A new history covering the Fulton Chain of Lakes region from Moose River Settlement to its boundary west of Raquette Lake is now available.
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.
Charles Herr will give a presentation highlighting the book on Tuesday June 20 at 7 p.m. at the Old Forge Library, 220 Crosby Blvd.
Books will be available for purchase and author signing after the program. Free and open to the public, the program is funded by the Friends ADK Series and NYSCA: the Literature Program with support from Governor Andrew Cuomo and the NYS Legislature.
The author added, corrected, and edited articles that were first published in the Weekly Adirondack in Old Forge, and at the Adirondack Almanack, including photographs and maps. He has organized them by topic and, where possible, in a time chronology.
Readers will learn about Benjamin Harrison’s visits, the origin and construction of the Fulton Chain Railroad and the Raquette Lake Railway lines, the steamboats – including mail boats and pickle boats – as well as first major hotels of Inlet and Old Forge. The book includes early town politics, the building of roads, a murder at “lock-and-dam,” and the subsequent trial. Included is a partnership of a wooden track railroad with a steamer that often tried and sometimes could.
Since the early 1980s when Herr and his wife Marsha purchased a camp in Inlet, he has been interested in the Fulton Chain region of the Adirondacks. After a summer working at the Goodsell Museum in Old Forge, Charles worked a decade for the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake. He also worked with others to establish the Inlet Historical Society and served as its first President.
In this book, Herr’s ambition was to uncover local and regional Fulton Chain history about people and events prior to 1930 which has been little covered in the histories of the region. This book is for the casual reader interested in Fulton Chain history. It is also a reference for the serious researcher. Herr covers the battles between developers and landowners, railroad builders and their opponents and, for the first time, the early history of the land that would become the Town of Inlet. New information is provided about the deCamps, Alexander Lamberton, the Old Forge Company, Fred Hess, Philo Wood, Arch Delmarsh and Charles O’Hara.
Here is the full schedule for Herr’s upcoming book events:
Tuesday, June 20 at 7 pm at the Old Forge Library, Old Forge
Thursday, June 22 at 7 pm at Inlet Town Hall, Inlet
Saturday, July 8 at 12 pm at The Old Forge Hardware, Old Forge
Wednesday, August 23 at 7 pm at Thendara Town Hall, Thendara
The 9 ¼ x 11 ¾ hard copy of the 300-plus page The Fulton Chain: Early Settlement, Roads, Steamboats, Railroads and Hotels is priced at $39.99 plus tax. Information about the book can be obtained from North Country Books and the author’s Facebook page.
Enjoyed Mr. Herr’s book. Interesting fact. He mentions provision/supply boats on the Fulton Chain as “Pickle Boats” but I am aware of only one of these boats on the Fulton Chain that carried pickles in a barrel on the deck for purchase which caused the boat to be called the Pickle Boat. That was the Mohawk, then operated by my grandfather, Charles E. Wilcox ( Marks & Wilcox). His son, Roy, also worked on the boat with the other crew members noted by Mr. Herr. Curious how the earlier boats gained the moniker?