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Adirondack Dams

Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations

January 23, 2023 by Noel Sherry 4 Comments

Northern section showing lumber company railroads branching off New York Central, from BillAfter Hudson River logging sharply declined by 1905, the Adirondack railroad line known as the Mohawk & Malone kept NYS lumber companies in business for at least another twelve years. A big part of this was due to logging north of Big Moose, shown on this New York Central & Hudson River railroad map, with eight station stops northward toward Tupper Lake (shown at left), three of them as junctions for logging railroads — Wood’s Lake, Brandreth, and Nehasane.

Beaver River Station was shifting from logging to tourism. Little Rapids was a flag stop, Keepawa unlisted in an 1895 train schedule. This article will describe the logging history of Wood’s Lake and Beaver River stations, beginning with a new lumbering operation just north of Big Moose. [Read more…] about Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Adirondacks, Beaver River, Big Moose, Burd Amendment, Forest Preserve, Herkimer COunty, Industrial History, International Paper, Legal History, Lewis County, Logging, Logging the Adirondacks, Mohawk & Malone Railroad, New York Central RR, railroads, Silver Lake, Stillwater, Town of Webb, Transportation History, Twitchell Lake, William Seward Webb

Rehabilitation of Lows Lake Lower Dam Has Begun

January 14, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

lows lakeThe gate on the access road leading to the Bog River Dam, also known as Lows Lake Lower Dam, in the town of Piercefield, St. Lawrence County, closed December 6th, to allow for construction to maintain the Adirondack dam. [Read more…] about Rehabilitation of Lows Lake Lower Dam Has Begun

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Adirondacks, Bog River, DEC, Hitchens Pond, Horseshoe Lake, Lows Lake, paddling, Piercefield, St Lawrence County

Lows Lower Dam Rehabilitation Will Close Road

December 3, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

DEC LogoThe New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced the gate on the access road leading to the Bog River Dam, also known as Lows Lower Dam, will be closed starting December 6th, to allow for construction to maintain the dam, located on the Bog River near Tupper Lake, NY in the Adirondack Park. [Read more…] about Lows Lower Dam Rehabilitation Will Close Road

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Bog River, DEC, hiking, Hitchins Pond, Lows Lake, paddling

The 1903 Hudson River Spier Falls Dam Disaster

August 16, 2022 by Lawrence P. Gooley Leave a Comment

Construction workers installing a 12 foot diameter penstock at Spier Falls Hydroelectric Dam, 1901In the spring of 1903, more than a thousand men were at work on the final stages of the Spier Falls hydroelectric project on the Hudson River near Glens Falls.

A large number of skilled Italian masons and stoneworkers were housed in a shantytown on the Warren County (north) side of the river.

Most of the remaining work was on the Saratoga County (south) side, which they accessed by a temporary bridge. But the company feared that the high waters of springtime had made the bridge unsafe. To avert a potential catastrophe, they destroyed it with dynamite. [Read more…] about The 1903 Hudson River Spier Falls Dam Disaster

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Adirondacks, Hudson River, Italian History, Labor History, Saratoga County, Spier Falls, Warren County, Warrensburg

At Spier Falls Immigrants Built America, Or Died Trying

August 15, 2022 by Lawrence P. Gooley Leave a Comment

Spier Falls DamAdirondack history is naturally rife with river-related stories — wildly successful fishing trips, damaging floods, wilderness exploration, and dam construction.

Rivers were the lifeblood of development: settlements sprang up along waterways, where partial diversion of streams provided the wheel-turning power necessary to many industries. But freshets were so common and destructive that dams were introduced as flood-control measures, and then for hydropower as the electrification of society unfolded. [Read more…] about At Spier Falls Immigrants Built America, Or Died Trying

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Adirondacks, energy, Glens Falls, Hudson River, Immigration, Labor History, Saratoga County, Spier Falls, Warren County

The 10 Deadliest Accidents in the Adirondack Region

December 9, 2021 by John Warren Leave a Comment

Sinking of Lake George Steamboat John JaySome of tragic accidents have occurred in the Adirondack region.

