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WARREN COUNTY
A HISTORY AND GUIDE
AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES
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WARREN COUNTY A History and Guide
AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2006 with funding from Microsoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/warrencountyhist00writrich
WARREN COUNTY A HISTORY AND GUIDE
Compiled by workers of the Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of New York
AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES ILLUSTRATED
PUBLISHED BY THE WARREN COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
PRINTED BY THE GLENS FALLS POST COMPANY MCMXLII
COPYRIGHT 1942 BY THE WARREN COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
NEW YORK STATE DIVISION OF COMMERCE State-wide Sponsor of the New York State Writers' Project
FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY BRIG. GEN. PHILIP B. FLEMING, Administrator
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION HOWARD O. HUNTER, Commissioner
FLORENCE KERR Assistant Commissioner
LESTER W. HERZOG
State Administrator
THIS VOLUME IS SPONSORED BY THE WARREN COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS RICHARD J. BOLTON, Hague, Chairman
EDWARD M. VANDENBURGH Bolton
FRANK MINZEY
Caldwell
CLARENCE CARPENTER . Chester
EDGAR LAHAISE
Glens Falls
JOHN S. WOODWARD .
Glens Falls
NORMAN H. BEATY
Glens Falls
GEORGE W. BRAYTON
Glens Falls
JOHN F. REARDON Glens Falls
ALLEN L. MEADE .
Horicon
CHARLES S. KENWELL
Johnsburg
NATHAN PROLLER
Luzerne
JABEZ N. INGALSBE
Queensbury
DAVID I. MANN
Stony Creek
FLOYD MAXAM
Thurman
WYMAN D. PASCO
Warrensburg
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MR. ARTHUR POUND
Albany New York State Historian
MR. ALEXANDER W. MILLER Superintendent of Schools . Glens Falls
MR. ROBERT N. KING
Science Teacher, High School Faculty . Glens Falls
MR. WILLIAM H. WINTERS Chief Inspector, Conservation Department Glens Falls
MR. WALLACE LAMB
Supervising Principal, Bolton High School . . Bolton Landing
MR. JOHN R. STICKNEY Superintendent of Schools Bolton Landing
MISS KATHLEEN I. OSBORNE
Superintendent of Schools .
North Creek
MR. LYNN F. PERKINS
Superintendent of Schools .
. Lake Luzerne
Preface
T HIS book presents a picture of Warren County and its people today against the background of its history. To local residents it offers a basis for fuller appreciation and understanding of their County's present resources and future potentialities as well as the part it played in earlier days.
To the thousands of visitors who throng Warren County's highways, streams, lakes, beaches, and mountain trails the book will point out new vistas, and add interest and significance to their experiences here. By word and picture it brings to distant homes a memory and a promise of swimming, open-air theater, race track, ski run, and solitude beside lake or stream, in a forest, or on a rocky summit.
Warren County covers 876 square miles; it has 175 miles of paved Federal and State highways and 850 miles of county and town roads, some paved, some the kind of country dirt roads that invite leisurely exploration. Large areas protected by rangers of the Adirondack Park are accessible only by bridle path or hiking trail.
Besides visitors from near and far, Warren County has a typically American resident population. These hospitable, intelligent people, many of whom provide accommodations for visitors, have added important recreational developments to the attractions nature has bestowed on Warren County. More than half the County's population is centered in and near Glens Falls, at the southeastern entrance to the Adirondacks. Here varied industries provide employment, and the business district serves a rural and resort area.
The New York State Writers' Project of the Work Projects Adminis- tration, having completed a comprehensive guide for New York State (1940), has prepared this Warren County History and Guide under the sponsorship of the Warren County Board of Supervisors. The Writers' Project staff has received aid from many local people, but only a few can be mentioned here. The Glens Falls Post Company gave full access to newspaper files; the Crandall Library at Glens Falls and other libraries in the County spared neither time nor effort in making accurate informa- tion available; the Glens Falls Insurance Company permitted reproduction of historical paintings from its collection.
