Tahawus, in Essex County, NY, is at the headwaters of the Hudson River and draws hikers, paddlers, and other outdoor and history enthusiasts year-round. Located in the town of Newcomb in Adirondack High Peaks, the mining community of Tahawus was deserted twice as two separate mining booms both collapsed. [Read more…] about Tahawus: An Abandoned Adirondack Mining Community
Rangers Spend Busy Week Responding to Recreationists in Distress
NYS Forest Rangers had a busy week responding to a wildfire and several outdoor recreationists in distress, including lost, injured and ill hikers, and a lost ATV rider. [Read more…] about Rangers Spend Busy Week Responding to Recreationists in Distress
St. Francis’ Peace Prayer & Paul Schaefer’s Early Writing
This October 4th, the Feast Day of St. Francis, the world commemorates 800 years since the Saint’s death in 1226. Every day I pass our living room where, prominently framed on our wall, is a copy of the Peace Prayer of St. Francis, a famous Christian prayer that seeks to make the speaker an instrument of peace, love, and understanding.
This version of Francis’ peace prayer was printed in calligraphy and gifted to many by Adirondack wilderness conservationist Paul Schaefer (1908-1996). [Read more…] about St. Francis’ Peace Prayer & Paul Schaefer’s Early Writing
Rangers Recover Bodies at AuSable Chasm, Giant Mountain; Fight Fire & More
NYS Forest Rangers recovered the bodies of a 45-year-old hiker in the Giant Mountain Wilderness and a 60-year-old found in the water under the bridge at Ausable Chasm, in addition to responding to a wildfire in Long Lake and several other lost and injured Adirondack hikers. Three incidents occurred on a single day. [Read more…] about Rangers Recover Bodies at AuSable Chasm, Giant Mountain; Fight Fire & More
Usage Highlights New Adirondack Rail Trail’s Popularity
Counters along the Adirondack Rail Trail recorded 211,000 passes during its first year of full operation according to reports provided to New York Almanack by the Adirondack Rail Trail Association.
The 34-mile universally accessible multi-use trial connects Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake for non-motorized recreation and seasonal snowmobiling. [Read more…] about Usage Highlights New Adirondack Rail Trail’s Popularity
A 1939 Lake George Scavenger Hunt
During the 1930s, the party game known as the “scavenger hunt” took hold of American society. That entertaining competition was popularized by Elsa Maxwell (1883–1963), a famous gossip columnist.
Maxwell was known for organizing lavish parties for the elite that featured opulent scavenger hunts in which participants tried to acquire specific objects within an allotted time period to win the contest. [Read more…] about A 1939 Lake George Scavenger Hunt
Rangers Respond to Wildfire, Gliders Crash, Injured Surveyor, Hikers
New York State Forest Rangers had a busy week responding to a variety of backcountry emergencies, including two gliders that crashed in Saratoga County, a wildfire at Henderson Lake in the Adirondacks, a surveyor with an injured leg in the Catskills, and more. [Read more…] about Rangers Respond to Wildfire, Gliders Crash, Injured Surveyor, Hikers
Adirondack Howitzer Range Application Hits Roadblock
A New York State Administrative Law Judge last week ruled to refer a permit application to test howitzers inside the Adirondack Park back to the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) Board for review and denial.
Florida-based Unconventional Concepts, Inc. (UCI) is seeking permission from the APA to test-fire non-explosive howitzer artillery in the Town of Lewis, Essex County, which lies entirely within the Adirondack Park. [Read more…] about Adirondack Howitzer Range Application Hits Roadblock
Candidates Largely Ignore Adirondack Issues Survey
Protect the Adirondacks sent out a non-partisan candidate questionnaire intended to inform voters about where candidates for U.S. Congress (House of Representatives) and the New York Legislature (Senate and Assembly) stand on issues impacting the Adirondack Park. [Read more…] about Candidates Largely Ignore Adirondack Issues Survey
Anne LaBastille: A Biography of the Woodswoman
Photographer, award-winning wildlife ecologist and bestselling author Anne LaBastille (1935-2011) was a trailblazer.
Perhaps best known for her seminal wilderness book Woodswoman, recounting her years spent living in a cabin on the shores of Twitchell Lake, in the western Adirondacks near Old Forge (she used the pseudonym “Black Bear Lake” in her books to conceal its true location). [Read more…] about Anne LaBastille: A Biography of the Woodswoman
Free Accessibility Options Expand for Great Camp Santanoni, Frontier Town Campground
There are now new accessible mobility device options for two popular sites in the Adirondacks. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) have expanded the existing Great Camp Santanoni Accessibility Program with a new wheelchair-accessible transport service device in Newcomb, in Essex County, NY.
