Northeast Wilderness Trust announced that it has purchased a key inholding in the Adirondack Park’s Five Ponds Wilderness, establishing the Bear Pond Forest. With this acquisition, the 1,056-acre Bear Pond Forest is now safeguarded from development, and the Forest will gradually be integrated into the surrounding 107,230-acre Five Ponds Wilderness, which is connected to the 23,816-acre Pepperbox Wilderness. [Read more…] about Key Adirondack Wilderness Inholding Protected
Hamilton County
Recreation Highlight: Camp Sagamore Trail System
Within the 47,000-acre Blue Ridge Wilderness lies the Camp Sagamore Trail System. Located near and around the grounds of Great Camp Sagamore, a registered National Historic Landmark and one of few Adirondack Great Camps still in existence today, this trail system provides an immersive nature experience. [Read more…] about Recreation Highlight: Camp Sagamore Trail System
Lumbering Operations at Big Moose Lake (1900-1920)
The first of three major logging operations on Big Moose Lake in Herkimer County in the Adirondacks was headed by a veteran lumber company executive named Theodore Page. Page built palatial “Camp Veery” on Echo Island in West Bay, purchased from William Seward Webb in 1900. He arrived at Big Moose Lake from Oswego, NY, with many years of leadership in the lumber industry, importing timber from Canada for the Minetto Shade Cloth Company – one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of shade cloth, window shades, shade-rollers, and curtain fixtures. [Read more…] about Lumbering Operations at Big Moose Lake (1900-1920)
A Place Called Pauley: An Adirondack History
In the autumn of 1917, the well-known hotel and sportsman’s lodge Pauley Place was torn down as part of New York’s pursuit to bring her wilderness back on the path to being forever wild. The hotel was in Arietta, one of the most remote sections of the southern Adirondacks.
This town in Hamilton County spans sixty miles of wilderness, with Caroga Lake to the south and Tupper Lake to the north. The town was so sparsely populated during those years that the 1915 census listed less than four hundred permanent residents, only one physician, and more wilderness guides than farmers. [Read more…] about A Place Called Pauley: An Adirondack History
Logging The Adirondacks: A Legal Logjam (1880-1900)
An early 20th century Adirondack lawsuit pitted a small Big Moose Lake sportsman and landowner Aaron Lloyd against a team of powerful opponents, John Adams Dix and his Moose River Lumber Company with Dr. William Seward Webb and his Nehasane Park Association.
A second suit reversed the plaintiff and defendant, Webb vs. Lloyd, and appeared to be linked to the first complaint. Clearly this was a classic David versus Goliath clash. These cases would have been the fodder for conversations around the campfire in the Big Moose area for almost a decade.
On the surface, the complaints concerned the harvest of millions of board feet of virgin timber and flooding Big Moose Lake to get these logs to market, with Webb behind both actions. [Read more…] about Logging The Adirondacks: A Legal Logjam (1880-1900)
Adirondack Search Turns to House Fire and Rescue
On October 31st at 9:40 pm, New York State Police (NYSP) requested Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Ranger assistance in locating a subject originally reported as an overdue hunter.
The family of the 25-year-old from Hudson in Columbia County, NY, had reported the individual missing and indicated he might be despondent and suicidal. [Read more…] about Adirondack Search Turns to House Fire and Rescue
Adirondack Voters Join Environmental Bond Act Approval Landslide
Residents of the Adirondack Park’s 130 rural communities voted overwhelmingly to approve the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act on Election Day.
The measure won approval by more than a two-to-one margin statewide. [Read more…] about Adirondack Voters Join Environmental Bond Act Approval Landslide
Gibson: DEC & APA Should Reform Managing Adirondack Lakes and Ponds
At Adirondack Wild’s October meeting at the Paul Smith’s Visitor Interpretive Center, lakes and ponds came under the spotlight in a panel discussion about Cooperative Stewardship of Adirondack Lakes. Of particular interest was a given lake’s classification and subsequent comprehensive study, planning and management.
If Adirondack waterbodies are considered part of the Forest Preserve, and for the last fifty years the State Land Master Plan talks about land and water, then the law requires that lakes and ponds be classified, just as forests are. That raises important questions. [Read more…] about Gibson: DEC & APA Should Reform Managing Adirondack Lakes and Ponds
Two Bodies Recovered From Adirondack Falls
On August 19, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office notified Forest Rangers about two people deceased near of the falls of Tenant Creek in the Wilcox Lake Wild Forest. NYS Forest Ranger Thompson and Sheriff’s Office personnel responded. Tenant Creek is located of Hope Falls Road in the Southern Adirondacks town of Hope.
The first of three waterfalls are reached by a 1.9 mile trail. From there two other falls are reached by an unmarked trail another 1.2 miles beyond the first falls. [Read more…] about Two Bodies Recovered From Adirondack Falls
Fourth Lake Boat Launch Closing For Repairs
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is notifying the public that the Fourth Lake Boat Launch in the town of Inlet, Hamilton County, NY, will be temporarily closed starting Monday, September 12th.
The closure will allow DEC to make repairs and improvements to the launch. The public boat launch will re-open in spring 2023. [Read more…] about Fourth Lake Boat Launch Closing For Repairs