Mr. Robert N. King of the Glens Falls High School faculty provided much scientific material and checked the final text. Mr. Shelburne H. Fogg, County Agricultural Agent, Mr. Lloyd C. Garrison of the Niagara Hudson Company, the Reverend Edmund W. Twichell, and Mr. Joseph Keenan furnished information relating to farming, power development, and the growth of organized religious worship and education in Warren County. Mr. Herrick Osborne, County Superintendent of Highways, and Mr. Ernest L. H. Meyer, Superintendent of the Glens Falls Water Department, checked the maps of Warren County and Glens Falls.
The text was prepared by John H. Reardon and the staff of research and clerical workers, and Edward B. Davis, assisted by Miss Charlotte F. Walker and F. Lawrence Reagan. The photographs, except those other- wise credited, are by Paul A. Broady, the maps by Fred H. Champion, members of the staff of the Writers' Project.
The Board of Supervisors and the Advisory Committee have carefully reviewed the manuscripts, maps, and illustrations, and their suggestions, criticisms, and contributions have added greatly to the value of this book.
HENRY F. MALONE, State Supervisor
Contents
PREFACE 7
GENERAL INFORMATION
15
CALENDAR OF ANNUAL EVENTS
17
Part I. The County
MOUNTAINS IN THE MAKING 21
THE MOUNTAINS OF TODAY 24
PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE 27
RED MEN, WHITE MEN, AND BORDER WARFARE
35
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
41
REVOLUTION
72
GROWTH AND GOVERNMENT
99
INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE
113
CHURCH AND SCHOOL 126
Part II. Resort Towns and City Streets
GLENS FALLS 141
LAKE GEORGE 156
THE LAKE TOWNS-Queensbury, Caldwell, Bolton, Hague, Horicon, Chester 162
THE RIVER TOWNS-Luzerne, Stony Creek, Thurman, Johnsburg, Warrensburg 173
Part III. By Adirondack Hill and Dale
TOUR 1. Glens Falls to Schroon Lake, US 9
183
TOUR 2. Hague to Warren-Hamilton County Line, State 8 191
TOUR 3. Lake George to Ticonderoga, State 9N 195
TOUR 4. Warrensburg to North River ( Warren-Hamilton County Line), State 28 200
TOUR S. Lake George to Glens Falls, State 9K 206
TOUR 6. Lake Luzerne to Warrensburg, State 418 209
TOUR 7. Glens Falls to Lake George, State 9L 211
Part IV. Sports and Recreation
ADIRONDACK RECREATIONLAND 217
GUIDES
220
HUNTING
221
FISHING
223
BATHING
226
BOATING
231
CAMPING
237
GOLFING
240
HIKING
242
WINTER SPORTS
246
Part V. Appendices
CHRONOLOGY 253
BIBLIOGRAPHY
257
INDEX 259
Illustrations
PANORAMA
Between 30 and 33
Paradise Bay, Lake George
Upper Hudson Valley, South of Glens Falls
Potash Mountain Rises From a Plain Adirondack Highway in the August Sunshine The Sacandaga Spills Into the Hudson
One of Numerous Evergreen Groves
HISTORY
Between 94 and 97
Battle On Snowshoes
Death of Colonel Ephriam Williams, 1755
Montcalm Endeavors to Restrain His Indian Allies
Colonists Man Guns at Battle of Lake George Abercromby Surveys His War Flotilla on Lake George, 1758
General Washington Visited Warren County in 1783
Rogers Slide
Rescue of Major Israel Putnam near Glens Falls, 1758
INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE Between 110 and 113
Pulpwood Logs Enter the Paper Mill's Grinders
Floated Down the Hudson, Pulpwood Is Stored in Huge Piles Pulpwood, In Paste Form, Is Processed Into Paper
Garnet Mined Here Makes Fine Abrasives and Watch Jewels Portable Sawmill
At Spier Falls the Hudson Turns Huge Hydroelectric Generators The Glens Falls Feeder Winds Toward the Champlain Canal
Between 126 and 129
CULTURE
Studio of Mme. Marcella Sembrich, Lake George
