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Raquette River

Reading Bug Tracks on Tea Leaves

September 17, 2022 by Paul Hetzler 2 Comments

tea plant courtesy Wikimedia user James SteakleyFrom palm-reading to watching Fox News, humans throughout the ages have sought knowledge through some decidedly irrational means. But every now and then, superstition pays off.

For example, studying the pattern of coffee grounds in the bottom of one’s cup, a practice known as tasseomancy, will nearly always reveal that someone forgot to put a filter in the coffeemaker basket. And haruspicy, the study of the fresh entrails of a gutted animal, is consistently right in concluding the animal is dead. [Read more…] about Reading Bug Tracks on Tea Leaves

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Nature Tagged With: Black River, Fisheries, Grass River, insects, Invasive Species, nature, Oswegatchie River, Raquette River, Science, Wildlife

Logging The Adirondacks From The West (1800-1820)

May 2, 2022 by Noel Sherry 6 Comments

2a Eastern Lewis Co TownshipsIn 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)

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Adirondacks, Alexander Macomb, Beaver Falls, Beaver River, Black River, Boonville, Brown's Tract, conservation, Copenhagen, Croghan, Diana, Environmental History, Forestport, Greig, Herkimer COunty, Independence River, Independence River State Forest, Independence River Wild Forest, Indigenous History, Industrial History, Lewis County, Logging, Lowville, Moose River, New Bremen, Old Forge, Oneida County, Oswegatchie River, Otter Creek, Otter River, Raquette River, surveying, Totten Crossfield Tract, Twitchell Lake, Watson

Naming the Lakes of the Eckford Chain

March 14, 2021 by Mike Prescott 3 Comments

Ebenezer-Emmons-1-216x300In the summer of 2017 I decided to paddle the Eckford Chain of Lakes in the Adirodnacks. We set out one fine August morning from Raquette Lake, crossed the lake, and proceeded up the Marion River, through the carry, putting back in at the Utowana dock, continuing through Utowana Lake into Eagle Lake, and then into Blue Mountain Lake before pulling our boats out at the Blue Mountain beach.

Our conversation (and questions) turned to the name Eckford Chain of Lakes. [Read more…] about Naming the Lakes of the Eckford Chain

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Blue Mountain Lake, Eagle Lake, Eckford Chain of Lakes, Navy, paddling, Raquette Lake, Raquette River, surveying, Utowana Lake

Dam History: The Proposed Oxbow Reservoir Project

October 7, 2020 by Mike Prescott Leave a Comment

Proposed-Oxbow-DamThe Raquette River, from Raquette Falls to the State Boat Launch on Tupper Lake, is one of the nicest stretches of flat-water anywhere in the Adirondacks. Paddling this river corridor under a clear cerulean blue sky, on a sunny autumn day with the riverbanks ablaze in orange and red, is exquisite. For me, though, the river’s history is as captivating as its natural beauty. [Read more…] about Dam History: The Proposed Oxbow Reservoir Project

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Axton Landing, Follensby Pond, Geography, Geology, Maps, Oxbow Lake, paddling, Raquette River, Stony Creek, The Wild Center, Tupper Lake

An Unnatural History of the Raquette River

August 27, 2020 by Mike Prescott 2 Comments

Seneca-Ray-Stoddard-photo-“the-Cut”-with-Simond-Pond-and-Mt.-Morris-1888-540x409 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

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History, Nature Tagged With: Adirondack Dams, Environmental History, Forestry, Logging, paddling, Political History, Raquette River, Tupper Lake

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