• 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

Essex County

Featured Adirondack Hike: Hurricane Mountain Firetower

October 30, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

hurricane mountain courtesy adirondack atlasThe trail up Hurricane Mountain, in Keene, Essex County, ascends approximately 2,000 feet over 3.4 miles to the Fire Tower located in a designated historic area on the summit, within the Hurricane Mountain Wilderness. [Read more…] about Featured Adirondack Hike: Hurricane Mountain Firetower

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Recreation Tagged With: Essex County, High Peaks, hiking, Hurricane Mountain, Keene, Trails Less Traveled

Ben Stickney’s Press: A New York Inventor’s Piece of World Postal History

October 1, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Stickney Presses US Treasury DepartmentAppeals from officials in the Adirondacks of Upstate New York to President Calvin Coolidge in 1924 resulted in the reappointment to federal government service of “undoubtedly the greatest inventive genius that Essex County has ever produced.”

Benjamin R. Stickney, a Moriah Center native, was a chief engineer at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing when President Warren Harding dismissed Stickney and 27 other federal bureaucrats, without notice, on March 27, 1922. [Read more…] about Ben Stickney’s Press: A New York Inventor’s Piece of World Postal History

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Engineering History, Essex County, Industrial History, Port Henry, Postal Service, Ticonderoga

Remembering Murdered Game Warden William Jackson

September 9, 2020 by John Warren Leave a Comment

schroon lake murder headlineThe LaGoy brothers were rough. A neighbor near Severence, on the road between the village of Schroon Lake and Paradox Lake in the Adirondacks, once wrote a letter to a local newspaper asking for a telling retraction.

“I was not lost,” D.S. Knox wrote. “My wife was much excited by the delay of about an hour of time over due, thinking as I have an organic heart trouble, caused to give her alarm, and not ever thinking of any of the LeGoy family causing any harm as neither of us believe that any of the LeGoy family ever would cause any personal harm without a provocation.”

It was rather important to Knox to make it clear to the world, that even if his wife had been talking out of school, neither of them harbored any ill will toward the LaGoys. [Read more…] about Remembering Murdered Game Warden William Jackson

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Crime and Justice, Dannemora, Essex County, Forest Rangers, Mineville, Paradox Lake, Schroon Lake

Early Stunt Men, Daredevils ‘The Human Fly’ & ‘Hurricane Hutch’ in NY

August 5, 2020 by Maury Thompson 1 Comment

Daredevil stunt man and movie actor Rodman “The Human Fly” Law had been shot out of a “monster sky rocket” and had jumped in a specialized “aeroplane parachute” from the Brooklyn Bridge and the 792-foot Woolworth Building, the tallest building in the world at the time.

For his next feat, Law came to the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Early Stunt Men, Daredevils ‘The Human Fly’ & ‘Hurricane Hutch’ in NY

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Ausable Chasm, Ausable River, Essex County, film, Film History, paddling, Performing Arts, Saranac Lake, Schroon Lake

Wally Foote: ‘The Most Handsome Man in Congress’

May 10, 2020 by Maury Thompson Leave a Comment

Wallace Turner Foote JrThe Plattsburgh Daily Press in late 1894 fact-checked the boasts of M.W. Howard, age 32, of Alabama, and George M. Southwick, age 31, of Albany, who each claimed to be the youngest member of the incoming U.S. House of Representatives.

Actually, it was local Representative-elect Wallace T. Foote Jr., who would still be 30 when he took office, that would have the distinction. Foote represented New York’s 23rd District, which included Essex, Clinton, Franklin, Warren and Washington counties. [Read more…] about Wally Foote: ‘The Most Handsome Man in Congress’

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Clinton County, Essex County, Franklin County, Lake Champlain, Political History, Port Henry, Union College, Warren County, Washington County

Public Hearing On North Elba Zoning Changes Planned

May 8, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

APA Building in Ray Brook NYThe Adirondack Park Agency is set to hold a teleconference public hearing for zoning changes in the Town of North Elba, Essex County, on Friday, May 15th, 2020.

Three of eleven seats on the Adirondack Park Agency Board are currently vacant, which means that this proposed map amendment will a unanimous vote of approval.