Frontier Town Campground in nearby North Hudson will also now offer free use of both an adult- and a youth-sized electric wheelchair suitable for the paths and paved areas of the campground. [Read more…] about Free Accessibility Options Expand for Great Camp Santanoni, Frontier Town Campground
Forest Rangers Recover Hiker’s Body; Make Several Rescues
New York State Forest Rangers responded to several backcountry incidents between September 8th and the 12th, including the recovery of the body of a hiker who died on Rocky Mountain in the town of Inlet, a family of four lost off the trail to Algonquin Peak, several more hikers who were injured, ill, or ill-prepared in the Adirondack High Peaks, and an overturned kayaker Hamilton County. [Read more…] about Forest Rangers Recover Hiker’s Body; Make Several Rescues
New York’s Great Warpath & Historian Harrison Bird
Lake George, NY resident Harrison Bird (1910-2003) belonged to a rare class of historians, those whose situate the local within the continental and, indeed, the global.
In four books published by Oxford University Press – Navies in the Mountains (1962), March to Saratoga (1963), Battle for a Continent (1965) and Attack on Quebec (1968) – Bird wrote about Lake George, Lake Champlain, Fort Ticonderoga, Saratoga, Quebec and the northern waterways not as isolated historic sites, but as parts of one strategic corridor: the route by which empires, armies, navies and ambitions moved between Canada and the Hudson Valley. [Read more…] about New York’s Great Warpath & Historian Harrison Bird
Overdue, Lost, Ill, Injured and Unprepared Hikers on Labor Day Weekend
New York State Forest Rangers responded to several incidents in the Adirondacks over Labor Day Weekend, including a campground disturbance, and several overdue, lost, injured and unprepared hikers. [Read more…] about Overdue, Lost, Ill, Injured and Unprepared Hikers on Labor Day Weekend
Rose Knox’s Gelatine, Leadership, Mixed Kitchen & Boardroom
In 1914, after secretly running Knox Gelatine for six years, Rose Knox revealed that she’d assumed her deceased husband’s position as the company’s president.
As President of company from 1908 to 1947, she drew on traditional ideals of domesticity and womanhood to turn the company into an iconic American brand and herself into a business celebrity. [Read more…] about Rose Knox’s Gelatine, Leadership, Mixed Kitchen & Boardroom
With ‘Operation Rotten Apple’ Upstate Police Round-Ups Surge
Federal authorities arrested 2,197 people across New York last month during what they have derisively named “Operation Rotten Apple,” the highest monthly immigration arrest total since the Trump administration’s round-ups began in New York State. [Read more…] about With ‘Operation Rotten Apple’ Upstate Police Round-Ups Surge
Rock Climber Finds Beech Leaf Disease Near Tupper Lake
Bill Widrig, a volunteer with the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program’s Forest Pest Hunters program, was on his way to climb a rock wall on Goodman Mountain, just south of Tupper Lake, when he noticed an all-too-familiar site: the telltale leaf banding of beech leaf disease. [Read more…] about Rock Climber Finds Beech Leaf Disease Near Tupper Lake
New Historical Plaque Being Dedicated at Lake George Battlefield
The Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York, founded in 1892, and whose contributions to commemorating the history of the Lake George region date back to the 1903 Battle of Lake George (William Johnson-King Hendrick) sculpture at Lake George Battlefield Park, will dedicate a new historical plaque in the park on Monday, September 7 (Labor Day) at 12 noon. [Read more…] about New Historical Plaque Being Dedicated at Lake George Battlefield
Rangers Report Multiple Rescues of Lost, Injured Hikers
The most recent New York State Forest Rangers Report includes efforts to rescue more than a half dozen hikers lost or with knee or lower leg injuries in the Adirondacks and Catskills. [Read more…] about Rangers Report Multiple Rescues of Lost, Injured Hikers
Search Continues For Moose River Plains Missing Man
Craig K. Streeter, a 73-year-old resident of Mahopac, NY, is currently the subject of an active multi-agency search after going missing while camping in the Moose River Plains in Hamilton County in the Adirondack Park. [Read more…] about Search Continues For Moose River Plains Missing Man