• 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

A History of Snowmobile Racing in New York State

January 20, 2022 by John Warren 2 Comments

early Adirondack snowmobile raceIn the motor toboggan era – the time before the advent of the modern snowmobiles we know today – motor sleds had been too slow for racing excitement. As a result they remained strictly utilitarian vehicles racing only occasionally for promotional purposes. Motor toboggan and later snowmobile maker Polaris traveled each year at the end of the 1950s to trapper festivals at The Pas, Manitoba where they helped organize ad hoc races.

“We tried to rig them a little bit so we had a zig-zag effect,” David Johnson said, remembering one of the first informal races, “one guy ahead, and then the other, and so on, at a terrific speed of about 20 miles per hour.” In February 1959, Johnson won the first organized men’s race on an oval at The Pas and in 1960, the first cross-country race was held there. [Read more…] about A History of Snowmobile Racing in New York State

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Adirondacks, Boonville, Canada, Cranberry Lake, Essex County, Franklin County, Hamilton County, Herkimer COunty, Lake George, Lake Placid, malone, Old Forge, Oneida County, Saranac Lake, Saratoga County, Snowmobile History, snowmobiling, sports, Sports History, St Lawrence County, Town of Webb, Transportation History, Tupper Lake, Warren County, winter, winter sports

A First Day Hike at Crown Point Historic Site

December 20, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Crown Point Historic SiteThe Crown Point Historic Site on Lake Champlain in Essex County, NY will host a first day hike on New Year’s Day from 10 am to noon, exploring the wintry landscape surrounding Fort St. Frederic and His Majesty’s Fort of Crown Point with a living historian guide. [Read more…] about A First Day Hike at Crown Point Historic Site

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Events, History, Recreation Tagged With: Crown Point SHS, Essex County

The 10 Deadliest Accidents in the Adirondack Region

December 9, 2021 by John Warren Leave a Comment

Sinking of Lake George Steamboat John JaySome of tragic accidents have occurred in the Adirondack region.

Here is a list of the ten believed to have been among the deadliest: [Read more…] about The 10 Deadliest Accidents in the Adirondack Region

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Adirondacks, Aviation History, Chazy Lake, Clinton County, Dannemora, Essex County, I-87, Lake George, Saratoga County, Steamboating, Transportation History, Warren County

Whitcomb’s Garage in the Adirondacks Wins Historic Preservation Award

December 1, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

restored Whitcomb’s Garage seen at an angle, with the Whallonsburg Grange Hall visible across the road courtesy Andrew BuchananWhitcomb’s Garage in the Adirondacks has won a 2021 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award from the Preservation League of NYS.

The renovation and repurposing of this disused service station and garage has created space for new businesses in an economically challenged rural region. [Read more…] about Whitcomb’s Garage in the Adirondacks Wins Historic Preservation Award

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Architecture, Essex County, Historic Preservation, Preservation League of NYS, Transportation History, Whallonsburg

Oyster Season In 19th Century New York

September 21, 2021 by Maury Thompson 1 Comment

Black oyster schuckers in Sandy Ground, Staten IslandSeptember 1st was the opening of oyster season on the 19th century dining calendar.

“What the last Thursday of November is to the American turkey gobbler, such is the first day of September to the American oyster. … The autumn brings back the magical ‘r.’” The Post and Gazette of Elizabethtown, in Essex County, reported on September 11th, 1879. [Read more…] about Oyster Season In 19th Century New York

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Food, History Tagged With: Culinary History, Essex County, Glens Falls, Oysters, Warren County, Washington County

The Last Days of John Brown: North Elba

September 18, 2021 by John Warren Leave a Comment

One of the familiar attacks on John Brown (and by extension his anti-slavery legacy) involves his failed business ventures and accusations that he was a swindler and a drifter, roaming from place to place – only briefly and uneventfully staying in North Elba, Essex County, NY.

“Over the years before his Kansas escapade Brown had been a drifter, horse thief and swindler,” Columbia University historian John Garraty once wrote. Garraty served as the president of the Society of American Historians and was co-author of the high school history textbook The American Nation (he died in 2007).