Central School at Brant Lake
Intermission, Barn Theater, Lake George
Presbyterian Church, Glens Falls St. Mary's Academy, Glens Falls
Grill Work Pattern, Church Interior
CITY AND VILLAGE Between 148 and 151
The Hudson Lights and Powers Glens Falls
A Backdrop of Wooded Hills at Lake George Sail Boat Haven, Lake George Lake George's Shopping District
City Park, Glens Falls
Shopping District, Glens Falls
Pottersville, Adirondack Summer Resort
ON TOUR Between 200 and 203
Mill Stream On Its Way to the Hudson
The Hudson Skirts a Snow-crowned Hill Adirondack Winter Road The Bulwarks of Fort George Still Stand
Monument to Saint Isaac Jogues, Lake George Battleground State Park Lake Champlain (L), Mount Defiance, Lake George
Lake George
Lake George Battleground State Park
Corral Talk
Brant Lake in the Mountains
Motor Ships Ply the Champlain Canal
Monument to Soldiers and Sailors, Glens Falls
PLAYTIME-SUMMER AND WINTER
Between 228 and 231
Bridle Trails Abound Camp Rotary, Lake George Lightening Class Boats in a Breeze Outboard Motorboating, Lake George Tennis Match, Lake George Club
Practice Swing Gilbert and Sullivan Opera, Summer Theater, Lake George Caught in the Net Lean-to Shelter in Adirondack State Park
They're Biting Snow Train Brings City Sports Enthusiasts Time Out for Rest Gelandesprung An Uphill Trail Sulkies Race On the Ice, Lake George Skating at Bolton Landing, Lake George Skate Sailing The Catch - Wolf, Fox and Hare Northern Pike
Maps
CITY OF GLENS FALLS WARREN COUNTY
back pocket back pocket
General Information
Railroads: Delaware and Hudson (D & H). Two branch lines, Saratoga Springs to North Creek, and Fort Edward to Lake George.
Highways: One Federal Highway, US 9; five State Highways, 8, 28, 9K, 9N, and 418. State police patrol highways.
Bus Lines: Six inter-county systems:
1. Champlain Coach Lines, New York to Montreal.
2. Adirondack Transit Lines, New York to Saranac Lake.
3. Hudson Transportation Co .- L. B. K. Lines, Glens Falls to Sara- toga and Albany.
4. Storm King Stage Corp., Glens Falls to Schuylerville.
5. Whitehall Autobus Co., Glens Falls to Whitehall and Rutland.
6. Corinth-Glens Falls Bus Line, Glens Falls to Luzerne and Corinth.
Three intra-county busses:
1. Glens Falls to Lake Luzerne, Lake George, Assembly Point, War- rensburg, Chestertown and Pottersville.
2. Hague to Wevertown, North Creek, North River, and Thirteenth Lake.
3. In summer season, busses meet D & H trains at Riverside and provide transportation to Chestertown, Brant Lake, and Schroon Lake.
Waterways: Steamer (one way $1.50, round trip $2, car $3) through Lake George, June to September, from Lake George Village to Baldwin, with numerous stops on both sides of the lake and connecting with bus line for Ticonderoga.
Summer service by smaller boats from Lake George Village to interme- diate points on the lake.
Traffic Regulations: No turn on red signal except where a green arrow indicates that a right turn is permitted. On the open road, except where road signs indicate a speed limit, a safe speed is permissible without any fixed limit, but a speed "in excess of 40 miles an hour for a distance of one-fourth of a mile shall be presumptive evidence of a speed which is not careful or prudent." On mountain roads, caution signs at steep grades and curves should be heeded.
Accommodations: Adequate year-round hotels in larger communities. Hotels, cottages, tourist homes, cabins, adult and children's camps, farm homes, and dude ranches available in summer. Hotels, tourist homes, rooming houses at winter resorts. Total accommodations upwards of 10,000.
