Sometimes I think having so many conservative newspapers is a weird kind of blessing. Hoping to appeal to conservative editorial boards gives “our” politicians an opportunity to really show their true colors, and that’s just what Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward has done over at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.
I think a lot of people who live and play in the Adirondacks would be astonished to hear that Sayward opposes state land purchases that would open land previously held by the rich and powerful to regular folks – places like OK Slip Falls – which Sayward opposes purchasing. How about this nugget. In order to keep local prisons open (prisons we NO LONGER NEED and that costs us a fortune to operate) – Sayward’s wants to “privatize some of the golf courses, swimming pools and campgrounds.”
Who exactly are you working for Ms. Sayward? The people? Or your rich friends, lobbyist buddies, and fellow political hacks? Tell us, which campgrounds do you want to close to the public and why?
Why is it necessary to close the few public services we have and boost private interests in a economic climate that has decimated working people? Especially when that burden has been handed down to us by so-called private businesses by people like Sayward who have allowed them to run rough-shod over us all?
Maybe a bigger question is how can we keep reelecting a woman who wants to close public services (remember North Country Community College?) and hand them over to private interests?
Here’s a plan Ms. Sayward – EXXON/MOBIL has just recorded a record profit again this year of some $45.22 billion – how about taking some of what they have? It used to be ours anyway.
A press release from Neil Woodworth, Executive Director of the Adirondack Mountain Club:
The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) is still reviewing the Department of Environmental Conservation’s proposed amendment to the Bog River Unit Management Plan to allow floatplane use on Lows Lake through 2012. The proposal does contain some positive elements, including a plan to regulate the western part of the lake as Wilderness. But ADK is deeply concerned about the length of this extension in light of the fact this is a Wilderness lake that should have been closed to motorized use years ago. » Continue Reading.
US Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced yesterday that Great Camp Uncas on Mohegan Lake has been selected as a National Historic Landmark.
Camp Uncas is located a few miles south of the hamlet of Raquette Lake, in the Town of Long Lake, Hamilton County. It is close to the geographic center of the 9,300-square mile Adirondack Park. The camp was built by William West Durant, pre-eminent architect and builder of the Park’s most famous and well-preserve great camps (including the adjacent Great Camp Sagamore, also an Historic Landmark and open to the public for day trips and overnight stays). The designation of Great Camp Uncas marks the third building in the tiny hamlet of Raquette Lake to be awarded National Landmark status. The other two are Great Camp Sagamore and Great Camp Pine Knot, all built by Durant.
Great Camps are compounds of buildings meant as a self-contained (often self-sustaining) seasonal retreat for a wealthy family, mimicking a tiny rural village. Great camp architecture reached its peak around the dawn of 20th Century, as the industrial magnates of the Gilded Age were spending their fortunes on ways to escape the crowded and polluted cites of the Northeast. Each building served a separate purpose, with dining halls, libraries, game rooms, blacksmith shops, boathouses, carriage houses, barns, farms, guest quarters, servants quarters and lounges.
Many great camps fell into disrepair as the wealthy owners passed away or lost their fortunes in the Great Depression. Some were later purchased by scout groups and other institutions that had the means to keep them in order.
Perhaps the two most important features of Durant’s great camps are his use of the landscape to conceal the buildings from view until you are right next to them, and his use of whole logs, rock and bark to create a rustic look that matched the landscape but also provided great comfort within. It was a combination of the American log cabin and the opulent European ski chalet. The style has been widely emulated, serving as the prototype for nearly every major lodge and administrative structure built by the National Park Service, including Yellowstone Lodge in Montana.
While Durant built Great Camp Uncas for himself, he was forced to sell it to pay his debts. New owner J. P. Morgan used it as a wilderness retreat for many years.
For the past 30 years, visitors to Great Camp Sagamore have been given tours of Uncas as well. More than 20 group tours came through just this past summer. Uncas and Sagamore have each hosted the Adirondack Council’s Annual Forever Wild Dinner and Conservationist of the Year Award celebration. This year, Uncas hosted the Adirondack Architectural Heritage organization’s annual meeting as well.
The Sagamore and Uncas roads are designated bike trails, surrounded by Adirondack Forest Preserve lands.
Here is an excerpt from today’s Department of the Interior news release announcing the new designation for Great Camp Uncas:
* Camp Uncas was developed 1893 to 1895 on Mohegan Lake in what is now the Adirondack Forest Preserve.
