Tag Archive for "Town of Webb" - The Adirondack Almanack

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OLD FORGE– The annual Adirondack Mountain Bike (MTB) Festival is ready to kick off Saturday and Sunday, October 1-2, 2022 at the McCauley Mountain Ski & Recreation Center in Old Forge. The temperatures are cooling down and the fall colors are heating up in the Central Adirondacks, as hundreds of mountain bike families flood to the festival. The free festival is sponsored by the Central Adirondack Association (CAA), the Adirondack Foothills Trails Alliance (AFTA), and the Town of Webb, and features guided rides, races and fun contests, clinics, bike and equipment vendors, food and refreshments, and live music.

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Wednesday, June 8, 2022

DEC Seeks Public Comment on Plan for Three Lakes Tract Conservation Easement in Herkimer County

by NYS DEC

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The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is seeking public comment on a draft recreation management plan (RMP) for the Three Lakes Tract Conservation Easement in the town of Webb, Herkimer County. The 3,350-acre Three Lakes Tract (TLT) is comprised of commercially managed forestland and is named for three waterbodies located on the property-Hitchcock, Grass, and Moose ponds. The RMP will address public recreational access and facilities consistent with the conservation easement.

The public comment period is open until July 1, 2022.

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Tuesday, May 25, 2021

‘Maintain the Chain’ clean up event

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Inspired by and with the help of the Boon Family of Fourth Lake, the Fulton Chain of Lakes Association is teaming up the Towns of Webb & Inlet, the Adirondack Watershed Institute and the 6th-7th Lake Improvement Association to start an annual volunteer clean-up event to maintain the beautiful lakes and watershed of the Fulton Chain of Lakes.

They are planning to announce this event Memorial Day Weekend with an article in the Adirondack Express and will have registration tables set up – one at the Inlet Information Office and one at the Town of Webb Visitor Center.

They have some activities in mind for this event that will involve waterfront improvements, visiting the Adirondack Watershed Institute’s sanitation station and educating through some of their webcasts. They also plan to have awards for participants, including “Best Project” encouraging people to share some of their own ideas.

If you would like to help the FCLA with awards or have any questions about this event contact John Jeffery johnjeffery124@gmail.com or Ray Letterman rdletter@syr.edu.

Fourth Lake, part of the Fulton Chain of Lakes, photo courtesy of Elizgoiri, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Charlie Herr’s New History of the Fulton Chain Published

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A new history covering the Fulton Chain of Lakes region from Moose River Settlement to its boundary west of Raquette Lake is now available from North Country Books and selected regional bookstores.

Regular contributor to the Weekly Adirondack of Old Forge Charles E. Herr’s new book, The Fulton Chain: Early Settlement, Roads, Steamboats, Railroads and Hotels, documents the story of the stalwart folk whose lives shaped the Fulton Chain.

The book represents the first general history of the Fulton Chain region in almost seventy years. Herr says he hopes his work engenders new interest in the notable earlier works cited in his introduction to The Fulton Chain.
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Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Webb Historical Association Garden Party Thursday

There will be a Garden Party on Thursday, August, 18th from 4 to 7 pm, to benefit the Town of Webb Historical Association on the grounds of the Moose River House Bed and Breakfast overlooking the Moose River. The evening will be host by H. Stuart deCamp and Jimmy Ortiz.

The event will be dedicated to William Seward Webb – the namesake of the Town of Webb. Webb, along with his wife Lila Osgood Vanderbuilt, acquired over 200,000 acres of land in the Adirondacks, and owned a notable railroad. The Webbs established Nehasane Park, a 40,000 acre private preserve located west of Long Lake, and had Great Camp Forest Lodge built on Lake Lila (renamed by the Webb’s for Lila Webb). In addition to their Adirondack interests, the Webbs also owned several thousand acres along Lake Champlain in Shelburne, Vermont. » Continue Reading.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Festival, Remembrance At Old Forge’s Memorial Weekend

by Diane Chase

Memorial Day weekend celebrations are starting on Friday, May 27, in Old Forge with yoga, gallery openings and the monthly Moose Comedy Night. There are also a plethora of specials from food coupons to lodging discounts. As fun and festive as the weekend plans are going to be, Old Forge has carefully separated their celebration to maintain the integrity of Memorial Day.

According to Town of Webb Tourism Director Mike Farmer this is the second year that the Old Forge Red, White and Blue Memorial Celebration weekend. For first year, organizers worked to get the event off the ground, never realizing how popular the weekend would be. » Continue Reading.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

As Climate Changes, Poor Winters Hurt Adirondack Tourism

by Mike Lynch

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The most profitable months for the tourism-based businesses in the Adirondacks are without question July and August. This is when families take their summer vacations, the weather is warm, and the bugs are tolerable. But while summer is crucial for small businesses, a successful winter season can mean the difference between making money or not for the year.