Climate: Winter temperatures sometimes reach 40° below zero at night, but there is usually a slight thaw in the midday sun. The daily normal
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WARREN COUNTY GUIDE
maximum temperature in summer is 75° to 80°, a few degrees lower than New York City, and though the official thermometer occasionally goes above 90°, the forests, especially at high altitudes, are cooler, and the nights are cool.
Recreational Areas: Facilities for all outdoor sports (see Sports and Re- creation) are available in Warren County. Winter and summer resort programs include outdoor and indoor summer theaters, variety shows, band concerts, special dance orchestras, regattas, golf and tennis tourna- ments, baseball, horse and dog shows, water carnivals, and the like. Snow trains operate to North Creek and Lake George on weekends in winter when skiing conditions are favorable; snow and ice conditions are regu- larly announced by press and radio.
Hunting and Fishing: Forest, woodlot, and field supply big and small game; lakes, ponds, and streams offer good angling. State licenses are required. Size, limit of catch, and open season vary: an official syllabus of game laws is furnished with licenses. Bait, boats, equipment, and guides are available at most resort centers.
Licenses: Joint hunting and fishing for residents of New York State, $2.25; non-residents or aliens $10.50. Fishing license for non-residents or aliens $5.50. Non-residents' fishing license good for three consecutive days $2.75. Deer hunting special license, residents $1.25; non-residents or aliens $10.50. Licenses procurable from any county, city, or town clerk or village clerk in villages of 5,000 or more inhabitants by citizens of United States; aliens from Conservation Department, Albany, N. Y.
Fires: Forests are essential for outdoor recreation, because without trees, streams dry up and uncultivated land becomes a desert. To protect woodlands against fire, strict observance of these rules is necessary: (1) extinguish carefully burning matches, tobacco, and cigarettes, (2) clear away forest mold before building a camp fire, (3) be sure that your camp fire is dead before leaving it.
Dangerous Animals and Plants: The timber rattlesnake inhabits remote and wild areas. Unless surprised it generally gives warning with its rattle before striking. Black bear and wildcat, in less accessible and heavily timbered sections, do not attack unless wounded or cornered. Poison ivy, occasionally found in woodland and field, has been removed from most public recreation areas.
Information Bureaus: Chambers of Commerce of Glens Falls and Lake George open year round. Bolton Landing, Brant Lake, Chestertown- Pottersville, Hague, Lake Luzerne, North Creek, and Warrensburg Chambers of Commerce function in season. Roadside information booths at most resort villages during summer season.
Calendar of Annual Events
(nfd means no fixed date)
April
nfd Semiannual Beagle Club trials, North Creek.
April nfd Eastern States Basketball Tournament, Glens Falls.
July nfd Italian Celebration Feast of St. Anne, Glens Falls.
August nfd Sagamore Horse Show, Bolton Landing.
August nfd Dog Show, Mohawk Valley Kennel Club, Bolton Land- ing.
August nfd Sagamore Golf Tournament, Bolton Landing.
August
nfd Garden Club Flower Show, Glens Falls.
August nfd Glens Falls Open Tennis Tournament, Glens Falls.
October nfd Semiannual Beagle Club trials, North Creek.
November 1-30 Deer hunting season, County-wide.
PART I The County
Mountains in the Making
A T the dawn of geologic time, hundreds of millions of years ago, Warren County was part of the vast Grenville Sea. Dark, brood- ing, its waters stretched in utter loneliness from horizon to horizon. There was not a sign of life on the surface, although in the depths there may have been microscopic plants and animals, some perhaps with cal- careous or siliceous shells. For millions of years it remained thus, while there formed on the bed of that ocean a vast deposit of sediment miles in thickness, mud mixed with sand or lime and pressed into rock.
Then through the dark waters great masses of molten rock pushed upward, lifting and folding the ocean floor with irresistible force till it rose slowly above the surface. Thus were born the Adirondack Moun- tains, one of the first lands to emerge from the ancient Pre-Cambrian Ocean, their massive ramparts rising far higher than the Adirondacks of today. Wind and water at once began to wear them down and through aeons of time erosion reduced the whole region to a featureless, monot- onous peneplain.
