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Beaver Falls

An Adirondack Lumber Camp at Twitchell Lake, 1860-80

May 25, 2022 by Noel Sherry Leave a Comment

5a Objects dug up in Lumber Camp #2 about a half mile east of Twitchell Lake, Noel SherryMy uncle Frank Sherry taught my brother Tom and I orienteering, using a map and compass to navigate through the woods and find a remote pond or other location. We were teenagers and it was an exciting way to spend a Saturday.

On one of these adventures we were in search of Silver Dollar Pond to the east of Twitchell Lake in Northern Herkimer County,when we stumbled on our first lumber camp. The telltale signs were pieces of metal hanging from a tree and protruding from the ground, with old bottles half-buried in the forest floor. We made note of the location on our map, a half-mile from Twitchell, and returned to explore it. It wasn’t long before we located the camp dump, from which we dug up the items pictured here.

These and other objects triggered an active discussion on the date of this old camp, with an imaginative re-creation of what life might have been like for a lumberjacks living and working there. [Read more…] about An Adirondack Lumber Camp at Twitchell Lake, 1860-80

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Adirondacks, Archaeology, Architecture, Beaver Falls, Beaver River, Big Moose, Black River, Brown's Tract, Copenhagen, Croghan, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, Forestry, Hemlock Trees, Herkimer COunty, Industrial History, Labor History, Lewis County, Logging, Moose River, Tanning, Totten Crossfield Tract, trees, Twitchell Lake

Logging the Adirondack Interior, Spurring Preservation (1840-60)

May 25, 2022 by Noel Sherry Leave a Comment

One of the most satisfying pastimes for me at our summer home on Twitchell Lake in Big Moose in the Adirondacks in Northern Herkimer County), was taking the camp guide boat out for a spin. That privilege was earned by passing the family test, a solo swim across the lake, about the distance of a football field.

Weighing just over 30 pounds, this unique 14-foot wooden craft sped through the water powered by two oars. A cabin shelf still displays several awards for winning the annual guide boat race. I fondly remember the one-mile hikes to neighboring Oswego Pond, trailing my older brother Burt carrying that guide boat on his shoulders using a hand-carved yoke, my father in the lead bearing the oars and fishing gear. [Read more…] about Logging the Adirondack Interior, Spurring Preservation (1840-60)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondacks, Beaver Falls, Beaver River, Big Moose, Big Moose Tract, Black River, Cultural History, Environmental History, fishing, Herkimer COunty, Industrial History, John Brown Tract, Labor History, Lewis County, Logging, Moose River, Totten Crossfield Tract, Transportation History, Twitchell Lake

Logging The Adirondacks From The West (1800-1820)

May 2, 2022 by Noel Sherry 6 Comments

2a Eastern Lewis Co TownshipsIn the nineteenth century Lewis County settlements east of the Black River were just getting established; most of these included at least one saw mill. By 1820 these settlements were beginning to push their way up the rivers into the Adirondacks, and new mills were being built along their courses. A Copenhagen, NY farmer on Tug Hill, viewing the Adirondack panorama spread out to his east, wrote the following in a Journal & Republican article titled “North Woods Wonder:”

“All the wilderness is strewn with lakes as if some great mirror had been shattered by an Almighty hand, and scattered through the forests for Nature to make her toilet by … And how the rivers meander the woods as the veins of a human hand. There are Beaver, Moose, and Indian, Bog, Grass and Racket… And how rough and shaggy the wilderness is with mountains … Let them pass unnamed.”

One of these “shattered” gems was Twitchell Lake. [Read more…] about Logging The Adirondacks From The West (1800-1820)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Adirondacks, Alexander Macomb, Beaver Falls, Beaver River, Beech Trees, Black River, Boonville, Brown's Tract, conservation, Copenhagen, Croghan, Diana, Environmental History, Forestport, Greig, Herkimer COunty, Independence River, Independence River State Forest, Independence River Wild Forest, Indigenous History, Industrial History, Lewis County, Logging, Lowville, Moose River, New Bremen, Old Forge, Oneida County, Oswegatchie River, Otter Creek, Otter River, Raquette River, surveying, Totten Crossfield Tract, Twitchell Lake, Watson

Early Settlers of the Beaver River Country

November 12, 2017 by Edward Pitts 2 Comments

Fenton’s at Number Four after 1870 Settlement came slowly to the upper Beaver River valley in the west central Adirondacks. John Brown Francis, governor of Rhode Island and grandson of John Brown, the original titleholder, built the first road from Lowville to Number Four in 1822 with the hope of starting a village there. To spur settlement he gave 100 acres each to the first ten families willing to clear the land and establish farms. A number of pioneers moved in, the first of which was a man named Orrin Fenton who arrived in 1826. By 1835 there were about 75 residents. Gradually all attempts at farming failed. By 1864 the settlement of Number Four was nearly deserted. [Read more…] about Early Settlers of the Beaver River Country

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Beaver Falls, Beaver River

Lynn Herzig: Beaver Falls in the 1950s

March 24, 2017 by Bob Cudmore 1 Comment

This week on “The Historians” podcast, Lynn Herzig describes life in a hamlet on New York’s Tug Hill Plateau over fifty years ago. Herzig is author of Where’d you go? Out! What’d you do?  Nothing! Unique memories of growing up in Beaver Falls, NY during the 1950s.

Listen to the podcast here.    [Read more…] about Lynn Herzig: Beaver Falls in the 1950s

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Beaver Falls, Beaver River, Podcasts, Tug Hill Plateau

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