The Adirondacks are prone to powerful windstorms, isolated tornadoes, and occasional hurricanes, derechos, and microbursts. Perhaps the second most destructive of these in modern Adirondack history (next to the 1998 Ice Storm) occurred in November, 1950. [Read more…] about Remembering The Big Blowdown of 1950
Logging
State Logging On Tug Hill Hopes To Improve Hunting
In 2015, DEC launched the Young Forest Initiative. The initiative uses small clear-cuts “to increase young forest habitat” for wildlife which trappers and hunters target.
One of the many properties on which DEC employs this management strategy is Tug Hill Wildlife Management Area (WMA), a 5,110-acre property located on the Tug Hill Plateau in the town of Montague, Lewis County. [Read more…] about State Logging On Tug Hill Hopes To Improve Hunting
Al Smith, John Apperson, FDR & The Fight That Expanded NYS Forests
A young wildlands advocate Paul Schaefer was enamored of activist John Apperson from the day he first met him.
It was about 1931. Apperson was an General Electric engineer fighting to protect Lake George and other wild places. As Schaefer said, it was the pure sense of joy that Apperson exuded about conservation in the Adirondacks which galvanized young people looking for a cause.
These were very important years for the Adirondacks, as for the nation. The 1932 national election loomed, as the Great Depression sucked hope and savings from so many. One can imagine the anxiety that gripped the country and the opportunity for hucksters, demagogues, as well as statesmen. [Read more…] about Al Smith, John Apperson, FDR & The Fight That Expanded NYS Forests
An Unnatural History of the Raquette River
The Raquette River flows from its source at Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondacks, to the St. Lawrence River at Akewesasne.
East of Tupper Lake and just north of Simon Pond is a place called “The Cut.”
“The Cut” was channel dug to “straighten the river” so that logs could be floated (driven) straight into Simon Pond, thus avoiding a shallow and meandering section of the Raquette River known as Moody’s Flow. [Read more…] about An Unnatural History of the Raquette River
Adirondack Wildfire: The Destruction of Long Lake West
Over the years I have put my canoe into Adirondack waters at the Lows Lake Lower Dam (Bog River Dam, 1907) and paddled the meandering Bog River Flow upstream to Hitchins Pond. From there you can carry around the Lows Lake Dam (Upper Dam, 1903*) and out on to Lows Lake.
Occasionally a day paddle and a short hike around Hitchins Pond is in order. I often walk the old Maple Valley Railroad bed, part of the Horse Shoe Forestry Company established by Abbot Augustus “Gus” Low in 1900. If you know where to look, there are rail sidings where A. A. Low’s maple sugarhouses once stood. [Read more…] about Adirondack Wildfire: The Destruction of Long Lake West
William Fox Helped Create Modern NYS Forest Rangers
William F. Fox was born in 1840 in Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, and graduated from Union College in Schenectady in 1860. He served in the Civil War as Captain, Major and then Lieutenant Colonel in the 107th New York Volunteers and later wrote a number of books on both the Civil War and forestry.
Fox’s 1902 History of the Lumber Industry in the State of New York, written under the auspicious of Gifford Pinchot, is considered among the first authoritative works on the logging industry in New York. [Read more…] about William Fox Helped Create Modern NYS Forest Rangers
New Book Tackles Adirondack Lumber Cruising
Prolific Adirondack researcher and writer William J. O’Hern’s new book Adirondack Timber Cruising takes the reader on a journey through the development of timber cruising, logging, and forestry and our relationship to forests.
[Read more…] about New Book Tackles Adirondack Lumber Cruising
Adirondack World War 2 POW Labor Camps
The word Adirondack calls to mind many things — natural beauty, family playground, sporting opportunities, colorful history — but nothing so dark as prisoner-of-war host.
Yet during the last world war (let’s hope it was the last), followers of Hitler and Mussolini populated the North Country. [Read more…] about Adirondack World War 2 POW Labor Camps
New Logging Exhibit in Warren County
The Warren County Historical Society is opening a new exhibit, Logging at the Bend of the River, curated by Faith Bouchard. A debut reception will be held on Thursday, August 2 from 4 to 7 pm at the Society’s headquarters, 50 Gurney Lane, in Queensbury.
The exhibit showcases the important history of logging and papermaking in Warren County and the southern Adirondacks and features the role of some the region’s oldest companies, Finch in Glens Falls and International Paper in Ticonderoga (and formerly South Glens Falls).
The Big Boom: Old Hudson River Chain Recalls Logging History
Recently my son Adam and his seven-year-old daughter Mckenna were canoeing on the Hudson River above the Feeder Dam in Glens Falls when they noticed a small tree growing atop an old stone pier about 30 feet from shore – and something more. Tangled in the roots, they found a large old rusted chain with links 4 inches wide by 6 inches long.
Sharing pictures with Richard “Dick” Nason, the unofficial Finch Pruyn historian and an authority on river log drives, it appears likely the chain was left over from the heyday of log drives on the Hudson River. The chain was found in the Big Boom sorting area. Logs were released from the Big Boom upriver and floated down to the sorting area where they were tallied by owners, identified by the owner’s mark stamped on the butt end of each log. The sorting area was used from 1851 to 1929. Dick suspects the chain may be from the late 1800s. [Read more…] about The Big Boom: Old Hudson River Chain Recalls Logging History