* Camp Uncas is one of the best examples of Adirondack camp architecture, which was designed for leisure. It is of exceptional historical and architectural significance as the first Adirondack camp to be planned as a single unit by William West Durant, widely recognized as one of the most important innovators of the property type.
* At Camp Uncas, Durant developed the camp as a single cohesive unit: a “compound plan” for camps that provided for an array of separate buildings, all subordinate to the natural setting. Camp Uncas was built as an ensemble from start to finish.
* The Adirondack camp had a strong and lasting influence on the design of rustic buildings developed for national and state park systems in the 20th century.
The Adirondack Museum set aside tomorrow (Saturday, October 18, 2008) for a day dedicated to the Town of Indian Lake, celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. The Adirondack Museum offers free admission to year-round residents of the Adirondack Park in the month of October, and is open from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. The special day will begin with a presentation by Curator Hallie Bond at 11:00 a.m. entitled “The Armchair Canoeist’s Guide to Blue Mountain Lake.” Enjoy the warmth and comfort of dry land as Bond leads a “virtual” canoe trip to some of the historic sites on the shores of the lake.
Known as the “Koh-i-noor of the smaller wilderness gems” in the 1880s, Blue Mountain Lake was the most fashionable highland resort in the northeast. The presentation will include “then” and “now” photographs of landmarks such as the Prospect House, Holland’s Blue Mountain House, the town library, the Episcopal Church, and the mighty steamboat Tuscarora.
Bond will ask the audience to reflect on the meaning of “progress” and the ups and downs of a tourist economy. She will also ask Blue Mountain Lake old-timers to help in the identification of mystery photos in the museum collection, and reminisce about days gone by.
At 1:00 p.m., Dr. Marge Bruchac will offer a program called “The Indians of Indian Lake.” The presentation will include historic anecdotes, photographs, and family histories of some of the Indians who have made their homes in the village.
Native peoples such as Sabael Benedict, Emma Meade, and the Tahamont family were involved in growing the Adirondack tourism industry, promoting and preserving herbal medicine, and even in developing the image of the Hollywood Indian. According to Bruchac, these highly visible families were not the “last of the Indians” in Indian Lake.
Dr. Marge Bruchac is a preeminent Abenaki historian. She is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Coordinator of Native American Studies at the University of Connecticut at Avery Point. A scholar, performer, and historical consultant on the Abenaki and other Northeastern Native peoples, Bruchac lectures and performs widely for schools, museums, and historical societies. Her 2006 book for children about the French and Indian War, Malian’s Song, was selected as an Editor’s Choice by The New York Times and was the winner of the American Folklore Society’s Aesop Award.
At 2:30 p.m. a reception will be held for all in the museum’s Visitor Center. Caroline M. Welsh, Director of the Adirondack Museum, and Barry Hutchins, Supervisor of the Town of Indian Lake, N.Y., will offer remarks. Cake, tea, and coffee will be served.
Artwork created by students at Indian Lake Central School will be displayed in the Visitor Center throughout the day.
The Adirondack Museum tells the story of the Adirondacks through exhibits, special events, classes for schools, and hands-on activities for visitors of all ages. The museum closes for the season on Sunday (October 19).
This Saturday, September 27, 2008, nearly 100 museums in New York State will participate in Smithsonian magazine’s fourth annual Museum Day – including some in our Adirondack region. Museum Day is an opportunity for museums and cultural institutions nationwide to open their doors free of charge. A celebration of culture, learning and the dissemination of knowledge, Smithsonian’s Museum Day reflects the spirit of the magazine, and emulates the free-admission policy of the Smithsonian Institution’s Washington, D.C. – based museums.
A complete list of New York museums that are participating is located here.
Museum visitors must present Smithsonian magazine’s Museum Day Admission Card to gain free entry to participating institutions. The Museum Day Admission Card is available for free download at Smithsonian.com.
Adirondack Harvest, the community-based farm and food development and promotion program, has provided funds to groups throughout the region for celebrations of the bountiful fall season farm harvest. The effort is made possible by a $50,000 grant to Adirondack Harvest from the Spaulding-Paolozzi Foundation, which supports agricultural development and ecological preservation.
