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Fulton Chain

Along The Mohawk & Malone: Forest Fires & Logging South of Big Moose (1900-1920)

December 27, 2022 by Noel Sherry 2 Comments

Picture of Rev. John Fitzgerald, Born in England, John Gerald Fitzgerald (1850-1925) attended seminary in Troy, NY, accepting his first assignment as a priest in the Diocese of Ogdensburg. Following pastorates in upstate New York, Father Fitz – as he was affectionately called – was given the daunting challenge of establishing a parish in Old Forge, in the Adirondacks.

In 1896, Northern Herkimer County was a heavily forested region dotted by tiny hamlets, scattered lumber camps, and remote railroad stations along the Mohawk & Malone Railroad. For the next twenty-nine years, he got off the Mohawk & Malone at stations like McKeever, Carter, Big Moose, Beaver River, Brandreth, Keepewa, Nehasane, and Horseshoe Lake, carrying his bible and sacraments from these stops to remote lumber camps on snowshoes, wearing his trademark coonskin cap and woolen mittens. His parish stretched over a 200 square-mile area. [Read more…] about Along The Mohawk & Malone: Forest Fires & Logging South of Big Moose (1900-1920)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Article 14, Beaver River, Big Moose, conservation, Fires, Forest Preserve, Forestry, Fulton Chain, Gifford Pinchot, Herkimer COunty, Industrial History, Logging, Logging the Adirondacks, McKeever, Mohawk & Malone Railroad, Moose River, New York Central RR, railroads, Raquette Lake

Adirondack Conservation News: 5 Things You Should Know

September 1, 2022 by Justin Levine Leave a Comment

Chuck Schumer in Lake PlacidSchumer visits Lake Placid to talk Inflation Reduction Act

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer visited Lake Placid at the end of August to tout the economic and climate benefits of the recently signed-into-law Inflation Reduction Act. Schumer was joined by Adirondack Mountain Club Executive Director Michael Barrett and Adirondack Council Executive Director Willie Janeway, who praised the act as “historic” in its scope and benefits to the Adirondack Park. [Read more…] about Adirondack Conservation News: 5 Things You Should Know

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Council, Adirondacks, Fulton Chain, Lake Placid, nature, Saranac Lake

Through The Fulton Chain of Lakes in 1877

May 9, 2022 by Dave Waite 6 Comments

1885 Stoddard Map of the Adirondack WildernessThe adventure began with an exchange of letters in the spring of 1877 between a sportsman in Syracuse, NY, and Byron P. Graves of Boonville, a town on the western border of the Adirondacks. The purpose of this correspondence was to hire a guide and transportation for a two-week hunting and fishing trip into the Fulton Chain of Lakes for the man and his 11-year-old son Ned.

The sportsman was Ansel Judd Northrup, a 43-year-old attorney who would later write the book, Camps and Tramps in the Adirondacks (1882), where this story was first told. The final communication from Northrup, in the form of a telegraph, simply read, “Engage Brinckerhoff, will reach Boonville, morning train, July 5th.” [Read more…] about Through The Fulton Chain of Lakes in 1877

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Boonville, Brown's Tract, Eagle Lake, Forked Lake, Fourth Lake, Fulton Chain, Herkimer COunty, Marion River, Moose River, Old Forge, paddling, Raquette Lake, Seventh Lake, Transportation History, Utica

An Adirondack Surveyor’s Basecamp At Twitchell Lake

January 7, 2021 by Noel Sherry Leave a Comment

The First Camp on Twitchell LakeAs Frank Tweedy approached the end of his four-year stint with forest surveyor Squire Snell on Verplanck Colvin’s Adirondack Survey, Southwest Division, he was no longer a tenderfoot, but a veteran surveyor and topographer, with many miles of survey work in the Beaver River basin and six expertly drawn maps to his credit.

