Great Camp Sagamore & The Sagamore Resort join together to invite you to an evening lecture highlighting the history of both of these Adirondack icons. All are welcome to gather on Friday, April 7 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. for aTale of TwoSagamores lecture at the Sagamore Resort Conference Center in Bolton Landing, NY.
Historian and author Bill Gates will speak about the rich history of The Sagamore, one of the Adirondack’s most iconic resorts. Robert Engel, historian of Great Camp Sagamore, will share the fascinating history of one of the first Great Camps in the Adirondacks. Both speakers will provide insight into the history and significance of these two Adirondack icons.
Raquette Lake, NY – All are invited to join in for a day full of sledding, ice skating, snow croquet and campfires at upcoming Snow Days at Great Camp Sagamore on January 21, 2023 and February 25, 2023 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Guided cross-country skiing sessions will also be available at 10 a.m. as well as guided snow shoe hikes at 1 p.m. Chili, coffee, tea and hot chocolate will be served starting at noon and will continue as long as supply lasts. Year-round Raquette Lake Residents, Great Camp Sagamore members, and children under five are free; General Admission is $5.
The system consists of four interconnected trails. At 3.8 miles, the Sagamore Lake Trail is the longest, looping around the shores of Sagamore Lake and briefly passing the camp itself. Though the trails are not part of the historic Great Camp Sagamore complex, reminders of the Gilded Age can still be found in the surrounding woods. Along the Powerhouse Trail lies the remnants of an old gatehouse and a powerhouse that once used natural water energy to create electricity for Great Camp Sagamore. Please use caution around these historic sites and help preserve these landmarks by leaving what you find for others to enjoy.
Trailhead Locations: All trailheads can be found on Sagamore Road in Inlet, NY. Turn onto Sagamore Road off Route 28 in Raquette Lake. The first trailhead will be for the Cascades Trail, the next for the Powerhouse Trail; you can find parking for the Sagamore Lake Trail just before the Great Camp itself. (N 43.771987°; W 74.637854°).
In the August edition of the Adirondack Gearzette, a monthly newsletter presented by BikeADK. Doug Haney of Bike Adirondacks offered a detailed recap of this year’s Weekender at Paul Smith’s College, a preview of a new singletrack network in Elizabethtown, and teased a few biking events slated for the fall season.
Hiking enthusiasts of all ages and abilities are encouraged to take advantage of a unique opportunity to embark on an educational guided hike where participants will venture into the great outdoors at Great Camp Sagamore and learn about the area’s rich history.
Great Camp Sagamore once had a farm, a 100,000-gallon covered reservoir, and a hydroelectric powerhouse, all hidden away in the surrounding forest. These historic structures were located conveniently close by for the workers who operated them, but hidden from view for the Vanderbilt’s distinguished guests.
Great Camp Sagamore staff are excited to welcome the community back, in-person, on August 6, 2022 for their Annual Gala & Benefit for Historic Preservation. Join the festivities for an evening of great food, exciting live & silent auctions, and even better company in the heart of Forever Wild.
This year staff are celebrating the many dedicated members of the community –visitors, volunteers, donors, artisans, musicians, and local business owners and residents– who keep Great CampSagamore the treasured place it has been for 125 years.
Stay the Weekend:
Enjoy more time at camp! Join in from August 5-7, 2022 for Gala weekend programming. Weekend packages will include lodging and meals for Friday & Saturday. Gather with friends and enjoy special activities on Friday night, including music and gourmet s’mores around the campfire, a picnic lunch on Saturday, and many other activities before the Gala & Benefit.
Weekend packages do not include Gala & Benefit Dinner tickets for Saturday night. Lodging availability is limited and reserved on a first-come-basis. Booking information will be available on the Great Camp Sagamore webpage soon.
Consider Becoming an Event Sponsor:
Sponsorships allow Great CampSagamore staff to continue providing quality, diverse programming that serves and uplifts a wide range of people, while maintaining reasonable prices and increasing scholarships amid rising costs. Deciding to sponsor this annual celebration also provides you with tangible benefits, which can be found through this link.
Great CampSagamore opens to the public on Memorial Day Weekend, May 27.
