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Chestertown

New Effort to Promote Western Warren County’s “First Wilderness” Heritage Underway

February 6, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

first wilderness heritage cooridorThe Warren County Department of Planning and Community Development has launched a collaboration with Cliff & Redfield Interactive (CRI), a Saratoga Springs-based rich-media communications organization, for a year-long campaign to promote community development and heritage tourism in the First Wilderness Heritage Corridor of western Warren County. [Read more…] about New Effort to Promote Western Warren County’s “First Wilderness” Heritage Underway

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Chestertown, First Wilderness Heritage Corridor, Hadley, Horicon, https://www.newyorkalmanack.com/tags/warren-county-historical-society/, Hudson River, Johnsburg, Lake Luzerne, Schroon River, Stony Creek, Thurman, Tourism, Warren County, Warren County Historical Society, Warrensburg

The Pottersville Fair: Gambling, Races, and Gaslight Village

December 18, 2021 by John Warren 7 Comments

Pottersville Fairgrounds with acrobatsThose traveling on the Adirondack Northway (I-87) between Exits 27 and 28 probably don’t realize they are passing over Pottersville, the northern Warren County hamlet that borders southern Schroon Lake.

For a hundred years, from the 1870s into the early 1960s, the tiny village was home to amusements that drew thousands. The most remarkable of them, the Pottersville Fair, drew 7,000 on a single day in 1913. Later it hosted a large dance hall, roller skating rink, and the Glendale Drive-in, while nearby Under the Maples on Echo Lake was host to circus acts and an amusement park that was a forerunner of the Gaslight Village theme park in nearby Lake George.  [Read more…] about The Pottersville Fair: Gambling, Races, and Gaslight Village

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Amusement Parks, bicycling, Chestertown, Gambling, Horses, Lake George, Schroon Lake, Schroon River, Sports History, Vice, Warren County

Gaslight Village: Lake George Fun Yesterday

December 12, 2021 by John Warren 4 Comments

gaslight village, lake george, nyGaslight Village in Lake George, NY was opened in 1959 by Charles R. “Charley” Wood.

Charley already owned a number of other investments, including Holiday House on the shores of Lake George, and Storytown, U.S.A., an amusement park with a Mother Goose rhymes theme (later expanded with Ghost Town, a western boot-hill theme, and Jungle Land, an animal park) which he opened in 1954. He later went on to build the Tiki Resort (one of America’s last original Tiki bars), a short lived wax museum, the Sun Castle resort, and more. [Read more…] about Gaslight Village: Lake George Fun Yesterday

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Amusement Parks, Chestertown, Delaware & Hudson Railroad, Gaslight Village, Lake George, Performing Arts, Warren County

July On The Farm In The 19th Century

July 21, 2021 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Farming in JulyA July 1876 heat wave ripened Washington County garden crops early.

“Peas, summer squash and cucumbers are plenty,” The Granville Sentinel reported on July 21st. “The mercury climbs up every day into the nineties and drops only to seventy or eighty at night.” [Read more…] about July On The Farm In The 19th Century

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Chestertown, Glens Falls, Horicon, Lake Luzerne, local farms, Warren County, Washington County, weather

The First (Short Lived) Suspension Bridge Across The Hudson River

December 17, 2020 by Mike Prescott 1 Comment

Robert Codgell GilchristRobert Codgell Gilchrist was born into an extremely wealthy well-connected Charleston family in 1829. The oligarchic families of South Carolina had made their wealth on tobacco, rice, indigo, and shipping and Charleston harbor was one of the centers of the southern slave trade. Robert Gilchist’s father had received a federal Judgeship from President Martin Van Buren and he owned an opulent home.

Each summer the wealthy Gilchrist family journeyed north to avoid the hot humid subtropical summers of Charleston. They stayed with maternal family members in the Great Northern Wilderness of New York. (The term Adirondacks is said to have been first used by geologist and surveyor Ebenezer Emmons in 1838 and took some time to come into general use). [Read more…] about The First (Short Lived) Suspension Bridge Across The Hudson River

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Chestertown, Delaware & Hudson Railroad, development, Hudson River, Johnsburg, North Creek, railroads

The Girl Scout Camp Chenpontuc Ruins At Palmer Pond

July 9, 2020 by Mike Prescott 1 Comment

Camp Chepontuc swimmersOne of the popular parts of the Chester Challenge in the Southeastern Adirondacks is the hike around Palmer Pond. The pond is located west of Chestertown, Warren County, about a mile from the Hudson River at the end of a dirt road called, oddly enough, Palmer Pond Road.

At the parking lot and trail gate there is a sign-in kiosk with a map of the trails. The trail begins on an old road, which also provides motor vehicle access for use by people of all abilities (with a permit).

As one hikes the gently undulating roadway and crosses the outlet through a beaver meadow, the pond comes into view. The trail continues through an area that was many years ago heavily logged, to a small clearing with a picnic table. Here a short track leads down to Palmer Pond.

[Read more…] about The Girl Scout Camp Chenpontuc Ruins At Palmer Pond

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Recreation Tagged With: Chestertown, Girl Scouts, Glens Falls, hiking, Summer, Warren County

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