Federal authorities arrested 2,197 people across New York last month during what they have derisively named “Operation Rotten Apple,” the highest monthly immigration arrest total since the Trump administration’s round-ups began in New York State. [Read more…] about With ‘Operation Rotten Apple’ Upstate Police Round-Ups Surge
Jefferson County
Fort Drum’s World War II Combat Con Artists
During the final year of World War II, more than 1,000 soldiers, including artists, engineers, radio operators, and sound technicians, used inflatable rubber tanks, fabricated radio transmissions, recorded sound effects, and carefully staged visual illusions to convince enemy forces that large American combat units were stationed where they were not. Many of the troops trained in Northern New York at Fort Drum in Jefferson County, then known as Pine Camp, before deploying to Europe. [Read more…] about Fort Drum’s World War II Combat Con Artists
Lake Ontario’s Selkirk Shores, Southwick Beach Get Upgrade
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has completed $9.5 million in upgrades to Selkirk Shores and Southwick Beach State Park on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, including campground upgrades, restoration of historic facilities, construction of a new park office and a new accessible trail. [Read more…] about Lake Ontario’s Selkirk Shores, Southwick Beach Get Upgrade
Mabel Allen’s 1908 Diary: Adams and Henderson Harbor
Alice Mabel Allen (1886-1976) grew up in the village of Adams in Jefferson County. In 1908, while attending Syracuse University, Mabel, as she was known, kept a diary which New York Almanack is publishing each week.
Monday, August 17
I collected the laundry while Edna [her sister] got breakfast. Father took us across [Henderson Harbor] at 8:30 and we waited at Snow’s for Mrs. Rice with whom we rode to Adams. Found mother very tired and Mrs. C. better. [Read more…] about Mabel Allen’s 1908 Diary: Adams and Henderson Harbor
1908 Work At The Jefferson County Journal
Alice Mabel Allen (1886-1976) grew up in the village of Adams in Jefferson County. In 1908, while attending Syracuse University, Mabel, as she was known, kept a diary which New York Almanack is publishing each week.
Monday, July 27
Arose early and Edna [her sister] and I started for home at about 9. Very warm as the horse travelled with the wind. On reaching home found Mr. Cooper had slight relapse. After dinner went down to [Jefferson County Journal] office. Copy was scarce for a while. After supper got locale of Edith and Helen and went down with them after the mail. Went into Clark’s. Letter from Harriet this A.M. and proscriptions from Dr. Craton. [Read more…] about 1908 Work At The Jefferson County Journal
1908 Swimming & Summer Reading At Camp
Alice Mabel Allen (1886-1976) grew up in the village of Adams in Jefferson County. In 1908, while attending Syracuse University, Mabel, as she was known, kept a diary which New York Almanack is publishing each week.
Monday, July 13
Father and Edna [her sister] left for Adams about noon. We — mother and I — took up the matting in the hall and mother washed. Put up banners and sewed on Edna’s bathing suit. After lunch we made the acquaintance of little Laura Howard who lives here the year around. [Read more…] about 1908 Swimming & Summer Reading At Camp
19 NY Places Recommended for State and National Registers
The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) has announced recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 19 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The nominations include a nineteenth-century church in Jefferson County that developed and promoted Universalism in Upstate New York, a pre-Revolutionary War house owned by seven generations of the Hulse family on Long Island’s North Shore, and additional documentation for New York City’s Hotel Chelsea recognizing its significance as a center of LGBTQ cultural and creative life. [Read more…] about 19 NY Places Recommended for State and National Registers
Mabel’s 1908 Diary: Working the Jefferson County Journal
In 1908, while attending Syracuse University, Alice Mabel Allen (1886-1976), or Mabel as she was known, kept a diary which New York Almanack is publishing each week. In these entries, she is back in Adams, working on her father’s weekly paper, The Jefferson County Journal.
Monday, June 8
Late for breakfast. Washed dishes alone and dusted. Washed out the white waists and handkerchiefs and frosted Sarah’s cake. After dinner I straightened out the room and went down to the office to fold the Annual [of Jefferson County Journal]. [Read more…] about Mabel’s 1908 Diary: Working the Jefferson County Journal
Poachers Caught With 10,000 Illegal Fiddleheads
New York State Environmental Conservation Officer (ECO) Lieutenant Steven Bartoszewski reported that they responded to a report of illegal fishing on South Sandy Creek in the Town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County On April 26.
The complainant stated he observed three individuals carrying black garbage bags that were dripping with water to their vehicle, placing the bags in the trunk of the vehicle, and then returning to the creek. [Read more…] about Poachers Caught With 10,000 Illegal Fiddleheads
Watchable Wildlife: Chaumont Barrens Preserve
One of the last and finest examples of alvar grasslands in the world, Chaumont Barrens Preserve is a one-of-a-kind destination in New York State.
Featuring a unique landscape with flat, rocky terrain of grasslands, limestone woodlands, cedar forests, pavement barrens, and globally rare plant communities, Chaumont Barrens is home to a mosaic of natural and remarkable wonders. [Read more…] about Watchable Wildlife: Chaumont Barrens Preserve
Seth Concklin: A Daring, Dedicated New York Abolitionist
Many New Yorkers before the Civil War contributed to the abolition of slavery, and the dangerous work of helping enslaved African-Americans flee their captors. Take Calvin Fairbank, a New York Methodist pastor born 1816, who spent 17 years in prison for his missions to help enslaved people escape.