A young boy on my tour last year asked a simple question, “were there Indians here?” With nowhere else to go, I repeated the worn-out line that Native American people used the Adirondacks as hunting grounds. It was an unsatisfying response, for both of us. As Sagamore’s historian, I knew as much as that kid about 98% of the area’s human timeline.
I quickly found a small but growing body of research on Native American history in central and northern New York State. I also learned that these topics, this knowledge, is not new. From my perspective, I could dig into books and articles about the academic pursuit of knowledge. But, Native Americans have been telling their own stories from the beginning. To properly answer that boy’s question, Sagamore needs to welcome the perspectives of the people about whom we’re speaking.
The Eurocentric university-based perspective and the Native American oral history perspective are often presented in concert, each welcoming the other. I reached out to John Fadden at the Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center in Onchiota, New York. John’s father Ray Fadden and his family, who lived in the Mohawk community of Akwesasne, opened the center in 1954 so that the general public “may acquire the knowledge needed to better understand the history, culture, contemporary realities, and the potential future of Native Nations.” The center remains northern New York’s leading source for discovering a variety of perspectives on Indigenous people.
Great Camp Sagamore is open for the 2021 summer and fall season, with many exciting programs and workshops lined up. The season got off to a lively start in mid-June with the Roots & Branches Endowed Music Workshop and Women’s Fly Fishing. Offering nearly two dozen arts, educational and outdoors-themed getaways with lodging and meals included, Great Camp Sagamore has something for everyone.
A Brook Trout Conservation Field day presented by Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Hamilton and Herkimer Associations will be held on June 4-5 in collaboration with Trout Power and Great Camp Sagamore. The Field Day invites all to come to learn about the tremendous strides in research and conservation practices that are helping to restore the heritage strains of brook trout that were once abundant throughout the Adirondacks.
Even if snow removal isn’t necessary this winter (yeah, right!), Great Camp Sagamore’s Director of Facilities, and Assistant Caretaker, will have plenty of indoor work to keep them busy. Ted and Richard are restoring seventy windows in the Chalet and the Carpenter and Boat Shop.
The labor-intensive process for each window consists of six steps: strip existing paint and glazing, prime, reglaze, prime new glazing, paint two coats.
At the start of the project, it took a minimum of one hour to deglaze each window. Chipping away at the glazing, and using a heat gun, resulted in occasional breakage of glass. Twelve windows in, there had to be a more efficient way.
That was our first impression on seeing the little piano in Linda Kaiser’s basement in Syracuse.
Then we tried to carry it up a flight of stairs.
Linda had called Great Camp Sagamore’s executive director, Emily Martz, to donate the piano that she and her husband Harvey bought at an auction on Sagamore’s Main Lodge lawn in October 1975.
The piano has only 61 keys – the standard is 88. Margaret Emerson probably bought it for her children to play at Sagamore. Her grandson, Alfred Vanderbilt III, remembers playing a piano with “a strange number of keys” when he would visit camp as a young child.
Linda’s generosity reminds us of the extraordinary confluence of institutions, individuals, and events that surrounded that fall weekend in 1975.
Adirondack Nonprofit Makes the Most of Unusual Summer
Great Camp Sagamore, an educational nonprofit and tourist destination in the central Adirondacks, is making the most of a summer without guests by undertaking long-awaited renovations.
Great Camp Sagamore is an Adirondack Great Camp and was a summer retreat for the Vanderbilt family. Today it is the most accessible of the Great Camps, offering daily tours and stays for the public.
This week, Great Camp Sagamore is hosting a virtual gala and online auction. They ask that you join them while they pay tribute to music, and the artists who make it. You can register for free at the following link: https://e.givesmart.com/events/hgG/.
The online auction will culminate on June 24 with live, real-time countdown auctioneer Doug Stinson and special guests from 7:30 to 8 p.m. Also, tune into their website daily to hear a musical tribute to a Great Camp Sagamore honoree.
By Jen Maguder, Great Camp Sagamore’s Program Director
In mid-May, seasonal staffers Lily Whiteman and Charles Sykes returned to work remotely for Great Camp Sagamore. Their positions are supported by the Payroll Protection Program, introduced by the federal government to encourage workforce retention and hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lily and Charles are helping to upgrade our online resources for visitors to the Historic Great Camps Special Management Area (HGCSMA).
It’s a long title, so we’re calling Lily and Charles’ work the “trails project” for now.
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