On July 20, President Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on many Canadian goods, from dairy and alcohol to motor vehicles to building materials like plywood, kitchen cabinets, and cement. They’ll take effect August 19 unless the countries strike a deal before that date. [Read more…] about Businesses Brace Against Trump’s 50% Tariff on Canadian Goods
lumber industry
Environmentalists Have Big Stake in Finch Pulp Mill Closure
The purely economic decision by Finch Paper in Glens Falls, now part of a global company, to stop purchasing Adirondack regional trees for its pulp to paper operation and to instead acquire its pulp from far beyond New York’s borders is serious – and deserves the attention it’s getting at New York Almanack, and the worries from forest product industries, harvesters, truckers, suppliers, and landowners elsewhere. [Read more…] about Environmentalists Have Big Stake in Finch Pulp Mill Closure
The Rise & Fall of the Albany Lumber District (1810s-1910s)
Albany’s proximity to the Hudson River made it an ideal trading center, beginning with Native American-Dutch fur trading in the early seventeenth century.
By the late eighteenth century, the city had cultivated a small lumber market consisting of a half-dozen wholesale lumber merchants, clustered just south of the neighborhood around Columbia Street and present-day Clinton Avenue (to the south of what would later be considered the “Albany lumber district” proper). [Read more…] about The Rise & Fall of the Albany Lumber District (1810s-1910s)
Some Early History of Glens Falls
Human presence in the Adirondacks, including Warren County, dates back thousands of years. The rugged peaks, valleys, and lakes of the Adirondacks were the hunting grounds for several Native American people, notably the Mohicans, Mohawk, and the Abenaki.
The Haudenosaunee arrived in the region around 1,200 to 4,000 years ago. Both the Mohawk and Oneidas claimed the Adirondacks as part of their territory. [Read more…] about Some Early History of Glens Falls
‘A Terrible Death Struggle’: The Wreck of the George W. Lee
The mournful sound of the midnight ferry skittered across the Hudson River, and rain clouds spat a parting gift onto Captain John Frawley as he urged his mules northward and passed out of sight.
Over the last sixteen hours, Frawley had brought the canal boat George W. Lee from the Morgan sawmill in Glens Falls, and forty miles down the Champlain Canal to the Albany Basin, where he deposited the year’s last load of lumber. Despite the rain, his trip down had been uneventful, even getting well-behaved mules when he stopped for a fresh team in Schuylerville. [Read more…] about ‘A Terrible Death Struggle’: The Wreck of the George W. Lee
25 Properties Recommended to State, National Registers
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) have announced recommendations by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation to add 25 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.
The nominations include an intact 1905 metal casting foundry complex in Hudson, an 1873 house that reflects Syracuse’s layered history of immigration, urban renewal, and grassroots historic preservation, a cohesive group of Colonial Revival apartment buildings in Kenmore built during the 1920s and 1930s suburban housing boom, and an amendment to the 1971 nomination for Revolutionary-era Senate House in Kingston to include its 1920s commemorative museum annex. [Read more…] about 25 Properties Recommended to State, National Registers
Plywood History: Lawrence Ottinger’s Timber, Tenacity and Triumph
The death last month of eight-term U.S. Rep. Richard Lawrence Ottinger (D-Westchester) brings to mind the remarkable career of his father, Lawrence (1884-1954), an important player in plywood history.
Lawrence was the youngest of four sons of Moses Ottinger, a real estate developer who as a child emigrated from the German kingdom of Wurttemberg in the mid-nineteenth century and became known for developing properties along Columbus Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. [Read more…] about Plywood History: Lawrence Ottinger’s Timber, Tenacity and Triumph
An Adirondack Social History of Twitchell Lake
The Adirondack Park is a unique balance of public preserves and private land, a birthplace of the American wilderness vacation, and a large-scale experiment in humans and nature thriving together (and showing a remarkable ecological recovery).
Reflecting on my own small Adirondack lake community at Twitchell Lake in Herkimer County, social life seems to have passed through at least three phases – among the rugged early sportsmen and women, through the wild “Gilded Age” settlement era, and into our turbulent 20th and 21st centuries. [Read more…] about An Adirondack Social History of Twitchell Lake
Closing the Champlain Canal Season in 1895
The 1895 Champlain Canal navigation season was nearing its end. “The Morgan Lumber Company is hurrying large quantities of lumber to tidewater,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on November 19th.
