“Toponym” is the technical term for a place name, especially one derived from a topographical feature. I’m hooked on toponyms. My starting point is Twitchell Lake in Big Moose, located in the town Webb, Herkimer County, NY, in the Adirondacks where six generations of my family have vacationed in a cabin since the early 1900s.
Debate on our lake’s name has reached a crescendo as a history committee collects our stories for a Twitchell book. This article explores the fascinating connection between our lake’s name and the Twitchell family of Copenhagen, in Lewis County, NY. This map traces the 50-mile route from Copenhagen through Lewis County, across the Black River, and then up the Number Four Road into the Adirondack Mountains. Which leads to my question: How on earth did this dairy farming family get its name attached to this lake? [Read more…] about The Naming of Twitchell Lake in the Adirondacks
As a boy growing up in the Battle Hill section of White Plains, NY, I remember my excitement at reading a brass memorial telling me “George Washington slept here.” White Plains was the site of a battle during the 
In 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.
Frank Tweedy’s