Seth Concklin, a New Yorker whose name and sacrifice were more familiar in the 19th century, died tragically in 1851 while trying to help a mother and her three children escape from slavery. [Read more…] about Seth Concklin: A Daring, Dedicated New York Abolitionist
New York Historic Pools Designed by Wesley Bintz
Wesley Bintz was a Civil Engineer who received his training at the University of Michigan, earning a BCE in 1916 and MS in 1918. He moved on to municipal work in Flint, Michigan with two pools made of reinforced concrete, and funded by municipal bonds, which he designed as their City Engineer and completed in 1920.
Bintz subsequently accepted an Engineering position with the City of Lansing, Michigan whose citizens also desired an ovoid swimming pool, and saw their aspiration fulfilled with another a Bintz designed 80 x 120 foot pool constructed during 1922-23. Other communities saw the need for such facilities, which caused Bintz to patent his design, and specialize in his own swimming pool enterprise. Many Blintz pools were built in New York State. [Read more…] about New York Historic Pools Designed by Wesley Bintz
White Supremacist George Wallace & New York State
On January 14, 1963, after being overwhelmingly elected by white Alabama voters, George Wallace (1919-1998), the infamous segregationist and white supremacist, delivered his inaugural address and called for “Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!” Throughout his speech he condemned integration and criticized federal intervention in state affairs.
Running for office almost a decade after Brown v. Board of Education, Wallace’s 1962 campaign used the slogan “Stand up for Alabama,” and he vowed to fight integration at the University of Alabama. [Read more…] about White Supremacist George Wallace & New York State
Management of Lake Ontario Barrier Beach System Being Planned
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has released a draft Access and Public Use Plan (APUP) for the Lakeview Wildlife Management Area (WMA). The draft plan is available for public comment until February 5, 2026.
The 3,461-acre Lakeview WMA is located on State Route 3 in Jefferson County, NY, about 20 miles southwest of Watertown, or 15 miles northwest of Pulaski, along the eastern shoreline of Lake Ontario is part of the largest natural freshwater barrier beach system in New York State. [Read more…] about Management of Lake Ontario Barrier Beach System Being Planned
Mabel Allen’s Diary: 1908 at Syracuse University
Alice Mabel Allen (1886-1976) grew up in the village of Adams in Jefferson County, NY. Her father, William Jarvis Allen, published the weekly Jefferson County Journal. He saw to it that all three of his daughters went to college. Mabel, as she was known, first attended Stanford University and later Syracuse University. In 1908, while at Syracuse, she kept a diary in which she described the joys and travails of college life. Each week throughout the year New York Almanack will publish entries from Mabel’s diary. [Read more…] about Mabel Allen’s Diary: 1908 at Syracuse University
The Irish 100th Regiment at Sackets Harbor & A Mysterious Button
Recent artifacts donated and purchased at the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site include a War of 1812 uniform button. The one-piece copper button with low-convex face with Prince of Wales’s plume, coronet, and motto with “100” below is in excellent shape and appears to be a water recovery. It comes with the original card stating it was recovered in Sackets Harbor in 1961.
This may not seem a particularly desirable purchase, but it has a unique story. Although the 100th Regiment arrived May 29th, 1813 with the Crown Forces, of the many war-era buttons in the site’s collection there were no 100th Regiment buttons. [Read more…] about The Irish 100th Regiment at Sackets Harbor & A Mysterious Button
Rangers Kept Busy With Hunter, Hiker and Angler Missions
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents throughout New York State locating and extracting lost, injured or distressed people and policing state lands.
This report of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers was prepared by DEC: [Read more…] about Rangers Kept Busy With Hunter, Hiker and Angler Missions
Curt Stager’s ‘Field Notes from the Northern Forest’ Published
In Field Notes from the Northern Forest (North Country Books 2025), Curt Stager draws on scientific literature and on his own observations to share his curiosity about the natural world alongside illustrations by Lake Placid naturalist Anne E. Lacy
With the same humor and personable ease that characterizes the popular weekly nature program that he co-produces on North Country Public Radio (NCPR), these 20 natural science essays take readers to ground level to explore the lives of animals, plants, and fungi commonly encountered in the conifer, hardwood, and mixed wood forests of northeastern North America. [Read more…] about Curt Stager’s ‘Field Notes from the Northern Forest’ Published
Feeding the Erie Canal: Rome Summit Level Reservoirs
All canals are a series of ponds, at different water stages, or elevations. These elevation changes are transitioned by locks, with the area between the locks being of any length, and referred to as a level. Simply put, canal transport is similar to a set of stairs, with the levels being the tread, and the locks the riser. The highest level of any canal is known as the summit level.
As water flows with any lock movement, it is necessary to constantly re-supply the canal, and by feeding the replacement water to the summit level, the entire canal may be supplied. The original Erie Canal, statewide from Albany to Buffalo, had three summit levels; Lake Erie, Jordan and Rome. [Read more…] about Feeding the Erie Canal: Rome Summit Level Reservoirs
New Yorkers Exiled to Tasmania for the 1837-38 Canadian Patriot Rebellion
On September 30, 1970, in a simple ceremony, a monument was unveiled at Sandy Bay Beach Reserve in Hobart, Tasmania, by the Honorable Douglas Harkness, the former Canadian defense minister. It was in honor to the ninety-two Patriot exiles, transported to what was then called Van Diemen’s Land who had been captured in the 1837-38 Patriot War insurrection in Upper Canada against British domination.
Listed as Canadian rebels, a majority were in fact from the state of New York. Although imprisoned US citizens captured in the various conflicts with England – from the American Revolution to the War of 1812– was not a novelty, it was to be the first time that American prisoners were shipped to a penal colony in Australia due to a confrontation with the Empire. [Read more…] about New Yorkers Exiled to Tasmania for the 1837-38 Canadian Patriot Rebellion