[Read more…] about Public Hearing On North Elba Zoning Changes Planned

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature Tagged With: APA, Essex County, North Elba

When Trains Ran Through Saratoga’s Streets

April 9, 2020 by John Nehrich 1 Comment

part of the original North Creek branch that ran up the streets in SaratogaThe tracks seen in these photos were part of the original North Creek branch railroad that through the streets of Saratoga Springs. Originally, the line to North Creek (the Adirondack Branch) came off the Delaware & Hudson Railroad’s main line in the freight yard just south of the main Saratoga depot, and ran right down the middle of some streets. Started in 1864 and completed to North Creek in 1871, the street tracks were removed when the entire line was rerouted outside downtown Saratoga Springs. [Read more…] about When Trains Ran Through Saratoga’s Streets

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: D&H Railroad, Essex County, Newcomb, North Creek, railroads, Saratoga, Saratoga County, Tahawus, Transportation, Transportation History, Warren County

An Adirondack Uranium Rush

March 9, 2020 by Lawrence P. Gooley Leave a Comment

It’s hard not to think the above title is ridiculous. Believable possibilities would be iron, feldspar, talc, or garnet. But uranium? And on top of that, a rush?

With the excitement of hopeful lottery players, folks in the past have swarmed the mountains and lowlands at word of supposed gold discoveries, or silver, or other metals, all of them precious in terms of financial value to the finder. But rushing to find radioactive materials — the stronger the better — in the Adirondacks? Really? [Read more…] about An Adirondack Uranium Rush

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Essex County, Science

Authenticity and Authorship: Twelve Years a Slave

December 29, 2019 by David Fiske 9 Comments

Solomon Northup in a Sketch from Twelve Years a SlaveQuestions about the authenticity and authorship of Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave have been raised in the past, and have resurfaced following the release of the recent film version of his book.

Though an expert on Solomon Northup, his book, the contemporary reactions to his book in the 1850s, and his later life (which included several years spent traveling to talk about his experiences), I am not a scholar of slave narratives. I have consulted some of them in connection with my work on Northup, as necessary. I leave it for others to draw detailed comparisons between Northup’s narrative and the others. [Read more…] about Authenticity and Authorship: Twelve Years a Slave

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Books, History Tagged With: Abolition, Black History, Essex County, Slavery

Remembering The Christmas of 1945 in Northern NY

December 24, 2019 by Lawrence P. Gooley Leave a Comment

1945 Ad Welcome Home VetsAmong the finest Christmas seasons in America’s long history took place in 1945. We’re constantly bombarded with how special the holidays are, so it’s tough for any one year to stand out as extra special, but 1945 makes the list.

Events across the Adirondacks that year epitomized the nation’s attitude. Surprisingly, it wasn’t all about celebrating, even though the most destructive war in history had just ended a few months earlier. We often mumble mindlessly that we’re proud to be Americans. But the first post-World War II Christmas was the real deal, worthy of the word “pride.” [Read more…] about Remembering The Christmas of 1945 in Northern NY

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Christmas, Essex County, Holidays, Military History, World War Two

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 21
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Help Us Reach Our Fundraising Goal For 2020

Subscribe to New York Almanack

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

Recent Comments

  • Ken Sacharin on Controversy Over Development At New York’s Seaport Historic District
  • Joanne Gorman on Controversy Over Development At New York’s Seaport Historic District
  • M. Levine on Catskills Resorts: The Beginning of the End
  • kent barwick on Controversy Over Development At New York’s Seaport Historic District
  • James S. Kaplan on The Case Against Peter Stuyvesant
  • RiK Rydant on Charbot Germain’s Wrong Turn: An Adirondack Trucking Story
  • Jim on The Case Against Peter Stuyvesant
  • Terry Bright - Formerly of Ticonderoga, New York on Early Adirondack Surveys: The Great Corner & An Ancient Boundary
  • Editorial Staff on Early Adirondack Surveys: The Great Corner & An Ancient Boundary
  • Luis chic0 on Remembering Goldwater Hospital in NYC

Recent New York Books

nobody hitchhikes anymore
Too Long Ago Amsterdam
NY War of 1812 Cover
driving while black
Craft book
Sittin In
sanctuary
Mysterious Stone Sites in the Hudson Valley and Northern New Jersey
Everything Worthy of Observation: The 1826 New York State Travel Journal of Alexander Stewart Scott by Paul G. Schneider Jr.

Secondary Sidebar

New York State Historic Markers