Here is a list of the ten believed to have been among the deadliest: [Read more…] about The 10 Deadliest Accidents in the Adirondack Region

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Adirondacks, Aviation History, Chazy Lake, Clinton County, Dannemora, Essex County, I-87, Lake George, Saratoga County, Steamboating, Transportation History, Warren County

Plans To Dam The Upper Hudson Would Have Been Catastrophic

June 21, 2021 by Mike Prescott Leave a Comment

Gooley-Kettle19-511x800On almost every stream, pond or lake in the Adirondacks there is still evidence of lumberman’s dams and lumbering operations.  In the mid-to-late 1960s however, there was a controversial plan to dam the Upper Hudson River in order to supply water and hydro-electric power to the parched, urban, metropolitan area of New York City.

In the early 1960s there had been a severe drought along the entire northeastern seaboard. One of New York City’s answers to the drought problem was to tap the Upper Hudson to supply its seemingly unquenchable need for water. [Read more…] about Plans To Dam The Upper Hudson Would Have Been Catastrophic

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Cedar River, conservation, Essex Chain of Lakes, Finch Pruyn Lands, Goodnow River, Hudson River, Indian Lake, Indian River, Nelson Rockefeller, Newcomb, Paul Schaefer, Political History, Protect the Adirondacks

The End of Arbitrary Powers to Dam Adirondack Rivers

June 15, 2021 by David Gibson 4 Comments

Assemblyman John Ostrander, chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on River Regulation, left, with Paul Schaefer, center, representing Friends of the Forest Preserve and the Adirondack Moose River CommitteeThe State Legislature has just adjourned, but on a good many nights this past month I grew sleepy watching legislative TV or legislative proceedings on the internet. For the non-debate pieces of legislation, meaning when the legislative majority is not allowing minority debate on bills, the viewer is treated to the following exchanges in a monotone, one after the other:

The speaker or his representative, or the Senate president or her representative: “The clerk will read the bill.”  The clerk: “a bill to” …whatever it does.  The speaker or his representative: “The clerk will read the final section.” The clerk: “this act shall take effect immediately.” The speaker, president or their representative: “The vote: 63 in favor. The bill is passed.” All of that has taken less than ten seconds. Next. [Read more…] about The End of Arbitrary Powers to Dam Adirondack Rivers

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Adirondack Park, Article 14, Environmental History, Forever Wild, nature, Political History, wilderness

Sacandaga River History: Piseco, Lake Pleasant Reservoirs

January 4, 2021 by Mike Prescott Leave a Comment

pamphlet cover for The Forest Preserve 5 Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks The Sacandaga River valley has been used as a transportation and communication corridor since before Europeans arrived. It was a native trail, a military road, and a proposed canal and railroad route. Today it’s home to Route 30.

The river is a provider of power and recreation, and a powerful force of nature. [Read more…] about Sacandaga River History: Piseco, Lake Pleasant Reservoirs

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Mohawk Valley, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Lake Pleasant, Piseco, Piseco Lake, Sacandaga River

Hudson River Dam History: The Big Hadley And Glen Dams

November 16, 2020 by Mike Prescott 3 Comments

Mike Prescott paddling One day as my wife and I and our dogs walked along River Road at Riparius on the Hudson River, my wife said to me in a folksy manner “just think all this water here, is on its way to New York City.”

It’s true the Hudson River has flowed out of the Adirondack Mountains for millennia, southward towards the Atlantic Ocean. And over the last two centuries or so there have been plans to dam the Upper Hudson for one reason or another. Most of those plans have dealt with using the water resources for some down state endeavor. [Read more…] about Hudson River Dam History: The Big Hadley And Glen Dams

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Nature, New York City, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Environmental History, Glens Falls Feeder Canal, Hadley, Hudson River, Indian River, Nelson Rockefeller, paddling, Political History, railroads, Schroon River, Verplanck Colvin, water quality

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