Over these lowered land surfaces spread the Paleozoic seas, covering all of Warren County and leaving only the central Adirondacks as an island in a mighty ocean. Through periods measured in millions of years the waters ebbed and flowed over the region, leaving deposits that were gradually changed into today's sedimentary bedrock of limestone, shale, sandstone, and black marble. At last a titanic, mountain-building revolu- tion along the eastern edge of the United States pushed up the sediment of the ocean floor and folded it into mountain ranges. Most of Warren County became dry land, never again to sink beneath the invading waters. After more millions of years, during the Appalachian Mountain-building period, the rocks of Warren County and the Adirondacks were once more elevated and the present-day mountains and valleys began to take shape.
Rain, moisture, and winds again reduced the region to a land of low altitude. Over the vast plain rivers and streams wandered, crossing flood plain deposits to reach the ocean. Then came a new disturbance that lifted the plain two or three thousand feet over a long period of years. The sluggish rivers, changed into swift torrents, flowed southwestward with the dip of the earth, and followed faults or cracks in the peneplain to gouge out today's northeast-southwest valleys between the Adirondack ridges. Composed of hard rocks that resisted erosion, the mountains stood out prominently as these violent streams slashed away the softer strata of the valleys.
22
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WARREN COUNTY GUIDE
Throughout these long periods of geologic change, fish, amphibians, . reptiles, and fur-bearing animals like those we know today were slowly evolving. Simultaneously appeared the higher groups of water plants, mosses, ferns, seed-bearing plants, and modern trees, but for a relatively complete record of this evolutionary process the scientist must look else- where. In Warren County the traces of only the early forms of life are preserved in the rocks.
Following the elevation of this region the climate in these latitudes became cold. From the north a great sheet of ice, the Labrador Glacier, moved over Warren County and continued southward, sweeping plant and animal life before it. A mile or two thick, it flowed over even the highest mountains. As the ice sheet advanced, it scraped off the sharp peaks of Warren County's mountain ridges, leaving graceful, flowing contours; it broadened and deepened valleys, and left great masses of glacial deposit rising above the plains. In its retreat the glacier left rubble and debris that dammed up preglacial valleys to create Lake George, Schroon Lake, and others. Great blocks of ice, buried in mud, sometimes at high elevations, melted to form Lake Luzerne, Glen Lake, Lake Sunny- side, and many other ponds or small lakes. Boulders, large and small, were scattered over the countryside. The course of the Hudson River was changed; waterfalls and gorges were born.
The tremendous weight of ice depressed much of New York State below sea level, and the Hudson -Lake George-Lake Champlain Valley was invaded by salt water from both north and south. The upper Hud- son, where it entered this inland sea, built a great delta of sand and mud, now the broad plain at Glens Falls and a few miles to the north and west. Evidence of this marine invasion can be seen in the terraces washed by the waves at its shore line on the Palmertown and Luzerne Mountains, west of Glens Falls.
For at least half a million years the ice covered Warren County, twenty times as long as the relatively brief period of about 25,000 years from the final retreat of the ice cap to the present day. Since the glacial period, the topography has undergone little change. The land, while it was being relieved of its burden of ice, rose again, with greater elevation toward the north. Thus the highest mountains of Warren County, Gore, Puffer, and Eleventh, are toward the northwest. Indeed the adjustments below the surface incident to this rise are not fully made even now. Late in 1940, and in 1941 Warren County experienced a series of slight earthquake shocks, centered not far away in New Hampshire, as subterranean masses of rock slipped along cracks or faults where pressure brought about slight
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WARREN COUNTY GUIDE
readjustments. But earthquakes are only minor incidents in a process of change so gradual that we are not conscious that it is going on daily without interruption.
Some of the present-day surface rocks, originally deposited on the floor of the first ocean, are the oldest known strata in the world - Grenville sediments altered into white limestones, gneisses, and schists, rocks greatly changed by heat and pressure. The molten or igneous rocks, which invaded the floor of the Grenville Sea, now form the mountains of Warren County. Harder than the ancient sedimentary rocks, they consist prin- cipally of granite, anorthosite, syenite, and gabbro.
