New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Chestertown

The Adirondack Northway: Some History

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July 9, 1954 issue of the Lake George MirrorThe Adirondack Northway (I-87) made Lake George more accessible than any other resort area in the Northeast. So, it’s appropriate that the birth of the modern interstate highway system can be traced to Lake George; specifically, to the 46th Annual National Governor’s Conference, held July 11th to 13th, 1954, at the Sagamore Hotel in Bolton Landing.

To be precise, the Conference was the site not so much of the birth of the interstate highway system, but of the announcement of its birth. [Read more…] about The Adirondack Northway: Some History

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

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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

The Pottersville Fair: Gambling, Races, and Gaslight Village

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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

Gaslight Village: Lake George Fun Yesterday

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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

July On The Farm In The 19th Century

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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

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

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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

The Girl Scout Camp Chenpontuc Ruins At Palmer Pond

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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

The Jessup Brothers in the American Revolution

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Jessup Patent MapIn the mid-1760s, brothers Edward and Ebenezer Jessup moved from Dutchess County, NY, to Albany and engaged in land speculation in the Hudson River Valley and Lake George area.

The Jessups would become friendly with Sir William Johnson, who had built Fort William Henry in 1755. Thanks to his close relationship with the Mohawk, Johnson became the Superintendent of Indian Affairs. The Jessups acquired much of their land from Johnson and the Mohawks. [Read more…] about The Jessup Brothers in the American Revolution