The Raquette River flows from its source at Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondacks, to the St. Lawrence River at Akewesasne.
East of Tupper Lake and just north of Simon Pond is a place called “The Cut.”
“The Cut” was channel dug to “straighten the river” so that logs could be floated (driven) straight into Simon Pond, thus avoiding a shallow and meandering section of the Raquette River known as Moody’s Flow.
From Simon Pond the logs were floated into Tupper Lake, through the “sorting gap,” and into Raquette Pond. At this point logs for the Tupper Lake mills were culled out and the remainder went on down the river to other factories and sawmills. The lumbering firms along the river marked all logs. Lumberjacks manned the floating catwalks of the sorting gap and separated the logs into the owner’s holding booms. Logs not marked for Tupper Lake mills were allowed to continue downriver.
Raquette Pond is the body of water one sees from the municipal park in Tupper Lake. There has always been a body of water here, just not as large as it is today. Old maps and descriptions refer to the smaller pond, with the Raquette River running through it, as Whitney Pond, Lothrop Stretch and Lough Neagh or as Adirondacker’s say “Long Neck.”
The character of Long Neck Pond changed from that of a small pond to that of a greater industrial area in the early 1850s. Potsdam lumberman (or at least down river lumberman) wanted an easier way for logs to get to their sawmills. The first dam was constructed slightly down stream at a section of rapids called Setting Pole Rapids. This mid-1850s dam was a log crib dam, three or four feet high, that backed-up water into what is now Raquette Pond, connecting it to Tupper Lake, and a now larger Simon Pond. The rise in water level was also noted further upstream on the Raquette River. Higher water levels meant more logs could be floated to the sawmills, which might translate into greater profits.
According to Fredrick J. Seaver, author of Historical Sketches of Franklin County and its Several Towns (1918), a much larger crib dam was constructed by the Potsdam lumber interests in 1870:
Its height was ten (10) feet above still water . . . The result was the flooding of lands for a distance of nearly 30 miles up river . . . (all the way to the base of Raquette Falls). Of course the fine timber lining the shores was killed, transforming a beautiful section into a dead forest indescribably desolate in appearance.
The new dam burst in May the following year (1871) and resulted in flooding and destruction, especially in Potsdam. The Reservoir Dam (Setting Pole Dam) was rebuilt in 1872 at a lower level and in 1885 a “vigilante” group of “Moody Boys” lowered the dam even further. The ugly, foul-smelling, extensive and lasting damage had been done however, as evidenced in “The Drowned Lands of the Lower Raquette,” a photograph by Seneca Ray Stoddard taken in 1888.
In 1883, writer and paddler George Washington Sears (also known as Nessmuk) described the banks of the Raquette River as having millions of dead and decaying trees. For Sears, the Raquette River here was “a sluggish, sullen stream, with miles on miles of dead timber an unnatural marsh… not the stream to linger on.” He caught one of the steamers that made daily trips between Trombley’s Landing (Sweeney Carry) and the hotels on Tupper Lake, loaded his canoe on-board, and wrote that he wanted to “get down and out in the quickest possible time.”
In E. R. Wallaces’s, Descriptive Guide to the Adirondacks: Land of the Thousand Lakes (1894), the avid angler George Dawson of the Albany Journal reported that the “glory of the Raquette above this point had departed.” He went on:
“The high water thus caused is working great mischief in all this region. It has produced the overflow of tens of thousands of acres. The result will be that the beauty of the Raquette, once one of the most lovely streams in America, and its connecting lakes will be marred by the destruction of the most beautiful evergreens and maples which line their banks, and rendered them so wonderfully attractive and picturesque. But that is not all. The receding waters in midsummer must leave this whole region a reeking mess of decaying vegetation filling the air with fever-exciting miasma, and making a sojourn in the midst of it exceedingly hazardous. Its effects are already seen in the thousands of dead trees which mar the beauty of the river’s banks, and the coming seasons will demonstrate its pernicious influence upon the comfort and health of visitors, and the scattered residents upon its boarders. Anglers are chiefly aggrieved by this destruction of the free flow of water, because it has destroyed several trout haunts.”
The dam was eventually lowered to about its present height, but the dead and decaying trees along the river were never reestablished to their former grandeur. In fact the dead trees were used as a source of firewood by local inhabitants for many years.
Today when paddling the shores of Simon Pond, Tupper Lake, and Raquette Pond one would never know of its past ugliness. We take it for granted that the present water level is the way it has always been. The original river course was about free or four feet lower than that of today. Before the 1870s the wetlands that we see while traversing the causeway of Route 30, would have been higher, dryer, forested land. Seasonably flooded but not permanently underwater.
There was however one more threat to the Tupper Lake, Upper Raquette River area. In the early 1900s The New York State Water Commission surveyed river systems in the State of New York to determine locations for containment dams. Containment dams were designed to impound the spring run-off and assist with spring flood control, and to store water for a gradual release in the dryer late summer–early fall months.
One such project was known as the Tupper Lake Reservoir. The Tupper Lake Reservoir project consisted of several options outlined in the Fourth Annual Report of the Water Commission (1909). One of the sites considered was at Piercefield. The relatively new (in 1899) dam would be increased in height by 15 or 20 feet. Another site was the old “Reservoir Dam” (Setting Pole Dam) which was proposed to be raised 10 to 12 feet. Actually much of this idea sounds like the old 1870 Potsdam lumberman’s proposal.
