The Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce will host “Grounded: Get Down To Earth In Saranac Lake,” a month-long event beginning May 7th, highlighting the activities the Saranac Lake area in the Adirondacks has to offer during what is typically seen as an undesirable season (mud season). [Read more…] about Grounded: Get Down To Earth In Saranac Lake
Saranac Lake
New Name, Host for Lake Placid, Saranac Lake Farmers’ Markets
The weekly farmers’ markets in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks will continue to offer locally produced farm products and handmade goods — but under a new name and host organization.
The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) announced that it will provide organizational support for the two markets under the newly dubbed “High Peaks Farmers’ Market.” ANCA will also hire a part-time manager to oversee the markets. [Read more…] about New Name, Host for Lake Placid, Saranac Lake Farmers’ Markets
“Labor’s Slaves in the Adirondacks”: Building the Adirondack Railroad
The St. Lawrence & Adirondack Railroad, also known as the Mohawk & Malone – eventually owned by the New York Central and called the Adirondack Line or the Adirondack Railroad ran directly through the Adirondacks from Herkimer (near Utica) to Malone connecting the rail lines along the Mohawk River to the Main Trunk Line running into Montreal. The line is often attributed to William Seward Webb, but it was the men who actually built the line that are the subject of this essay.
On March 29, 1892 a Boston Globe article titled “Labor’s Slaves in the Adirondacks” reported that Utica “resembled Washington during war times, hundreds of penniless and destitute Negroes are camped out tonight in the temporary places of shelter given them, and the citizens of Utica are consulting as to the best means of returning them to their homes.”
The Globe told readers that all night, “runaway slaves” had been coming into town. One hundred and fifty of them, mostly black laborers from the Deep South, but some recently arrived European immigrants as well. [Read more…] about “Labor’s Slaves in the Adirondacks”: Building the Adirondack Railroad
Historic Saranac Lake Acquires Béla Bartók Artifacts
Historic Saranac Lake has announced that the Saranac Laboratory Museum has received an important donation, a collection of personal effects that once belonged to Béla Bartók.
Widely regarded as one of the great composers, Bartók spent the last three summers of his life in Saranac Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains. Historic Saranac Lake maintains the cabin where Bartók stayed the year of his death, in 1945, and shows it to the public by appointment. [Read more…] about Historic Saranac Lake Acquires Béla Bartók Artifacts
Adirondack Rail Trail Design & Construction Starting
The New York State Departments of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Transportation (DOT), in cooperation with the Office of General Services (OGS), have announced the completion of the transfer of jurisdiction for a 34-mile segment of the Remsen-Lake Placid Travel Corridor. [Read more…] about Adirondack Rail Trail Design & Construction Starting
Jazz and Friends National Day of Community Readings
The 7th Annual Jazz and Friends National Day of School and Community Readings will be held on Thursday, February 24th, both in person at the Saranac Lake Youth Center at 6 pm and virtually.
The Jazz & Friends National Day of School and Community Readings is an event that helps to promote a more inclusive educational environment for transgender, non-binary and gender expansive youth. Parents, caregivers, educators, students and community members across the country will join together to support and affirm that our youth can be who they are. [Read more…] about Jazz and Friends National Day of Community Readings
Construction Begins At New Historic Saranac Lake Museum
New temporary signage has gone up at the Trudeau Building on the corner of Church and Main in downtown Saranac Lake, NY. Historic Saranac Lake purchased the historic building in 2018 for expansion of the Saranac Laboratory Museum next door.
The Trudeau Building, once restored, will house expanded exhibits presenting the history of Trudeau and tuberculosis in Saranac Lake, as well as the broader history of the Saranac Lake region. The Trudeau Building will also provide secure storage space for HSL’s growing museum collection, as well as a dedicated research room open to the public. [Read more…] about Construction Begins At New Historic Saranac Lake Museum
A History of Snowmobile Racing in New York State
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
Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Set For February 4-13
“Doonesbury” cartoonist Garry Trudeau has released his poster design for the 2022 Saranac Lake Winter Carnival, which is slated to take place February 4–13, 2022.
Using the Winter Carnival’s designated theme “Totally 80’s,” Trudeau’s illustration shows the “Doonesbury” characters J.J. sitting in the iconic 1980s Delorean time machine from the film Back to the Future, with the date set to February 4th, 2022, while Mike stands outside overlooking the Adirondack mountains. [Read more…] about Saranac Lake Winter Carnival Set For February 4-13
Modernist Architecture, Literature, and the Adirondack Cottage Sanatorium
Edward Livingston Trudeau was born in 1848 in New York City to a family of physicians. During his late teens, his elder brother James contracted tuberculosis (TB) and Edward nursed him until his death three months later. At twenty, he enrolled in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia College (now Columbia University), completing his medical training in 1871. Two years later, he was diagnosed with TB too.
Following current climate-therapeutic theories that promoted the relocation of patients to regions with atmospheric conditions favorable to recuperation, he moved to the Adirondack Mountains. Seeking as much open air as he possible could, almost continuously living outside, he subsequently regained his health. In 1876 he settled in Saranac Lake and established a small medical practice. It was the beginning of a remarkable career and a new chapter in American medical history. [Read more…] about Modernist Architecture, Literature, and the Adirondack Cottage Sanatorium