• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Black River

Up Every River: Logging The Adirondacks (1820-40)

May 9, 2022 by Noel Sherry Leave a Comment

3a Our Double-bladed AxeIn the 1820s the State of New York encouraged Adirondack exploration and settlement, benefiting from the land sales and taxes (when they were paid). Lewis County newspapers were abuzz with praise for the 1825 completion of the Erie Canal, and in less than a year, the Black River Gazette launched a discussion on “improving” the Black River as a connection between the canal and the St. Lawrence River, anticipating the economic benefit Adirondack timber would bring when this opened a commercial route to the rest of the world:

“The quantity of lumber which might be drawn from those vast forests, now covering a soil which would anticipate the desires of a husbandman are beyond all calculation. For it is a fact admitted by all who have the least acquaintance with this section of country, that a greater quantity of wood, timber, lath, staves, boards, shingles, masts and spars might be drawn from this northern triangle, by means of a Canal, than any other district or county in the state.” [Read more…] about Up Every River: Logging The Adirondacks (1820-40)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Black River, Black River Canal, Croghan, Environmental History, Forestry, Franklin Hough, Hemlock Trees, Industrial History, Lewis County, Logging, New Bremen, Tanning, 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, 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

“Labor’s Slaves in the Adirondacks”: Building the Adirondack Railroad

March 26, 2022 by John Warren 3 Comments

Gainesville Midland track maintenance crew, CA 1890The St. Lawrence & Adirondack Railroad, also known as the Mohawk & Malone – eventually owned by the New York Central and called the Adirondack Line or the Adirondack Railroad ran directly through the Adirondacks from Herkimer (near Utica) to Malone connecting the rail lines along the Mohawk River to the Main Trunk Line running into Montreal. The line is often attributed to William Seward Webb, but it was the men who actually built the line that are the subject of this essay.

On March 29, 1892 a Boston Globe article titled “Labor’s Slaves in the Adirondacks” reported that Utica “resembled Washington during war times, hundreds of penniless and destitute Negroes are camped out tonight in the temporary places of shelter given them, and the citizens of Utica are consulting as to the best means of returning them to their homes.”

The Globe told readers that all night, “runaway slaves” had been coming into town. One hundred and fifty of them, mostly black laborers from the Deep South, but some recently arrived European immigrants as well. [Read more…] about “Labor’s Slaves in the Adirondacks”: Building the Adirondack Railroad

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Mohawk Valley, Western NY Tagged With: Adirondack Scenic Railroad, Adirondacks, Black History, Black River, Boonville, Crime and Justice, Franklin County, Herkimer COunty, Immigration, Irish Immigrants, Labor History, Legal History, malone, New York Central RR, Oneida County, railroads, Saranac Lake, St Lawrence County, Transportation History, Tupper Lake, Utica, William Seward Webb

New York, New France: French Ambitions at Oneida Lake in 1634

November 30, 2021 by Daniel Koch 1 Comment

Detail from Samuel de Champlain, “Carte de la Nouvelle France, 1632” from Les Voyages de la Nouvelle FranceWhen a Dutchman, Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert, traveled from Albany (then Fort Orange) to the main village of the Oneidas in the dead of winter 1634, he was on a mission to thwart the French, who had found their way to Oneida Lake.

In the struggle for influence in Iroquoia, there was no time to lose. The Dutch had a firm hold on the Hudson Valley at this point and a profitable relationship with the Mohawk, but New Netherland’s trade was threatened by New France, which controlled the St. Lawrence River from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic. [Read more…] about New York, New France: French Ambitions at Oneida Lake in 1634

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, Western NY Tagged With: Black River, Dutch History, Fort Orange, French History, fur trade, Great Lakes, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, New France, New Netherland, Oneida, Oneida Lake, Samuel de Champlain

New Black River Fishing Access Site at Deer River, Denmark, NY

November 25, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Black River Fishing Access Site provided by DECThe New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced the completion of the Black River at Deer River Fishing Access Site, a new Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant fishing access site in the town of Denmark, Lewis County. [Read more…] about New Black River Fishing Access Site at Deer River, Denmark, NY

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Black River, DEC, Fisheries, fishing, nature, Wildlife

Dancing On Logs: Pulp Wood At Sackets Harbor

February 3, 2021 by Constance Barone Leave a Comment

pulp wood boat - Braun # 2Located at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, Sackets Harbor boasts a stellar history in the War of 1812, but this lake port holds a wealth of other fascinating stories.

