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Industrial History

Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations

January 23, 2023 by Noel Sherry 4 Comments

Northern section showing lumber company railroads branching off New York Central, from BillAfter Hudson River logging sharply declined by 1905, the Adirondack railroad line known as the Mohawk & Malone kept NYS lumber companies in business for at least another twelve years. A big part of this was due to logging north of Big Moose, shown on this New York Central & Hudson River railroad map, with eight station stops northward toward Tupper Lake (shown at left), three of them as junctions for logging railroads — Wood’s Lake, Brandreth, and Nehasane.

Beaver River Station was shifting from logging to tourism. Little Rapids was a flag stop, Keepawa unlisted in an 1895 train schedule. This article will describe the logging history of Wood’s Lake and Beaver River stations, beginning with a new lumbering operation just north of Big Moose. [Read more…] about Adirondack Logging History: Wood’s Lake & Beaver River Stations

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Adirondacks, Beaver River, Big Moose, Burd Amendment, Forest Preserve, Herkimer COunty, Industrial History, International Paper, Legal History, Lewis County, Logging, Logging the Adirondacks, Mohawk & Malone Railroad, New York Central RR, railroads, Silver Lake, Stillwater, Town of Webb, Transportation History, Twitchell Lake, William Seward Webb

Ticonderoga’s 1700s French Village Forge Survey Planned

January 10, 2023 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

Smith Forge at Fort Ticonderoga French Village (provided by Fort Ticonderoga Association)Shortly after establishing Fort Carillon (later named Ticonderoga), the French Army began the construction of a series of ancillary structures, including the Smith’s Forge, to the south of the fort beginning in early 1756.

This area, known as the lower town, or the French Village, housed a number of proto-industrial structures that supported the military activities of the armies who garrisoned Ticonderoga in the 18th century. [Read more…] about Ticonderoga’s 1700s French Village Forge Survey Planned

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Architecture, Essex County, Fort Ticonderoga, French And Indian War, French History, Historic Preservation, Industrial History, Iron Industry, Military History, Preservation League of NYS, Ticonderoga

Archibald McIntyre’s Life In Lotteries, Politics & Adirondack Mines

January 8, 2023 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

Archibald McIntyre courtesy Project GutenbergArchibald McIntyre was born in Kenmore, Perthshire, Scotland on the June 1, 1772. His parents were Daniel and Anne Walker McIntyre. Daniel McIntyre taught school in Scotland.

In 1774, Daniel and his family immigrated to the colony of New York and settled with four or five other Scottish families in what is now Broadalbin in Fulton County, NY. [Read more…] about Archibald McIntyre’s Life In Lotteries, Politics & Adirondack Mines

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Adirondack Guides, Adirondacks, Albany, Albany County, Albany Rural Cemetery, Archibald McIntyre, Broadalbin, Calamity Pond, Daniel D. Tompkins, Delaware Lackawanna & Western Railroad, Essex County, Fulton County, High Peaks, Hudson River, Industrial History, Iron Industry, Ithaca and Owego Railroad, Lake Placid, Mining, Newcomb, North Elba, Political History, Tahawus, Timbuctoo

Lumbering Operations at Big Moose Lake (1900-1920)

December 29, 2022 by Noel Sherry Leave a Comment

Totten & Crossfield Triangle in northwest corner of Township 41, 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)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondacks, Big Moose, Big Moose Lake, Brown's Tract, Francis Higgins, Hamilton County, Herkimer COunty, Industrial History, Legal History, Logging, Logging the Adirondacks, Mohawk & Malone Railroad, New York Central RR, railroads, Town of Webb, Twitchell Lake, William Seward Webb

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

When Two Dutchmen Tried To Create A Maple Sugar Industry

December 16, 2022 by Jaap Jacobs Leave a Comment

portrait of Gerrit BoonThe Holland Land Company is known for its role in settling the western part of upstate New York by acquiring land grants and selling off lots to prospective settlers in the early nineteenth century. Yet its activities in the last decade of the eighteenth century were of a different nature, as the stories of Gerrit Boon and Jan Lincklaen show.

In the last decade of the eighteenth century, two young Dutchmen, Gerrit Boon and Jan Lincklaen, traveled through the densely forested lands of Upstate New York. They eventually identified locations fit for the founding of the new villages of Oldenbarneveld (now Barneveld in Oneida County) and DeRuyter (in Madison County). [Read more…] about When Two Dutchmen Tried To Create A Maple Sugar Industry

Filed Under: Food, History, Western NY Tagged With: Barneveld, Boonville, Cazenovia, Dutch History, Forestry, Fort Schuyler, Holland Land Company, Holland Patent, Immigration, Industrial History, Lincklaen, Lorenzo SHS, Madison County, Maple Sugaring, Maple Trees, Oneida County

Joshua Anthony: The Baking Powder King

December 15, 2022 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

Joshua Anthony's Spice Factory in Halfmoon, Saratoga County, NYIn the 1800s, most of the commerce at Halfmoon in Saratoga County, NY, was located close to the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers. Joshua Anthony however, developed his spice factory in a remote part of northern Halfmoon on his grandfather’s farm on Farm to Market and Anthony Roads.

The three-story tower in the center of the factory once boasted a windmill that provided power for the machinery. Anthony heated the farmhouse and buildings in the winter with steam from the factory. [Read more…] about Joshua Anthony: The Baking Powder King

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, Food, History Tagged With: Christmas, Clifton Park, Culinary History, Delaware & Hudson Railroad, Halfmooon, Industrial History, Mechanicville, Saratoga County, Saratoga County History Roundtable, Susan B. Anthony, Thanksgiving

Hudson Area Library Launches Online Oral History Collections

December 5, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Black Legacy Association of Columbia County Oral History ProjectThe Hudson Area Library has announced two newly-launched online oral history archives: the Hudson Area Library Oral History Project (HAL OHP), an open collection of interviews collected locally over the past decade, and the Black Legacy Association of Columbia County Oral History Project (BLACC) collection from the 1980s. [Read more…] about Hudson Area Library Launches Online Oral History Collections

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Black History, Columbia County, Hudson, Hudson Area Library, Hudson River, Industrial History, Labor History, Online Resources, Oral History, Social History

Ballston Spa’s Hides-Franklin Spring: Some History

December 4, 2022 by Guest Contributor 8 Comments

Hides-Franklin Spring - Saratoga County History CenterAlthough the mineral springs that made Ballston Spa in Saratoga County famous in the late 1700s were surpassed in importance by the industries of the 1800s, several of them were re-tubed and became part of the manufacturing interests of the village well into the twentieth century.

Some mineral springs quickly failed, others were opened to the public, and still others were bottled and sold around the country. [Read more…] about Ballston Spa’s Hides-Franklin Spring: Some History

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Ballston Spa, Industrial History, Saratoga, Saratoga County, Saratoga County History Center, Saratoga County History Roundtable

Werner Brewery of Saratoga County: Some History

November 20, 2022 by Dave Waite 1 Comment

Werner brewery and farm in HalfmoonToday there are at least two breweries along the Route 9 corridor in Eastern Saratoga County, each offering their own brand of unique microbrews. Looking back in county history, we find that the commercial production of ale can trace its roots to well before the Civil War, with one of the earliest being the Werner family brewery in the town of Halfmoon. [Read more…] about Werner Brewery of Saratoga County: Some History

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: beer, German-American History, Halfmoon, Industrial History, Mechanicville, Medical History, Patent Medicine, Saratoga County, Saratoga County History Center, Saratoga County History Roundtable

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