Vinny McClelland, owner of the Mountaineer in Keene Valley, knows this as much as anyone. His business depends on customers who recreate in the outdoors. In winter, they include backcountry skiers, ice climbers, mountaineers, and snowshoers. If there is a shortage of snow or ice in the winter, chances are there will be a shortage of customers visiting the Adirondacks and his store.

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Monday, November 2, 2015

Raquette Lake Railway Creation Myths

While researching the Raquette Lake Railway, I found several historical traditions that were repeatedly used by authors in their works regarding the railroad’s origin. Below I examine these traditions and then provide my research on its origin from period correspondence and historical sources, including the rationale from the words of its builder, Collis P. Huntington. » Continue Reading.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Forge House History: The Forge Company Years

In October 1895, Victor Adams assembled a group of investors together in Little Falls and secured an arrangement with Garmon and Crosby to purchase a 50% interest in the Forge Tract properties. The group’s business plan was to enlarge and improve the Forge House, to build a two-mile railroad from Fulton Chain Station to the Forge House dock and to begin development of the tract into a resort town. They would eventually also establish a transportation company that would buy the independent public steamers on the lower four lakes.

The name of the syndicate would be The Old Forge Company, often referred to as the Old Forge Improvement Company. In addition to Garmon, Crosby and Adams, the directors would also include Nelson R. Gilbert, J. Judson Gilbert, Homer P. Snyder and Hadley Jones. Samuel F. Garmon was the company’s first president and Titus Sheard was a director in the new railroad company. The company soon completed surveys of the Forge Tract, laid out the first streets named after most of these individuals in Spring 1896 and filed the first village map with the Herkimer County Clerk’s Office. » Continue Reading.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Forge House History: The Garmon And Crosby Years

Eunice 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.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Forge House History: The Country Hotel Years

If any image represents early Fulton Chain history, it is the Forge House atop the elevation overlooking the pond as a king viewing his realm. When the hotel burned in 1924, prominent citizens planned to quickly rebuild it but the era of the big summer hotel had ended, replaced by smaller, shorter stay motoring hotels to cater to the automobile tourist.

Today, its location is a grassy knoll across from the Old Forge Fire Department building, down the street from the Old Forge Hardware store and behind the Forge Hotel sign. But while the Forge House existed, the traveler was given the name of an individual there who would not fail to provide necessary comforts. This narrative is about the hotel’s owners, and about the proprietors and managers who usually were not the owners. » Continue Reading.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

The Fulton Chain and Raquette Lake Steamboat Company

During 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, July 10, 2014

The Old Forge Company: Defeat and Decline

At the stockholders and directors meetings of the Old Forge Company held in December, 1900 at Little Falls were Dr. Alexander Crosby, Judson J. Gilbert, Homer P. Snyder and Eugene Arthur, representing 90% of the Company’s shares. Snyder was elected vice-president and Nelson R. Gilbert was continued as treasurer, a position held since 1896.

For the first time since its founding, the Company elected a new president, Dr. Alexander Crosby, replacing Samuel Garmon, and a new secretary, Eugene A. Arthur, replacing Hadley Jones. Eugene Arthur was appointed to handle land contracts for a salary plus expenses. According to Charles Snyder, “the members of these companies have gotten into a row among themselves and that only one or two of them are financially capable of seeing things through.” » Continue Reading.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

The Old Forge Company:
Rise Of A Transportation Monopoly

A quick look at an Old Forge town map reveals streets named Garmon, Crosby, Adams, Gilbert and Sheard. These are the oldest streets in town except for Main Street (Route 28), originally an extension of the Brown’s Tract Road.

The “main drag” was briefly named Harrison Avenue for former President Benjamin Harrison, the region’s most famous camper. But this name was dropped from the maps of the Adirondack Development Corporation in the first part of the 20^th century.

Recently, the Goodsell Musuem has been permitted by the Town of Webb to reinstate “Harrison Avenue” with a sign at the corner of Gilbert and Route 28.

Except for Main Street, these streets were created by the Old Forge Company, often called the Old Forge Improvement Company. When its Directors established building lots through the woods of the Forge Tract, they assigned these names to the streets on the first village map filed in July 1896 with the Herkimer County Clerk. What follows is part of a history of the Old Forge Company from its inception to 1899. » Continue Reading.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Inlet History: A Short Biography of Philo Clark Wood