After the War of 1812, Sackets Harbor nearly became a thriving lake port, but both the emerging railroads and canal systems quickly excluded the tiny village from ever becoming a Buffalo or Cleveland-size port. [Read more…] about Dancing On Logs: Pulp Wood At Sackets Harbor

Filed Under: History, Western NY Tagged With: Black River, Great Lakes, Labor History, Lake Ontario, Logging, Maritime History, Sackets Harbor, Transportation, Transportation History

Man Catches State Record Pumpkinseed

November 18, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Jordan Tontarski with the 1 lb. 9 oz. state record (tie) pumpkinseed he caught from Black RiverNew York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced that the state record for a pumpkinseed has officially been tied by a catch on the Black River earlier this year.

[Read more…] about Man Catches State Record Pumpkinseed

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, Nature, New York City, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: Black River, DEC, fish, Fisheries, fishing, nature, Wildlife

Virtual Black River Watershed Conference

October 3, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

black river water conferenceHamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District has announced a virtual Black River Watershed Conference featuring two webinars, set for Tuesday, October 6th, and Wednesday, October 7th. [Read more…] about Virtual Black River Watershed Conference

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Events Tagged With: Black River, Conferences

A Black River Canal Musical Mystery

July 13, 2011 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Dave Ruch, a researcher of traditional and historical songs of New York who also teaches and performs that music, recently offered the lyrics to a canal song he believes may refer to the Black River Canal. The song was related by Des Powell (who was living in Arizona at the time) to folklorist Sam Eskin in 1946. According to Ruch at the bottom of Eskin’s notes he scribbled “Black River Canal”.

O! it’s nine miles to my darlin’, nine miles to go,
Nine miles on the old Rome haul
Gee this boat is slow
O! if ever I get back to my darlin
I ain’t gonna leave her no more
Gonna Settle down in old Rome town and open up a country story

First you pass a foundry and then you pass a mill
Then you pass Walt Waterbery’s place the other side of the hill
Then you pass a graveyard and then a bridge that’s low
Then it’s 9 more miles to my darling

O when last I saw my darlin, she was standin in the toll-house door
The tears run down her pretty little cheeks and they fell with a splash on the floor
O, if ever I get back to my darlin I ain’t gonna leave her no more
gonna settle down in old Rome town and open up a country store
By God and open up a country store.

If that second verse rings a bell, contact Dave Ruch at dave@daveruch.com.

Filed Under: Mohawk Valley Tagged With: Black River, Black River Canal, Erie Canal, Music, Rome, Transportation

Primary Sidebar

Help Support Our Work

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • David G Waite on Ellis Corners: Before Saratoga Spa State Park & SPAC
  • Eric braverman on Wall Street History: The Politics of New York’s First Banks
  • N. Couture on Haudenosaunee Creation Story & Sculptures with Emily Kasennisaks Stacey
  • Lee on The Mysterious Death of the Angel of Sing Sing
  • Elisa Nelson on Replica Canal Schooner Lois McClure Being Retired, Dismantled
  • Julie O’Connor on James Eights: An Albany Artist-Scientist Who Explored Antarctica in 1830
  • Bob Meyer on Geo-Musicalities: Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang in Saranac Lake
  • John Tepper Marlin on John and Vida: The Other Milhollands
  • Brandon Braman on The Two Hendricks: A Mohawk Indian Mystery
  • John Stewart III on The Saratoga Racecourse Backstretch Backstory

Recent New York Books

Spaces of Enslavement and Resistance in Dutch New York
ilion cover
Spare Parts
new yorks war of 1812
a prison in the woods cover
Visitors to My Street
Greek Fire
Building THe Ashokan Reservoir
ilion book cover
Bryan Jackson the Titanic Was Dooomed

Secondary Sidebar

preservation league
Protect the Adirondacks Hiking Guide