On March 18, 2026 the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, Third Department, in Albany has granted a motion by Adirondack Park advocates for a preliminary injunction preventing LS Marina, LLC (LSM) from installing new docks and dock covers at its two marina sites located on Lower Saranac Lake. The injunction will remain in effect pending resolution of the appeal. [Read more…] about Court Temporarily Halts Adirondack Marina’s Dock Installations
NYS Court of Appeals
Public Access Won for New York State Death Index, 1880-2017
Reclaim The Records, advocates for making public genealogy records free for everyone online, has announced that they have won in court the first-ever public release of the full New York State Death Index, from 1880 through the end of 2017. The organization won this data through a multi-year Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) suit filed against the largest government agency in the state, which eventually worked its way up the highest court in the state. [Read more…] about Public Access Won for New York State Death Index, 1880-2017
A History of Education in New York: Twentieth-Century Trends
A major educational development of the early twentieth century was the rise of high schools. Public high schools gradually replaced the academies in the late 1800s. This change arose partly from the changing notion of “public,” with independent schools no longer seen as completely fulfilling public education responsibilities.
The rising cost of first-rate secondary education and the emerging urban middle class that desired it, also contributed to the move toward high schools. In city after city, academies were transformed into public secondary schools and architecturally impressive public high schools opened. [Read more…] about A History of Education in New York: Twentieth-Century Trends
Robert Moses’s Imperial Niagara and St. Lawrence Megaprojects
We recently passed the 50th anniversary of the release of Robert Caro’s Pulitzer-prize-winning book about Robert Moses: The Power Broker. Exhaustively comprehensive, Caro’s monumental tome nonetheless virtually ignores one of the most fascinating chapters of Moses’s career: his time as Chairman of the Power Authority of the State of New York (PASNY) from 1954 to 1962.
While heading PASNY, known today as the New York Power Authority, the legendary New York City builder oversaw the remaking of Niagara Falls and the St. Lawrence River for hydropower. [Read more…] about Robert Moses’s Imperial Niagara and St. Lawrence Megaprojects
Election Anxiety: Bat Shea & The Murder of Robert Ross
Immediately following Troy’s March 6, 1894 election riot in the 13th Ward, the question on everyone’s lips was “Who killed Robert Ross?” After interviewing 50 of the 100 witnesses at the scene of the violence, Superintendent of Police William W. Willard offered his gut reaction to the press.
“To a greater or lesser degree everyone [was responsible] who was engaged in the fight during which the crime was committed” according to the The Albany Argus of March 12, 1894. That opinion was not repeated at the March 15th inquest or the May 28th murder trial, although it did resurface before Bat Shea was strapped into the electric chair. [Read more…] about Election Anxiety: Bat Shea & The Murder of Robert Ross
John Apperson’s Battle To Protect Lake George’s Islands
Before Adirondack conservation leader Paul Schaefer began to organize his coalitions and, after a titanic ten year struggle, finally defeat through public referendum proposed big dams on the South Branch of the Moose River and elsewhere (1945-1955), Paul’s mentor John S. Apperson (often known as Appy) was waging another, longer, but less well known struggle concerning an actual, late 19th wooden and early 20th century concrete dam at the outlet of Lake George, built to power pulp, paper, and other mills in Ticonderoga, and to float logs down to those mills. [Read more…] about John Apperson’s Battle To Protect Lake George’s Islands
New York’s Leadership in Progressive Reform
The progressive period, ca. 1900-1920, much like our own times, was an era of tension, change, and new policies replacing old ones. Most of historians’ attention has focused on progressivism at the national level.
But in researching for my most recent books — The Crucible of Public Policy: New York Courts in the Progressive Era (2022) and Progressive New York: Change and Reform in the Empire State, 1900-1920 – A Reader (2024) – I was struck by how important the states were in the movement and furthermore how important New York was. [Read more…] about New York’s Leadership in Progressive Reform
A Tribute to Conservationist Charlie Morrison, 1928-2024
I don’t feel old but when most of my youth’s teachers and mentors have passed on, I know I’ve arrived. When it comes to the Adirondacks and the “forever wild” provision of our state constitution, a number of us just lost a great, very determined, and very influential teacher in that field of green. [Read more…] about A Tribute to Conservationist Charlie Morrison, 1928-2024
New York’s Court of Chancery & Its Chancellor: A Primer
The New York Court of Chancery (1701-1847) was established during the British colonial administration of the Province of New York (1664–1776), with the colonial governor acting as Chancellor. The New York Court of Chancery was the highest court in New York while it existed, with the Chancellor of New York serving as New York’s highest judicial officer. [Read more…] about New York’s Court of Chancery & Its Chancellor: A Primer
The Sinking of the Steamship Ville du Harve
On May 17, 1870, Judge Rufus Wheeler Peckham was appointed a justice of the New York Court of Appeals, but in the early 1870s he began to show signs of skin cancer – a tumor had appeared on his lip. Advised that no known cure was available in the United States, he decided to undertake a trip with his wife to Europe to seek medical help.
On November 15, 1873, Judge Peckham sailed for Europe on the SS Ville du Havre of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (French Line) bound for Havre, France near Paris. [Read more…] about The Sinking of the Steamship Ville du Harve
The Eight: The Lemmon Slave Case and the Fight for Freedom
The Eight: The Lemmon Slave Case and the Fight for Freedom (SUNY Press Excelsior Editions, 2023) tells the story of Lemmon v. New York — or, as it’s more popularly known, the Lemmon Slave Case. All but forgotten today, it was one of the most momentous civil rights cases in American history. [Read more…] about The Eight: The Lemmon Slave Case and the Fight for FreedomJudge Rufus Wheeler Peckham & The McCann Murder
In 1787, Patroon Stephen Van Rensselaer III sent an agent to Rensselaerville in Albany County, NY to conduct a land survey. At that time there were 60 occupied lots in the village, rented by tenants.
Among them was Captain Daniel Shay, known as the leader of “Shays’ Rebellion” in Massachusetts, who purchased a farm from David Williams and settled in the vicinity of Preston’s Hollow in 1795. David Williams had been one of the captors of British spy, Major John André. [Read more…] about Judge Rufus Wheeler Peckham & The McCann Murder
Court Ends Lawsuit That Ruled State Violated Constitution
The New York State Supreme Court in Albany County signed a judgment that ends the 10-year-long legal odyssey by Protect the Adirondacks to defend Article 14, Section 1, the famed Forever Wild clause in the New York Constitution.
In May 2021, the Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, released a 4-2 opinion in favor of Protect the Adirondacks that upheld Article 14, Section 1, ruling that the state’s network of snowmobile connector trails violated the Forever Wild clause. [Read more…] about Court Ends Lawsuit That Ruled State Violated Constitution