History, Natural History & the Arts
Lake George’s network of navigation buoys represents one of the lake’s most important safety systems, guiding thousands of boaters around hidden hazards every boating season.
From the main lake to the Narrows, buoys mark underwater rocks, shoals, channels and speed zones, helping boaters safely navigate one of New York’s most beautiful — and deceptively challenging — lakes. [Read more…] about Silent Sentinels: Lake George Navigation Buoys
NYS Forest Rangers had a busy July 4th weekend in which they recovered the body of a paddler; rescued two people on an inflatable kayak from rapids they didn’t know existed on the Saranac River; assisted with an overturned sailboat on Lake Champlain; rescued someone from the rapids in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness; and two teens hiding from a black bear near Lake George. [Read more…] about Rangers Recover Paddler’s Body, Make Multiple Rescues July 4th Weekend
New York State Forest Rangers have seen a dramatic increase in missions with the advent of the summer hiking season. They recently responded to more than a half-dozen distressed recreationists in the Adirondacks, several of whom were poorly prepared, along with others in scattered other parts of the state. They also fought two wild land fires, one at a logging header. [Read more…] about Rangers Fight Wildfires, Respond to Ill, Injured, Lost Hikers, Paddler
What follows is a report made by the directors of the Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company of the country between the Hudson River and Lake Champlain. The expedition during which this survey was conducted was led by Philip Schuyler in September 1792 to establish a route for the Champlain Canal.
By the act of incorporation, the navigation of Hudson River, from the mouth of the creek on which the grist mill occupied by Colonel Rensselaer [Nicholas Van Rensselaer, 1754-1848, or Colonel Kiliaen van Rensselaer, 1717–1781] is erected in the town of Troy [possibly the Poesten Kill or Wynants Kill] to opposite the house of Mr. Tibbets [George Tibbits, 1763–1849] in Lansingburg is to be rendered navigable for boats drawing four feet water when loaded. [Read more…] about Surveying The Champlain Canal Route, 1792
Lake George‘s island campsites are spread across much of the lake and are accessible only by boat. They’re divided into three groups — Glen Island, in The Narrows east of Bolton Landing; Long Island, on the south end of the lake; and Narrow Island — part of the Mother Bunch Islands located in the northern part of the lake.
There are 387 shoreline campsites located on 44 State-owned lands. There are 85 sites located in the Narrow Island Group (Mother Bunch Group), 170 standard sites and 42 cruiser sites (sites for large boats with sleeping quarters) in the Glen Island Group (The Narrows), and 90 sites are on Long Island. [Read more…] about Boat-Access Camping on Lake George Islands
On December 21, 2024 at about 6:45 pm, New York State’s Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from a mother concerned about her son after not hearing from him for three days. The man’s family indicated they often hiked Sugarloaf Mountain together, which is located in the Lake George Wild Forest in the town of Dresden, Washington County, NY, so search efforts focused on that area. [Read more…] about Man Dies at Sugarloaf Mountain Near Lake George
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents throughout New York State. Working with other state agencies, local emergency response organizations and volunteer search and rescue groups, Forest Rangers locate and extract lost, injured or distressed people and engage in policing on New York State Lands.
What follows is a report, prepared by DEC, of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers. [Read more…] about Rangers Fight Wildfires, Make Several Rescues in Adirondacks, Catskills
Three towns in Warren County – Lake George, Bolton and Horicon – are among those with hamlets where median home sale prices range from $600,000 to $900,000 – among the highest in Upstate New York.
But drive a few miles inland and the picture is a very different one. The safety net is fraying. [Read more…] about Fighting Food Insecurity in the Lake George Region
Rather than a reprieve, “it was a shot in the gut,” said Lake George Waterkeeper Chris Navitsky. On June 28, State Supreme Court Justice Robert J. Muller lifted a temporary restraining order preventing the Lake George Park Commission from treating Eurasian milfoil with the herbicide ProcellaCOR on two bays on northern Lake George.
Less than 24 hours later, on Saturday, June 29, roughly nine gallons of the herbicide were poured into the two bays, the first time a chemical has been used to treat invasive plants or animals in Lake George. [Read more…] about Lake Gorge Park Commission Dumps Herbicide into “Queen of American Lakes”
Species start to vanish from streams during the first stages of suburban development, according to the United States Geological Service. By the time impervious surfaces had absorbed 20 percent of the terrain of some New England watersheds, for example, those streams’ aquatic invertebrate communities had shrunk by roughly 25 percent. [Read more…] about How Does A Land Trust Protect A Watershed? One Parcel At A Time
An infestation of invasive Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (Adelges tsugae) has been confirmed on Lake George in the town of Dresden, Washington County.
The affected hemlock trees were located near a campsite within Glen Island Campground on the shore of Lake George. This is the second known infestation of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) in the Adirondacks. The first was located at Prospect mountain near Lake George three years ago. [Read more…] about Another Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Infestation Found At Lake George
The Lake George Land Conservancy (LGLC) has protected 25 acres on County Route 6 in the Town of Dresden on the east side of Lake George in Washington County, NY.
The property includes 1,300 feet of Fairy Brook, a small tributary of Lake George which drains north into Lake Champlain at Ticonderoga and ultimately into the Richelieu and then St. Lawrence Rivers into the North Atlantic. [Read more…] about Portion of Lake George Tributary Protected
Historian L. Lloyd Stewart’s The Mysterious Black Migration 1800-1820: The Van Vrankens and Other Families of African Descent in Washington County, New York (2013) is an extensively researched and documented book on the geopolitical and economic conditions that instigated a migration of thousands of “free” African Americans from various New York State counties and New England during a period when slavery was still legal and active in New York State. [Read more…] about Washington County’s Mysterious Black Migration
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