But by 1900 the area had changed. Former Tupper lake historian, Louis Simmons wrote “The earliest logging operations in the Tupper Lake area centered around the east shores of Raquette Pond . . . probably no other body of water in the Adirondacks saw such extensive lumbering operations.”
The low-lying area around Raquette Pond was now an industrial and transportation center. Tupper Lake Junction, “the Junction” or Faust was the point where Dr. Seward Webb’s, Adirondack and St. Lawrence Rail Road (Adirondack Division of the New York Central) and John Hurd’s, New York and Ottawa Railroad met. According to the Water Commission Report:
“If either of these dams in the vicinity of Piercefield was to be built, even to the least height stated above, it would submerge the little village of Faust, and the present location of the New York and Ottawa Railroad for a distance of 2.5 miles, and the Adirondack Division of the New York Central Railroad for a distance of perhaps four miles, also it would flood the present site of four large saw mills with their lumber yards and tracking facilities. It would also inflict considerable damage on the lower margins of Tupper lake village. . . . Although no exact valuation of the damages on this property has been attempted, the amount is obviously so large as to render it a very serious obstacle to such a proposition at this time.”
The impoundment would have included Little Wolf Lake and during high water the flooding could also include Big Wolf Lake. (On the map included here, dams #1 and #2 in yellow). If the dam were to be constructed at the Setting Pole site an additional earthen dyke would also have to been necessary so that water didn’t flow through the low lying area of Underwood and flood the Piercefield flow. Tupper Lake and Simon Pond along with the Raquette River, upstream towards Trombley’s Landing, would have also been flooded again , increasing the lake levels by 15 to 20 feet. But the social, economic, and political upheaval was too great, so another idea would have to be sought.
A new site was considered. On the map included here, dam #3 and dam #4, (red) or in the 1909 Water Commission report and maps dam #1 and dam #2.
The height of Setting Pole Dam was the source of local friction as the water level of Raquette Pond, Tupper Lake, and Simon Pond was hotly debated for several decades. Village board resolutions were passed in 1896 and again in 1899 to rebuild Setting Pole Dam “to a sufficient height that a uniform level of water can be maintained.” But there was never the necessary business support when it came time actually do something.
This situation lasted nearly 40 years until 1933 when the Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided the funds and labor to rebuild the dam. The concrete dam was completed in 1934 and a uniform water level established. Setting Pole Dam was reconstructed in 1965-66 and additional work was done in 1969-70, and the water level has remained relatively consistent since.
Additional Notes:
The Piercefield Dam, initially a wooden crib style dam, was begun in 1896-97 and completed in 1899. It was reconstructed as a concrete dam in stages from 1926- 1957. The timber crib spillway was replaced with concrete in 1960. Additional work on the dam was done in 1991 and 1997. Brookfield Power (current owner and operator) installed new floodgates and a pneumatic flashboard system in 2007. But, through all of this, the height of the dam and the surface height of the Piercefield Flow has not changed since its initial construction in 1899.
Setting poles were used by native peoples and early Adirondack guides to “push” a boat or canoe up- stream, through a light, shallow and rocky section of rapids. Typically a setting pole was 12- 14 feet long, about two inches in diameter and made of spruce of tamarack. The guide stood in the boat as he navigated up-stream. There are still rivers in Maine where the “art” of navigating by the use of a setting pole is still taught.
Simon Pond, (Simond Pond, or Lake Simond) as well as Little Simon(d) Pond were named after Revolutionary Captain Gardner Simonds and / or his relative Elijah “Lije” Simond (1812-1900). According to contemporary accounts “Lije” Simond was one of the greatest of Adirondack Guides. In typical Adirondack fashion, spelling often changes over time.
Illustrations: Above, Seneca Ray Stoddard photo “the Cut” with Simon(d) Pond and Mt. Morris (1888); middle, “The Drowned Lands” [Moody Flow] (1888) by Seneca Ray Stoddard; map created by Rick Rosen.
Mike, So glad to see this sort of research and reporting! Well done. I’ve been trying for many years to tell people about the history of another important body of water – Lake George. A battle raged for many decades over the water levels and the way the International Paper Company dictated the flow of water, thus using the lake as if it were a mill pond. Many of the philanthropists and other wealthy landowners agreed, back in 1910 or so, that the islands at Lake George should be protected from the erosion being caused by the dam at Ticonderoga, but by 1920, when there was legislation proposed to include the Tongue Mountain range and the Narrows under state ownership, a huge backlash occurred. All those with interest in further developing the lake through the construction of a highway from Bolton to the Hague, as well as building more homes, hotels and businesses, joined forces, and pushed back the attempts at preservation. The letters and other documents in the Apperson Collection (now in the Kelly Center, at Union College) tell of the constant efforts of activists to defend the NY Constitution’s “forever wild” clause, and turn public opinion in favor of protecting the central section of Lake George. Dome Island, now owned by the Nature Conservancy, is a beautiful reminder of the reason why New York’s lakes and islands should be preserved, without the addition of camps, elegant houses, and fine lawns (or chemical fertilizers).
I love all this great history please keep them coming yes I worked at Howard Johnsons in the 1967 and 70s era! Bud raised on a tiny Pond called Hadlock pond from 1956 to even now just less than a half mile away! And the story’s I could tell if I were a great writer as yourself!!!!