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Big Moose Lake

Lumbering Operations at Big Moose Lake (1900-1920)

December 29, 2022 by Noel Sherry Leave a Comment

Totten & Crossfield Triangle in northwest corner of Township 41, The first of three major logging operations on Big Moose Lake in Herkimer County in the Adirondacks was headed by a veteran lumber company executive named Theodore Page. Page built palatial “Camp Veery” on Echo Island in West Bay, purchased from William Seward Webb in 1900. He arrived at Big Moose Lake from Oswego, NY, with many years of leadership in the lumber industry, importing timber from Canada for the Minetto Shade Cloth Company – one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of shade cloth, window shades, shade-rollers, and curtain fixtures. [Read more…] about Lumbering Operations at Big Moose Lake (1900-1920)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondacks, Big Moose, Big Moose Lake, Brown's Tract, Francis Higgins, Hamilton County, Herkimer COunty, Industrial History, Legal History, Logging, Logging the Adirondacks, Mohawk & Malone Railroad, New York Central RR, railroads, Town of Webb, Twitchell Lake, William Seward Webb

Logging The Adirondacks: A Legal Logjam (1880-1900)

November 14, 2022 by Noel Sherry 4 Comments

Aaron Lloyd v. Moose River Lumber Co;An early 20th century Adirondack lawsuit pitted a small Big Moose Lake sportsman and landowner Aaron Lloyd against a team of powerful opponents, John Adams Dix and his Moose River Lumber Company with Dr. William Seward Webb and his Nehasane Park Association.

A second suit reversed the plaintiff and defendant, Webb vs. Lloyd, and appeared to be linked to the first complaint. Clearly this was a classic David versus Goliath clash. These cases would have been the fodder for conversations around the campfire in the Big Moose area for almost a decade.

On the surface, the complaints concerned the harvest of millions of board feet of virgin timber and flooding Big Moose Lake to get these logs to market, with Webb behind both actions. [Read more…] about Logging The Adirondacks: A Legal Logjam (1880-1900)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Big Moose, Big Moose Lake, Big Moose Tract, Environmental History, Forest Preserve, Hamilton County, Herkimer COunty, Industrial History, John A. Dix, Legal History, Logging, Mohawk & Malone Railroad, railroads, surveying, Totten Crossfield Tract, Town of Webb, Twitchell Lake, Verplanck Colvin, William Seward Webb

Gibson: DEC & APA Should Reform Managing Adirondack Lakes and Ponds

November 5, 2022 by David Gibson 1 Comment

Chad Dawson speaking at Paul Smith's VIC Oct. 2022At Adirondack Wild’s October meeting at the Paul Smith’s Visitor Interpretive Center, lakes and ponds came under the spotlight in a panel discussion about Cooperative Stewardship of Adirondack Lakes. Of particular interest was a given lake’s classification and subsequent comprehensive study, planning and management.

If Adirondack waterbodies are considered part of the Forest Preserve, and for the last fifty years the State Land Master Plan talks about land and water, then the law requires that lakes and ponds be classified, just as forests are. That raises important questions. [Read more…] about Gibson: DEC & APA Should Reform Managing Adirondack Lakes and Ponds

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Wild, Adirondacks, Big Moose Lake, boating, development, Essex County, Franklin County, Hamilton County, Lake Placid, Little Tupper Lake, Lower Saranac Lake, Lows Lake, nature, paddling, Raquette Lake, Saranac Lakes Wild Forest, Siamese Ponds Wilderness, State Land Master Plan, Thirteenth Lake, Warren County, water quality, wilderness, Wildlife, William C. Whitney Wilderness

Deep In The Adirondack Woods, A Colvin Survey Benchmark Revealed

September 15, 2021 by Noel Sherry 3 Comments

1. Picture of Frank Tweedy, courtesy of Special Collections, Schaffer Library, Union College, 1875 As a boy growing up in the Battle Hill section of White Plains, NY, I remember my excitement at reading a brass memorial telling me “George Washington slept here.” White Plains was the site of a battle during the American Revolution.

Now as an adult I have had the thrill of learning that Verplanck Colvin surveyed Twitchell Lake and took measurements on the shore where my log cabin stands in Big Moose, NY.  That realization launched me on a quest to find a benchmark placed by one of Colvin’s surveyors on an important boundary line nearby. [Read more…] about Deep In The Adirondack Woods, A Colvin Survey Benchmark Revealed

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Big Moose, Big Moose Lake, Frank Tweedy, Hamilton County, John Brown Tract, Pigeon Lake Wilderness, surveying, Totten Crossfield Tract, Twitchell Lake, Verplanck Colvin

A Twitchell Lake Love Story: Passing on a Family Legacy

June 14, 2020 by Noel Sherry 2 Comments

Norman and Lucretias first home in TroyThis is part three of this series A Twitchell Lake Love Story – part two can be found here.