According to Adirondack Harvest Coordinator Laurie Davis, “This season-long Adirondack Harvest celebration provides consumers with opportunities to meet farmers, visit farms, taste products and become Adirondack Harvest members. Members receive special mailings, dinner invitations, and various premiums from an Adirondack Harvest apron to our Three Farms DVD, gift baskets and the Adirondack Harvest Cookbook with lots of great ideas for serving local foods.” Adirondack Harvest Activities Set for NNY Region:
Clinton County Sunday, September 14, 1pm – Adirondack Harvest Farms Tour and Dinner – Cornell Cooperative Extension of Clinton County has organized a farms tour that includes Campbell’s Greenhouse in Saranac (1pm), Everett’s Orchard Store in Plattsburgh (2pm), Black Sheep Barn and Garden in West Chazy (3pm) and Conroy’s Organics in West Chazy (4pm tour and dinner). Call 518-561-7450 for transportation and dinner reservations or drive-it-yourself for tours.
September 6-14 – New I Love Local Food reusable shopping bags for sale – Cornell Cooperative Extension of Clinton County will have the new I Love Local Food reusable shopping bag for sale at cost at the Extension office at 6064 State Route 22 in Plattsburgh and at September 13 Adirondack Harvest Farms Tour sites. Info: 518-561-7450
Essex County Saturday, September 6-Sunday, September 14 – Adirondack Agricultural exhibits at Adirondack Historical Society Museum, Monday-Saturday 9am-5pm, Sundays 1-5pm. Mention Adirondack Harvest to get 2 admissions for price of 1; Court Street, Elizabethtown. Info: 518-873-6466.
Thursday, September 11, 5-9:00pm – Oil paintings & monumental sculpture exhibits, Crooked Brook Studios Art Farm, early 20th century farm with “bio-organic eruptions” of art appearing across farm landscape, RD2 Box 2364, Wadhams-Whallonsburg Rd., Westport (aka Sayre Rd./Cty. Rte. 55). Info: 518-962-4386.
Thursday, September 11, 11:30am to evening – Turtle Island Café Trail Farm-to-Restaurant Tour For each farm you visit your name will be entered into drawing for $30 gift certificate to Turtle Island Café. Make reservations by September 8 with 518-962-4810×404.
Friday, September 12, 9:00am to 1:00pm, Elizabethtown Farmers’ Market – Free samples of seasonal fruits & vegetables and dip for dunking at one of the oldest Essex County markets. Peruse selections of vegetables, flowers, baked goods, crafts, Elizabethtown. Info: 518-293-7877
Friday, September 12, 10-11:30am Cornell E.V.Baker Research Farm Tour – Farm connects Cornell University faculty with important agricultural issues facing Northern NY farmers, including best management practices for perennial forages, tillage and soil health interactions, wine grape variety evaluations, small grain variety trials and season extension using high tunnels… 38 Farrell Road, Willsboro. Info: 518-963-7492.
Saturday, September 13, 11:30am to evening, Deers Head Inn Trail Farm-to-Restaurant Tour – For each farm you visit your name will be entered into drawing for $30 gift certificate to The Deers Head Inn. Make reservations by September 10 with 518-962-4810×404. Tour schedule is as follows:
Sunday, September 14, 9:30am-2pm, Keene Farmers’ Market – 6th Annual Pie Baking Contest benefits Keene Food Pantry, open to pie donations, contest pies should arrive no later than 9am. Awards in three categories, donate to food pantry to receive a slices of the pies; Marcy Field in Keene Valley. Info: 518-561-7167.
Franklin County Saturday-Sunday, September 6-7, 1-3 pm – Adirondack Alps Cooking Classes at Hohmeyers’ Lodge on Lake Clear, 6319 State Route 30, Lake Clear, NY. Info: www.lodgeonlakeclear.com , 518-891-1489.
