History, Natural History & the Arts
Eagle Bay lies in the middle of the Adirondack Mountains of New York State at an elevation of 1,720 feet above sea level.
Situated just north of 4th Lake and about ten miles east of Old Forge the small hamlet (one of 94 in the Adirondacks) has seasonal activity consisting of winter snowmobiling, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing. Summer events focus on the various surrounding lakes, ponds, mountains, and hiking trails. [Read more…] about Eagle Bay in the Adirondacks: A Primer
It’s nearing peak fall colors in the Adirondack Park. There are many places to see the leaves as mountainsides and valleys turn bright orange, yellow, and red.
Protect the Adirondacks has put together hiking guides to 25 hikes that are easy, moderate, and challenging, but lead to terrific locations to see the fall colors in all corners of the Adirondack Park. These guides include maps, information about hiking conditions, and pictures. [Read more…] about 25 Great Adirondack Hikes to See Fall Colors
The Adirondack Foothills Trails Alliance has announced that the 2022 Adirondack Mountain Bike Festival is set to take place Saturday and Sunday, October 1st and 2nd, at McCauley Mountain in Old Forge. [Read more…] about 2022 Adirondack Mountain Bike Festival Oct 1-2
Living ADK and View, the Center for Arts and Culture, have teamed up to create a new mural that is hanging on the side of Souvenir Village by the five corners/Point Park in Old Forge, NY.
The mural was designed and painted by Char Miller, a View summer intern and current Rochester Institute of Technology graphic design student, over the course of multiple days in August. [Read more…] about New Mural Project Finishes in Old Forge
The adventure began with an exchange of letters in the spring of 1877 between a sportsman in Syracuse, NY, and Byron P. Graves of Boonville, a town on the western border of the Adirondacks. The purpose of this correspondence was to hire a guide and transportation for a two-week hunting and fishing trip into the Fulton Chain of Lakes for the man and his 11-year-old son Ned.
The sportsman was Ansel Judd Northrup, a 43-year-old attorney who would later write the book, Camps and Tramps in the Adirondacks (1882), where this story was first told. The final communication from Northrup, in the form of a telegraph, simply read, “Engage Brinckerhoff, will reach Boonville, morning train, July 5th.” [Read more…] about Through The Fulton Chain of Lakes in 1877
In the nineteenth century Lewis County settlements east of the Black River were just getting established; most of these included at least one saw mill. By 1820 these settlements were beginning to push their way up the rivers into the Adirondacks, and new mills were being built along their courses. A Copenhagen, NY farmer on Tug Hill, viewing the Adirondack panorama spread out to his east, wrote the following in a Journal & Republican article titled “North Woods Wonder:”
“All the wilderness is strewn with lakes as if some great mirror had been shattered by an Almighty hand, and scattered through the forests for Nature to make her toilet by … And how the rivers meander the woods as the veins of a human hand. There are Beaver, Moose, and Indian, Bog, Grass and Racket… And how rough and shaggy the wilderness is with mountains … Let them pass unnamed.”
One of these “shattered” gems was Twitchell Lake. [Read more…] about Logging The Adirondacks From The West (1800-1820)
In the motor toboggan era – the time before the advent of the modern snowmobiles we know today – motor sleds had been too slow for racing excitement. As a result they remained strictly utilitarian vehicles racing only occasionally for promotional purposes. Motor toboggan and later snowmobile maker Polaris traveled each year at the end of the 1950s to trapper festivals at The Pas, Manitoba where they helped organize ad hoc races.
“We tried to rig them a little bit so we had a zig-zag effect,” David Johnson said, remembering one of the first informal races, “one guy ahead, and then the other, and so on, at a terrific speed of about 20 miles per hour.” In February 1959, Johnson won the first organized men’s race on an oval at The Pas and in 1960, the first cross-country race was held there. [Read more…] about A History of Snowmobile Racing in New York State
Jack Sheppard came to the Fulton Chain region of the Western Adirondacks after roaming the West as a youth and then served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
These experiences equipped Sheppard with the knowledge, skills, and social network to become a successful guide and enabled him to shift his occupation from guide to innkeeper, to builder, to businessman. He never married or raised a family, but when he left the Adirondacks in 1892 he left behind a long list of devoted friends that reads like a virtual who’s who of Adirondack history. [Read more…] about Jack Sheppard: Civil War Vet, Panther Hunter, Adirondack Guide & Steamboat Operator
View, the Center for Arts and Culture in Old Forge, New York, has announced the new Henry M. Kashiwa Wetland Walkway is now open to the public, during View’s normal operating hours of Monday-Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm. [Read more…] about Old Forge’s New Wetland Walkway Opens
On March 31st, Town of Webb Police contacted NYS Environmental Conservation Officer (ECO) Noyes about a deer struck and killed by a vehicle in the village of Old Forge. [Read more…] about Police: Man Ran Down Deer With Truck