After their marriage, newlyweds Norman and Lucretia Sherry moved into their first home. They brought four children into the world – Elizabeth (1910), Francis (1911), Norman, Jr. (1913), and Esther (1918). Lucretia (Lu, as she was called) had her piano shipped from Buffalo to Troy, filling their home with music and hymns, and teaching her children the keyboard. [Read more…] about A Twitchell Lake Love Story: Passing on a Family Legacy

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Big Moose, Big Moose Lake, Buffalo, Troy, Twitchell Lake

A Twitchell Lake Love Story: Norman’s Transformation

June 13, 2020 by Noel Sherry 1 Comment

Twitchell LakeThe first part of this series, A Twitchell Lake Love Story, can be found here.

On March 21 of 1908, Norman Sherry received an invitation from Lucretia Hayes:

“My dear Norman, thank you for your letter of yesterday. It was good to hear about your trip to Alaska. I would love to see the kodaks. I think I know the perfect time to view them. My family has summered on a lake in the Adirondacks called Twitchell for many years now. It is my favorite place in all the world. Could you arrange to visit me there? My parents can rent a cottage at Covey’s Inn where we stay. We will arrive there by Grand Central rail on Thursday, May fourteenth. Let me know if you could visit in May. Warmly, Lucretia Hayes” (This letter is constructed from entries in Norman’s Diary). [Read more…] about A Twitchell Lake Love Story: Norman’s Transformation

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Big Moose, Big Moose Lake, Twitchell Lake

A Twitchell Lake Love Story: The First Encounter

June 13, 2020 by Noel Sherry Leave a Comment

Little Beaver CampI am a fourth generation Sherry owning a camp on Twitchell Lake in Big Moose, NY, in the Adirondacks. with my wife Ingelise. We share ownership of “Little Beaver” with my three brothers and their wives. Four diaries from our second generation have helped to solve the mystery of how the family first came to Twitchell Lake. It turns out it all started with a love story! [Read more…] about A Twitchell Lake Love Story: The First Encounter

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Big Moose, Big Moose Lake, Genealogy, Herkimer COunty, Troy, Twitchell Lake

F. C. Moore’s Big Moose Lake Retreat

April 27, 2020 by Roy Crego 4 Comments

big-moose-campIn the late 19th century, the Adirondacks became a prime summer destination for sportsmen and their families who enjoyed the region’s hunting, fishing, and fresh air. By the 1880s, wealthy businessmen were building permanent camps on even the remotest lakes, including Big Moose, near Old Forge.

Sometime after 1880 local guides Jack Sheppard and Richard C. Crego built a summer camp on South Bay of Big Moose Lake for F. C. Moore of New York City. [Read more…] about F. C. Moore’s Big Moose Lake Retreat

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Architecture, Big Moose Lake

The Crego Family: Three Generations of Adirondack Guides

April 15, 2020 by Roy Crego 4 Comments

crego-farm-courtesy-Joyce-Entremont  In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, three generations of the Crego family worked as wilderness guides in the Western Adirondacks. Along the way, they raised families, worked for prominent employers, adapted to new forms of transportation, and helped lay the groundwork for the conservation movement in New York State. [Read more…] about The Crego Family: Three Generations of Adirondack Guides

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondack Guides, Adirondack Park, Big Moose, Big Moose Lake, Boonville, Brown's Tract, Fish and Game Commission, fishing, Fourth Lake, Fulton Chain, hunting, Lewis County, Moose River, Old Forge, Oneida Fish Hatchery

The Union Club’s Camp on Big Moose Lake

April 9, 2020 by Roy Crego 2 Comments

The-Old-Club-Camp-courtesy-Roger-and-Nancy-PrattThe Club Camp is often mentioned as the first permanent structure built on Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks. The word permanent is rather ironic as this hunting and fishing establishment had a relatively short history of just 28 years. Today the camp’s origins, visitors, and sad end seem largely forgotten. [Read more…] about The Union Club’s Camp on Big Moose Lake

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature, New York City Tagged With: Adirondack Guides, Big Moose, Big Moose Lake, Fires, Fisheries, NYC, ornithology, Union Club, zoology

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