Wednesday-Sunday, September 10-14 – 6-6:30 pm free harvest cooking demonstrations prior to dinner service at Hohmeyers’ Lodge on Lake Clear, 6319 State Route 30, Lake Clear, NY – Chef Cathy Hohmeyer will serve a special Old World Style Harvest Dinner Menu complete with local beef, pork, and lamb; potatoes; salads, and strudel with organic apples and peaches – a whole, 100-mile menu of local products. Everything from stroganoff and soups to sauerbraten will be prepared with organic and local foods. Info: 518-891-1489, www.lodgeonlakeclear.com
Hamilton County August 28, 3-6pm, Long Lake Farmers’ Market, Long Lake Pavilion, Long Lake, NY – display of Adirondack Harvest materials with photos of local members such as Neil McGovern of the Inn at Speculator, maple producer Dave McComb, and Ann Miller of Indian Lake Restaurant. Info: 518-548-6191
September 9, 8:30am, Indian Lake, NY – Roll out for Indian Lake Chamber of Commerce will provide an explanation of Adirondack Harvest and what it has the potential to do for the local tourist-based economy. Info: 518-548-6191
September 9, 6pm, Speculator, NY – Roll out for Speculator Region Chamber of Commerce will provide an explanation of Adirondack Harvest and what it has the potential to do for the local tourist-based economy. Info: 518-548-6191
September 11, 3-6pm, Speculator Farmers’ Market, Speculator Farmers’ Market, Speculator Pavilion, Speculator, NY – display of Adirondack Harvest materials with photos of local members, such as Neil McGovern of the Inn at Speculator, maple producer Dave McComb, and Ann Miller of Indian Lake Restaurant. Info: 518-548-6191
October 4, 10am-4pm Fall Fest, Speculator Pavilion, Speculator, NY Adirondack Harvest display booth and solicitation of members. Info: 518-548-6191
Jefferson County Monday, September 15, 3:30pm, Monday Neighborhood Farmers’ Market, 203 N. Hamilton Street, Watertown – Celebrity chef Lori Wells of Café Mira in Adams will offer a cooking demonstration using the freshest fall produce and with the assistance of her 10-year-old daughter Madison Wells. Info: 315-788-8450
Lewis County September Mondays, 2-6pm; Saturdays, 8:30am-2pm; October Saturdays, 9am-1pm – Lowville Farmers Market – Mondays are Mini-Market days; the first Saturday of the month is Customer Appreciation Day with free beverages and door prizes donated by vendors with produce, meats, maple, baked goods…The market accepts WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program food coupons; Lewis County Fairgrounds Forest Park Pavilion, Lowville. Info: 315-376-5270
September 20, 4th Annual Cream Cheese Festival, Lowville downtown – World’s largest cheesecake, contests, entertainment, artists, Children’s Discovery Park, raffles…benefits local churches’ food pantries. Kraft Foods in Lowville is the largest cream cheese manufacturing plan in the world. Info: 315-376-8688
September 29-October 5 – NY Harvest for NY Kids Week activities at county schools Info: 315-376-5270
October 4, 11am-4pm, Lowville Dairy Producers Cooperative, 7396 Utica Blvd. (Route 12), Lowville, next to the giant cow! This stop is part of the Lewis County Chamber of Commerce Fall Foliage Tour and you know at the farmer-owned and operated Lowville Dairy Producers retail store they’ve “got good cheese” and cheese curd made with local milk, maple products, Croghan bologna, and many locally made goodies. Watch for details on a local restaurant serving a meal with local products. Info: 315-376-5270, 376-3921
St. Lawrence County Saturday, September 27, 10:30am-5pm – Harvest Festival, Cornell Cooperative Extension of St. Lawrence County Learning Farm, Canton – Farmers’ market, foods, activities, pet the farm animals: sheep, goats, pig, beef calve; tractor safety, hay rides, sorghum sudangrass maze, pick & paint pumpkins, dog agility class, NY State Police Child Safe, fire safety house, Dairy Princess and Maple Queen. Info: 315-379-9192
Warren County Saturday-Sunday-Monday, October 11-13 – 1st Annual Thurman Farm Tour and Harvest Dinner at The Grist Mill on Schroon Lake – On Saturday and Sunday learn about local agriculture at farms throughout the Town of Thurman. On Monday, enjoy dinner a event organized by Cornell Cooperative Extension and the local Adirondack Harvest Committee at The Grist Mill on The Schroon, 100 River Street, Warrensburg. The mill dates to 1824; the dinner at this landmark restaurant will feature freshly harvested produce and other farm products from Warren County farms. Info: 518-623-3291, 518-668-4881
Local news is reporting that construction has begun on four new new cell towers: Warrensburg, North Hudson, Schroon Falls and Lewis. They are expected to be working by the end of the year.
The following list is from a document called “Adirondack Park Agency Status Update on Cellular Projects in the Adirondack Park.” It includes the status of cellular carrier projects approved, currently under review, or projects submitted but deemed incomplete. It does not include other related tower projects such as TV, radio, or emergency services systems. It does however include a historic look at towers and concludes the surprising fact that 59 new cellular carrier permits have been issued since 1973 – missing of course is any indication of permits denied, which I suspect is none or close to none. Here are the details:
The Agency Board approved the Independent Towers LLC/RCC Atlantic Inc application (Town of Lewis, Essex County). This project was the first cell tower application submitted specifically designed to accommodate multiple cellular carriers. AT&T was a co-applicant and will provide service from this site. There is room for three additional carriers. The tower will provide Northway coverage south and north of exit 32.