Despite the variety of minerals present in the County few are extracted for use in modern industry. Feldspar has been mined near Luzerne, graph- ite near Hague, and iron in several places. Today, only garnet, extracted at Gore Mountain near North Creek, and limestone, quarried at various places throughout the County, and used for road building and concrete work, are of commercial importance.
Fertile soil, never too plentiful in Warren County, is thinner than ever on upland slopes because of erosion following the lumberman's ax and forest fires. The whole region, except for a sandy plain at the extreme southeastern tip, is mountainous. Products of rock disintegration washed into the narrow valleys are soon carried away by streams or are received as lake deposits.
Topsoil, averaging five to eight inches, consists principally of sand and sandy loam. The blue-black muck, in drained swamps on the eastern edge of Glens Falls, is useful for growing celery and onions; and a swampy area at the head of Glen Lake contains peat deposits which for a short time were worked as a source of fuel.
The level country just north of Glens Falls, once covered with lofty white pine, grew up to scrub pine after the virgin forest had been fed to the sawmills. For a long time this area was treated as wasteland and even now is not useful for farms. However, a large part of it, the Glens Falls watershed, and some other nearby areas, have been reforested. Trees adapted to the type of soil have been selected and, though still young, give promise of developing into a healthy new woodland.
The Mountains of Today
W ARREN COUNTY, an 876-square-mile area in the north- eastern part of New York State, once a part of Washington County, became a separate entity on March 12, 1813. Named for General Joseph Warren, who was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill, it embraces eleven towns under the government of a sixteen-member Board of Supervisors, one from each town and five from the city of Glens Falls.
Except for the region surrounding Glens Falls, Warren County lies wholly within the five-million-acre Adirondack State Park, the largest in the United States. Across it, from northeast to southwest, run four mountain ranges, the Luzerne, Kayaderosseras, Schroon, and Boquet.
Glens Falls and its environs spread over a strikingly level, sandy plateau (400 alt.), but to the north and west the almost continuous mountain ranges, three to fifteen miles apart, give the country a rugged aspect. Isolated peaks and jutting spurs, such as Potash Mountain (1,680 alt.), near Lake Luzerne, and French Mountain (1,522 alt.), at the head of Lake George, take up much of the land between the ranges. However, the rounded crests of the mountains, softened by a covering of forest verdure, give the skyline a gracefully flowing contour.
Paralleling the mountain ranges, and occasionally cutting through them, are picturesque valleys, some broad and pastoral, others wild and deep, but all infinitely varied in scenery - open fields and dense forest, winding river, clear lake, and quiet pond.
In the southernmost valley between the Luzerne and Kayaderosseras Mountains, only a low divide separates the headwaters of Lake George from the sources of a chain of ponds and lakes, including Vanare, Forest, and Allure, which feed Lake Luzerne; this in turn empties its waters into the Hudson River. Through a narrower valley with steep wooded sides, a mere gap in the mountains, the main highway, US 9, follows a stream from Lake George Village northwest up an easy grade to Warrens- burg on the Schroon River, near where the latter stream joins the Hudson.
The next valley, following the general trend, forms a triangle with the two just described. It extends from the open country around Luzerne up the narrow gorge of the Hudson to Warrensburg, where it spreads out to. include the Schroon Valley, one of the most extensive and fertile farm areas in the County. At Horicon the outlet of Brant Lake enters the Schroon Valley from the east, and a few miles beyond lies the southern
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WARREN COUNTY GUIDE
1
end of mountain-hemmed Schroon Lake, the northern boundary of the valley.
The large streams that drain most of the County - the Hudson and its tributaries, the Schroon and East Branch Sacandaga - flow south. The rest of the County drains into Lake George and Lake Champlain, whose waters flow north into the St. Lawrence River. The Lake George basin is so narrow that rainfall a short distance west of its shores reaches the ocean a thousand miles farther south, by way of the Hudson. Glens Falls rises steeply from the banks of the Hudson, but most of the sandy plateau upon which it is built drains toward Lake George and Lake Champlain.
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