The Saranac River Basin and the farms located within it have a rich agricultural tradition that stretches back generations. The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) invites Bike the Barns participants to engage with the region’s agricultural heritage through interpretive exhibits and farm tours at its fourth annual farm-by-bike event. [Read more…] about Bike Riding Through Adirondack History
Saranac Lake
Public Input Sought for Saranac Lake Museum Expansion
Historic Saranac Lake (HSL) is set to host a public meeting to gather input for the expansion of the history museum for the Saranac Lake Region on Wednesday, July 17, from 6 to 7:30 pm.
The public is invited to share their vision for the new expanded museum campus on the corner of Church and Main Streets in Saranac Lake. [Read more…] about Public Input Sought for Saranac Lake Museum Expansion
Historic 1930s Girl Scout Camp Reopens to Campers
After a decade of disuse, the 116-year-old National Historic Landmark on Eagle Island will again be a children’s summer camp. Eagle Island Camp is starting small and with two one-week sessions of day camp for 4th, 5th, or 6th graders.
Eagle Island Camp is a Great Camp designed by architect William Coulter that contains some of his most notable rustic work. The 30-acre island is located below Upper Saranac Lake’s narrows east of Gilpin Bay. The camp was built in 1903 for Levi P. Morton, U.S. Vice President under Benjamin Harrison and later Governor of New York. [Read more…] about Historic 1930s Girl Scout Camp Reopens to Campers
New Historic Saranac Lake Exhibit Celebrates the Arts
Historic Saranac Lake has announced an opening reception for “The Art of the Cure,” a new exhibit in the John Black Room of the Saranac Laboratory Museum, located 89 Church Street.
This exhibit highlights Saranac Lake’s rich history of the arts. The Trudeau Sanatorium and the Study and Craft Guild offered groundbreaking occupational therapy programs to tuberculosis patients, many of whom went on to become accomplished artists, writers, and craftspeople. [Read more…] about New Historic Saranac Lake Exhibit Celebrates the Arts
Tuberculosis ‘Cure Porch on Wheels’ Project Update
Historic Saranac Lake has been awarded a grant to support the Cure Porch on Wheels project in 2019. The New York Council on the Arts (NYSCA) has approved $16,000 to support programming on Historic Saranac Lake’s oral history booth and mobile exhibit space.
This is the latest of a number of grants that have supported the project. In 2018, a NYSCA Museum Program grant supported the construction of the Cure Porch on Wheels.
The Cure Porch on Wheels project is modeled on the cure porches of Saranac Lake, where tens of thousands of people from around the world came to take the “fresh air cure” for tuberculosis. [Read more…] about Tuberculosis ‘Cure Porch on Wheels’ Project Update
Saranac Lake Memoir: A Small Corner of the ADKs
Fran Yardley’s new book Finding True North: A History of One Small Corner of The Adirondacks (SUNY Press, 2018) traces the challenges and transformations of Saranac Lake.
In 1968 Fran and Jay Yardley, a young couple with pioneering spirit, moved to a remote corner of the Adirondacks to revive the long-abandoned but historic Bartlett Carry Club, with its one thousand acres and thirty-seven buildings. [Read more…] about Saranac Lake Memoir: A Small Corner of the ADKs
Selma Film To Mark MLK 50 Event in Saranac Lake
In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a showing of the film Selma has been set for Thursday, April 19th, from 6:30 to 9 pm, in the Cantwell Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library. [Read more…] about Selma Film To Mark MLK 50 Event in Saranac Lake
Historic Saranac Lake Hires Oral History Coordinator
Historic Saranac Lake has announced the addition of Kayt Gochenaur to its staff in the position of Oral History Coordinator.
Gochenaur is expected to plan and oversee the expansion of Historic Saranac Lake’s oral history project as well as manage the Cure Porch on Wheels project. [Read more…] about Historic Saranac Lake Hires Oral History Coordinator
Medical History: Saranac Lake’s Mirror Girl
His work with children’s hospitals convinced Colonel Walter Scott that there might be help for Jessica Ferguson despite her negative prognosis and seemingly hopeless situation.
New and exciting progress had been made, especially by Dr. Russell Hibbs of New York City, whose surgical innovations helped change the face of medicine. Hibbs was the first to perform a spinal fusion, and made great advances in treating tuberculosis of the spine and hip. [Read more…] about Medical History: Saranac Lake’s Mirror Girl
The Mirror Girl of Saranac Lake
Mirror Girl. What an intriguing term. In the past it has been applied to the prettiest coeds in sororities, cute girls in general, and particularly vain women. But in this case, it addresses one of my favorite historical stories linked to the Northern New York’s years as a tuberculosis treatment center. The patient was a young woman, Jessica “Jessie” Ferguson, born in 1895 in Mount Pleasant, New York, north of Tarrytown on the Hudson River. Her parents, James and Anna, were both natives of Scotland, a fact that becomes key to the story.
The young girl’s difficulties began in her early twenties when her father died, and Jessica was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bone, affecting her spine. In 1918, she lost the ability to walk. Doctors placed her in a cast that forced Jessica into a permanent reclining position. [Read more…] about The Mirror Girl of Saranac Lake