The Agency Board will consider approval for Verizon’s proposed tower in the Town of Chesterfield, Essex County at its September 11-12 meeting. This project is located near Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain between exits 32 and 33.
Staff is reviewing the fabrication designs for the Schroon Falls (Town of Schroon, north of exit 28) Verizon tower. This tower will be a simulated Pine tree.
Staff is seeking additional information for a second Verizon tower submitted in the Town of Lewis, Essex County.
Agency staff monitored visual analysis for the Verizon cellular application proposed for the Town of Keene, Essex County. Visual analysis was also conducted for a site in Keene Valley. Staff is awaiting submission of the visual analysis for the Keene site and an application for the Keene Valley site.
Verizon’s application submitted in the Town of Wells, Hamilton County remains incomplete.
Staff is reviewing a permit amendment to upgrade an antenna on a preexisting tower in the Town of Moriah, Essex County.
The Agency approved a general permit application from T Mobile (AT&T) to co-locate cellular panel antennas on a 145-foot tall existing tower. The project is located in the Town of Fine, St. Lawrence County.
Cellular carrier activity since January 1, 2008:
4 cellular carrier permits approved for new towers
2 cellular carrier general permits approved for co-location
3 cellular carrier application for new towers incomplete
1 cellular carrier application for upgrades to an existing tower remains incomplete
1 cellular carrier application currently being reviewed for Board consideration
1 cellular carrier permit amendment being reviewed
0 cellular carrier applications submitted for temporary towers for I-87
Cellular carrier activity May 1973 through present:
59 new cellular carrier permits approved authorizing 65 activities:
11 new free standing towers
13 tower and/or antenna replacements
21 co-locations on free standing existing towers
6 co-locations on existing buildings
6 co-locations on water tanks
3 co-locations on existing fire towers
2 co-locations on Olympic ski jump
2 co-location on smokestack
1 temporary tower and a second renewal (Town of Mayfield, Fulton County)
The Adirondack Museum will host an encampment of American Mountain Men interpreters on August 15 and 16, 2008. The [event is open to the public, but the encampment is by invitation only.
Participants in the museum encampment are from the Brothers of the New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts segment of the national American Mountain Men organization.
While at the Adirondack Museum the group will interpret the lives and times of traditional mountain men with colorful demonstrations and displays of shooting, tomahawk, and knife throwing, furs, fire starting and cooking, clothing of both eastern and western mountain styles, period firearms, and more. This year’s encampment will include blacksmithing and a beaver skinning demonstration. Mountain men are powerful symbols of America’s wild frontier. Legends about the mountain man continue to fascinate because many of the tales are true: the life of the mountain man was rough, and despite an amazing ability to survive in the wilderness, it brought him face to face with death on a regular basis.
All of the American Mountain Men activities and demonstrations are included in the price of regular museum admission.
The American Mountain Men group was founded in 1968. The association researches and studies the history, traditions, tools, and mode of living of the trappers, explorers, and traders known as the mountain men. Members continuously work for mastery of the primitive skills of both the original mountain men and Native Americans. The group prides itself on the accuracy and authenticity of its interpretation and shares the knowledge they have gained with all who are interested.
From the Adirondacks Speculator Region Chamber of Commerce comes a new website that offers snowmobile trail conditions laid out in tables that identify each route (with trail numbers, segments between intersections, and municipal locations), the date the trail was last groomed, the date conditions were assessed and the conditions (great, good, fair, poor, closed).
The page includes trails in Lake Pleasant, Speculator, Arietta, Piseco, Wells, and Morehouse. The page also links to Trail Etiquette, a Trail Map cover 650 miles of area trails, GPS points, a Webcam and Photo Gallery, and a discussion board covering the area plus Indian Lake, the Moose River Plains, and other areas of the park.
Here at the Almanack, we have always believed that appropriately placed snowmobile trails (kept out of wilderness and wild forest areas) are an important component to the Adirondack economy. Riders should accept and defend the seven wilderness “leave no trace” principles.
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Sometimes I think having so many conservative newspapers is a weird kind of blessing. Hoping to appeal to conservative editorial boards gives “our” politicians an opportunity to really show their true colors, and that’s just what Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward has done over at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.
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