A closer look at Brown and the his family, however, reveals an experience typical of many Americans, then and today, and the importance of North Elba in Brown’s plans for a raid into Virginia. [Read more…] about The Last Days of John Brown: North Elba

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Abolition, Adirondacks, Black History, Civil War, Economic History, Essex County, Gerrit Smith Estate, John Brown, North Elba, Panic of 1837, The Last Days of John Brown

America 250 Patriots Marker Dedicated at Fort Ti

September 15, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Fort Ticonderoga’s 250thCommemorations for the 250th anniversary of the American War for Independence are underway at Fort Ticonderoga. The museum has started developing plans and exploring partnerships at the state and national levels to mark this historic anniversary.

Through exhibits, events, publications, and programs, Fort Ticonderoga seeks to increase access and awareness and expand educational impact related to the monumental history of the complex struggle to achieve independence. [Read more…] about America 250 Patriots Marker Dedicated at Fort Ti

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: America's 250th Anniversary, America250 Foundation, American Revolution, DAR, Essex County, Fort Ticonderoga, Ticonderoga

The Last Days of John Brown: The Secret Six

September 6, 2021 by John Warren Leave a Comment

Franklin Benjamin SanbornJohn Brown has often come down to us as a lone nut, bent on an suicidal mission, but this is far from the truth.

Brown was part of a larger movement to free slaves that grew with passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (which required the return of escaped slaves to their masters with all its potential for torture and death at their hands) and the large Underground Railroad movement.

It’s little understood that Brown was intimate with northern politicians, industrialists, ministers, and folks from all walks of life, including the leading intellectuals of the era – the Transcendentalists. [Read more…] about The Last Days of John Brown: The Secret Six

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Western NY Tagged With: Abolition, Black History, Essex County, Gerrit Smith Estate, Hamilton College, John Brown, North Elba, Political History, Slavery, The Last Days of John Brown, Underground Railroad, Utica

The Last Days of John Brown: August 1859

August 22, 2021 by John Warren Leave a Comment

john brown illustrationThis is the story of the October 16, 1859 anti-slavery raid, during which John Brown led 19 men in an attack on the Harpers Ferry Armory.

He was afterward charged with murder, conspiring with enslaved people to rebel, and treason against Virginia (West Virginia was not yet a state) and after a week-long trial was sentenced to death in early November.

Brown was hanged on December 2nd (John Wilkes Booth snuck in to watch) and his body was afterward carried to North Elba in Essex County, NY to “moulder in his grave.” [Read more…] about The Last Days of John Brown: August 1859

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Civil War, Essex County, John Brown, North Elba, The Last Days of John Brown

New Adirondack High Peaks Shuttle Starting Aug 21st

August 12, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

new hiker shuttle courtesy Essex County A new pilot Route 73 shuttle service will be begin Saturday, August 21st, along the busy Route 73 corridor in the Adirondack High Peaks region, according to announcement issued Thursday by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Essex County, and town of Keene. [Read more…] about New Adirondack High Peaks Shuttle Starting Aug 21st

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondacks, DEC, Essex County, High Peaks, hiking, Keene, nature, Overuse, Route 73, Transportation, Transportation History

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 24
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Support Our 2022 Fundraising

Subscribe to New York Almanack

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

Recent Comments

  • Sue on Poetry: Cabin Pantry Discovery
  • Ronald Gary Grove on The Misnamed Columbia County ‘Battle of Egremont’
  • Bob Meyer on Poetry: Cabin Pantry Discovery
  • Raphael Riljk on The Sinking of the S.S. Normandie at NYC’s Pier 88
  • Christian on Orange County Man Ticketed After Killing Rattlesnake
  • ABSS314 on Orange County Man Ticketed After Killing Rattlesnake
  • Evan Barnett on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End
  • Evan Barnett on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End
  • Eva Barnett on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End
  • ARNOLD on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End

Recent New York Books

The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton
vintage babes of broadway book
Mission Begin With Blood
Special Delivery book
killing time in the catskills
the soft city book
occupied america
stewards of the water
off the northway

Secondary Sidebar

preservation league
Protect the Adirondacks Hiking Guide