His southern trek to finish the Totten and Crossfield Tract boundary line necessitated a new base camp well south of Beaver River. Twitchell Lake in Big Moose was the perfect location. [Read more…] about An Adirondack Surveyor’s Basecamp At Twitchell Lake

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature, Recreation Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Adirondacks, Beaver River, Big Moose, Frank Tweedy, Fulton Chain, Native Plants, surveying, Twitchell Lake

A Short History Of Eagle Bay In The Adirondacks

December 29, 2020 by Richard Williams Leave a Comment

Eagle Bay Map Courtesy Adirondack AtlasEagle Bay lies in the middle of the Adirondack Mountains of New York State at an elevation of 1,720 feet. Situated just north of 4th Lake on the Fulton Chain, and about ten miles east of Old Forge, the small hamlet (one of 94 designated hamlets in the Adirondacks) has seasonal activity consisting of winter snowmobiling, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing. Summer events focus on the various surrounding lakes, ponds, mountains, and hiking trails. [Read more…] about A Short History Of Eagle Bay In The Adirondacks

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Brown's Tract, Fulton Chain, Herkimer COunty, Housing, Inlet, Macomb’s Purchase, Old Forge, surveying, Tourism, Town of Webb, Transportation, William Seward Webb

An Abandoned Canal Hides Deep In The Adirondack Woods

October 22, 2020 by Mike Prescott 2 Comments

Contemporary-Arial-Photograph-of-the-Canal-photo-Rick-Rosen-2008-540x405 Farrand Benedict, surveyor and professor of mathematics and engineering at the University of Vermont in Burlington, wrote a proposal for a canal across the Adirondacks in 1846.

His plan was to use the Black River Canal with its connection to the Erie Canal at Rome and build a railroad from Boonville, on the Black River Canal, to Old Forge. He was then going to utilize the Fulton Chain of Lakes, Raquette Lake, Long Lake, the Raquette River and the Saranac Lakes with various lock systems, dams, and inclines to the Saranac River for canal boat traffic. [Read more…] about An Abandoned Canal Hides Deep In The Adirondack Woods

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Biography, Farrand Benedict, Fulton Chain, Lake Champlain, Long Lake, Newcomb, Transportation History, University of Vermont

The Crego Family: Three Generations of Adirondack Guides

April 15, 2020 by Roy Crego 4 Comments

crego-farm-courtesy-Joyce-Entremont  In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, three generations of the Crego family worked as wilderness guides in the Western Adirondacks. Along the way, they raised families, worked for prominent employers, adapted to new forms of transportation, and helped lay the groundwork for the conservation movement in New York State. [Read more…] about The Crego Family: Three Generations of Adirondack Guides

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondack Guides, Adirondack Park, Big Moose, Big Moose Lake, Boonville, Brown's Tract, Fish and Game Commission, fishing, Fourth Lake, Fulton Chain, hunting, Lewis County, Moose River, Old Forge, Oneida Fish Hatchery

A New History of the Fulton Chain

June 17, 2017 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

A new history covering the Fulton Chain of Lakes region from Moose River Settlement to its boundary west of Raquette Lake is now available.

Regular contributor to the Weekly Adirondack of Old Forge Charles E. Herr’s new book, The Fulton Chain: Early Settlement, Roads, Steamboats, Railroads and Hotels, documents the story of the stalwart folk whose lives shaped the Fulton Chain.

The book represents the first general history of the Fulton Chain region in almost seventy years.
[Read more…] about A New History of the Fulton Chain

Filed Under: Books, Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Fulton Chain, Old Forge

Old Forge and The Fulton Chain of Lakes

October 22, 2011 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Linda Cohen and Peg Masters, both descendants of 19th-century pioneer settlers of the Old Forge region, have written Old Forge and The Fulton Chain of Lakes (Arcadia Publishing, $21.99) the latest Adirondack edition in the Images of America series. Together they compiled over 200 images from around the area, many seldom seen.

Old Forge is nestled at the foot of the Middle Branch of the Moose River, more commonly known as the Fulton Chain of Lakes. Year-round accommodations at the Forge House in 1871 and dependable rail service in 1892 led to permanent settlement of the hamlet. Within a decade, Old Forge emerged as the residential and commercial hub of the Central Adirondacks and a popular destination and gathering place for guides, sportsmen, and wilderness tourists. [Read more…] about Old Forge and The Fulton Chain of Lakes

Filed Under: Books, Adirondacks & NNY Tagged With: Adirondacks, Fulton Chain, Herkimer COunty, Moose River, Old Forge, Photography

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