, September 18, 2014

Inlet Boat Gathering Unofficially Breaks Record

OneSquareNBIt looks like Inlet is headed back into the Guinness Book of World Records.

On Saturday, more than 3,000 boats gathered on Fourth Lake for the One Square Mile of Hope cancer fundraiser in an attempt to form the world’s largest raft of canoes, kayaks and guideboats. The record still needs the approval of Guinness officials, but it looks to have beaten the current one of 2,099 boats set last year by a group on Sutton’s Bay on Lake Michigan. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, September 11, 2014

The Fulton Chain and Raquette Lake Steamboat Company

photo 4During the summer of 2014, on the lawn at the Goodsell Museum in Old Forge, Kyle Kristiansen, using a metal detector, discovered a metal object. Digging it up, he uncovered a buried metal luggage tag containing the intials “F.C & R.L.S.B.CO.”

These letters stand for the Fulton Chain and Raquette Lake Steamboat Company, a short-lived and relatively unknown concern established for carrying passengers and cargo from Fourth Lake to Raquette Lake in the days before automobiles connected the region.

This is a history of that company and its successors to that trade.  We will probably never discover how that item arrived on the lawn in the Town of Webb. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, September 4, 2014

Charlie Herr: The Holls Inn Tavern Plates

1935 holls inn tavern with wedding plates PC2249In 1935, Hans and Oscar Hall, German-born brothers with extensive  European and American hotel culinary and management experience, purchased the Araho Hotel property and began a long period of home-away-home customer service lasting until shortly after 2006.  The main hotel building, which they named Holls Inn, was architecturally the same as the hotel built by Charles O’Hara in 1923 and years later would be expanded.   The Araho Hotel was located on the south shore of Fourth Lake in the town of Inlet on a tract previously owned by Astral Oil (later Standard Oil) Brooklyn millionaire Charles Pratt.  Pratt’s Camp, built in the 1870s, was among the first on the Fulton Chain. » Continue Reading.



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