“Its boats are discharged of their up cargoes of coal as rapidly as possible, and immediately load lumber for the return trip.” There was evidence a few days later that, indeed, the remaining days of the navigation season were numbered. [Read more…] about Closing the Champlain Canal Season in 1895
A Sketch of the Great Northern or Champlain Canal, 1822
The following article, “INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. A Sketch of the Great Northern or Champlain Canal. Waterford, 28th Nov. 1822” was first published in The American Farmer of Baltimore, Maryland, on December 20, 1822.
On this day the last stone of the Northern or Champlain Canal, was laid by Governor Clinton, President of the Board of Canal Commissioners, in the presence of a great assemblage of people. [Read more…] about A Sketch of the Great Northern or Champlain Canal, 1822
The Railroad’s Impact on Life in Corinth, Saratoga County, NY
Travel through the Saratoga County community of Corinth, NY, was difficult at best in the mid-nineteenth century. The Hudson River was navigable only a few months of the year. At a time when roads were rutted, muddy, or ice and snow covered the railroad offered the best form of reliable transportation for passengers and goods.
The Adirondack Railroad from Saratoga Springs to Hadley was completed at the end of the Civil War in 1865. The rail system helped spur industrial development in the area with the advent of dependable transportation. [Read more…] about The Railroad’s Impact on Life in Corinth, Saratoga County, NY
Port of Albany: Piers, Wharves and Docks in 1941
The following description is from 1941.
There are 30 terminal facilities at the Port of Albany, including those on the east side of the Hudson River at and below Rensselaer. These facilities provide a total of 18,661 linear feet of berthing space with depths ranging from 33 to 6 feet at mean low water.
Of this number 10 with a total berthage of 2,948 feet are used for handling petroleum products and five with a berthage of 2,525 feet are used for handling miscellaneous cargo in foreign and domestic trade. Two facilities with 1,370 feet of berthage are used for handling grain, one with 200 feet provides space for the movement of iron and steel scrap, while another with 1,617 feet of berthing space is used exclusively for handling lumber. [Read more…] about Port of Albany: Piers, Wharves and Docks in 1941
Up the Hudson River: New York to Stillwater in 1783
What follows is an excerpt from the diary of Francisco de Miranda (1750-1816), who traveled through the United States between 1783 and 1784. A Venezuelan who fought in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolution and the Spanish American wars of independence, his diary was later published as The New Democracy in America: Travels of Francisco de Miranda in the United States, 1783-84 (University of Oklahoma Press, 1963). It has been transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum Contributing Scholar George A. Thompson and annotated by John Warren.
Tired from the toil of the trip [from Philadelphia, through New Jersey] and having formed some acquaintances in New York, I thought I would visit Boston and then return to New York, whence I would embark for England. The harshness of the winter held me suspended for some time and finally made me change the plan. The sound and the rivers remained frozen for a long time, obstructing all navigation, and the roads, although covered with snow, became impassable with the frequent thaws — neither sledge nor wheels could attempt them. [Read more…] about Up the Hudson River: New York to Stillwater in 1783
Dawson’s: The Alplaus Kill’s Last Mill
Local historian W. Bronson Taylor once observed that the three essentials of the early pioneers of western Saratoga County were “a grist mill, a sawmill, and whiskey still.” While there is little mention of stills, Taylor’s point about the mills is borne out in historical records time and time again.
In the town of Charlton, one of these early mills was built by William Dawson on the Crabb Kill, not far above where it enters the Alplaus Kill. Brought into operation as early as 1785, mills would run on this property for the next 120 years. [Read more…] about Dawson’s: The Alplaus Kill’s Last Mill
The Sloop: Queen of the Hudson River
Some of the world’s greatest cities originated on river banks. In spite of individual histories, there is one common pattern. These were all “hydraulic” communities that developed creative skills to control the elements and open up the access to waterways.
Environmental intervention facilitated their adaptation to the habitat. They engineered techniques to dig canals, drain swamps, reclaim land and build on marshy ground by using mud banks to produce stylish brick. The transition of Venice, Antwerp or Amsterdam from soggy settlements to iconic port cities symbolized man’s ability to master his surroundings. New York City joined that list. [Read more…] about The Sloop: Queen of the Hudson River