USA > New York > Warren County > Warren county : a history and guide > Part 17
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The Empire Shirt Company began operating in 1879, made 25,000 dozen shirts a year, and employed approximately one hundred people. In 1881 S. Pasco and Brother started a planing mill and sash factory, and the next year Wyman Flint's peg factory employed about 40 workers. In 1885 the clothing works of Whitby, Emerson, and Eldridge began making the well-known Warrensburg Woolens. In 1892 the Schroon River Pulp and Paper Company, and in 1896 J. P. Baumann and Son, manufacturers of ladies' waists, added new industrial enterprises.
The first issue of the Warrensburg News appeared on January 17, 1878. The banking house of Emerson & Company, founded by A. C. and L. W. Emerson, opened in January 1884. In the same year, the Warrensburg Water Works was established by Bates and Company. All the industries, except shirt making, pulp and paper, and woolens, disappeared with the destruction of the forests and changing conditions; but the village had
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an industrial life diversified enough to hold its own. Trade with farmers in the valley bottoms and the resort business, summer and winter, now adds to its prosperity.
Warrensburg was partitioned from the old town of Thurman, Febru- ary 12, 1813. A sparsely peopled region, it was described in 1836 by Gordon's Gazetteer as being "mountainous and wild, covered with woods and abounding with iron ore." No iron mine, however, has been success- ful commercially. The opening of the frontier after the Revolution brought William Bond in 1786, as the town's first settler, and, in 1789, James Pitts as the first tavernkeeper. Peletiah Richards established himself in Warrensburg in 1800 and became prominent as a merchant. The Richards Library in the village is a gift of his family.
In 1804 James Warren arrived. He established a tavern and a store and eventually gave his name to the town. Later he operated a potash factory or "ashery" on the north side of Schroon River. Judge Kitchel Bishop, about 1810, built the first of the tanneries which are so important in Warrensburg's industrial history. Lumbering by 1820 had become an important business. Every brook large enough to furnish water power turned the wheels of a sawmill. Albro Tripp, Dudley Farlin, Dr. McLaren, Joseph Woodward, and James L. Thurman were early operators in lumber. In the 1820's pine logs sold as low as twenty-five cents; by 1885 they brought from four to five dollars.
As the town grew, the first little sawmills, potash factories, and tanner- ies were soon replaced by larger mills. Paper making and the manufacture of woolens and textiles became leading industries. Fortunes were made and the establishment of banks, newspapers, churches, and schools re- flected the town's growth. As the lands were denuded of trees, those industries dependent on the forests shriveled and died. But with good water power and a railroad, some factories remain. Farming, summer camps at Echo and Tripp Lakes, tourist accommodations, and ski trails have helped the town to grow and prosper in its adjustment to the new order. Today Warrensburg ranks second only to Queensbury in popula- tion; it increased from 2,025 inhabitants in 1920 to 2,566 in 1940.
PART III By Adirondack Hill and Dale
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Tour 1
Glens Falls to Warren-Essex County Line; US 9. 40.6 m. Concrete and macadam highway open throughout year.
Between Glens Falls and Lake George US 9 follows the general route of the historic Military Road, though despite diligent research no one knows the exact course of that old forest trail. The modern three-lane highway climbs gently upward through the foothills where Colonial history was written in blood and sweat. This stretch of US 9 is now the most heavily traveled route in the Adirondack Mountains. Part of it is marred by bill- boards and roadside stands, but as it approaches Lake George the tourist has an unobstructed view of the lake with its setting of hills and wooded mountains.
GLENS FALLS, 0 m. (343 alt., 18,836 pop.) (see Glens Falls), on the left bank of the Hudson River, here the boundary between Warren and Saratoga Counties, is the chief shopping center for the surrounding resort area. It includes industrial, commercial, and residential areas. The tour starts at Monument Square on Glen Street.
At 1.3 m. is the city limit and at 1.5 m. the highway crosses HALF- WAY BROOK, a peaceful stream overgrown with reeds and brush as it meanders across a swamp; but during the Colonial War it was Bloody Brook to the Provincial soldiers. In 1755 the English built on the north bank of the stream a blockhouse and stockade, called Seven Mile Post. Thereafter the post, located midway between Fort Edward and Fort Wil- liam Henry, with an ample supply of pure water, became one of the best known halting places along the northern frontier.
In 1757-59 there was located south of the brook and east of the road (R) a fortified camp called the GARRISON GROUNDS. In 1759 General Amherst built on this site FORT AMHERST. During the Bur- goyne campaign, 1777, Baron Riedesel quartered troops at the fort to protect Burgoyne's line of communication. He was accompanied by the beautiful Baroness Riedesel, one of the many women, wives and camp followers, whose presence helped impede Burgoyne's progress. The re- mains of Fort Amherst are said to have been burned by the English Major Carleton in 1780.
At the close of the French and Indian War the clearing and military buildings at Halfway Brook were dangled as bait by the Provincial Gov- ernor of New York, gifts to any who would pioneer a settlement on this exposed and dangerous frontier. Consequently the first townsite in War- ren County was laid out there, but the proposed community, which eventually became Glens Falls, grew around the falls at the Hudson to
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the southward, where there was water power for the early sawmills and the industries that followed them.
At 2.1 m. the route intersects macadamed Aviation Road.
Left on this road FLOYD BENNETT AIRPORT, 0.7 m. (R) is equipped with a sheet metal hangar, improved runways, beacon and border lights, and weather station. On the New York -Montreal route, the field became a stop for transports of the Canadian-Colonial Airways on August 1, 1941. The airport is named for Floyd Bennett, a native of Warrensburg, and hero of Commander Richard Byrd's flight over the North Pole (see Warrensburg) .
BLIND ROCK, 2.4 m., 300 feet off the highway, (R) is designated by a marker. The rock, close to a former Indian encampment, was used as a place for torturing prisoners and takes its name from the reputed practice of blinding unhappy victims.
One story of Blind Rock tells of two captured Englishmen. Since sum- mer was the only season when travelers and Indians were plentiful along the Old Military Road, the brisk fire of pine boughs built on the Rock was not for comfort. One prisoner was tied to a tree; the other was stripped and pushed into the circle around the blaze. As he tried to escape the inferno of flame, prodded and hacked by his tormentors, while they danced about with spears, war clubs and hatchets, the victim espied an Indian boy gloating over the ordeal from a vantage point inside the circle of death. With frantic strength he seized the youngster, and hurled him into the crackling blaze. In the moment of confusion that followed he snatched a tomahawk, cut his friend loose, and they vanished into the forest, fear lending wings to their flight. Several hours later, weary and torn, they reached Fort Edward.
Another strange tale of Blind Rock is that in early days a plowman in a nearby field unearthed $25 in old coins, known as "cob money." The result was a gold rush by neighboring farmers, but the earth yielded no more treasure. Through the years the fire-blackened face of Blind Rock has been almost hidden by sliding sand from the flat-topped hills over which the highway makes its way.
At 3.5 m. is a junction with a paved road.
Right on this road is ROUND POND, 0.6 m. (L). In the days of the open trolley cars and long skirted bathing suits it was a popular spot on Sunday afternoons. On the sand beach of the little lake is the original long, low bathing pavilion, while at its northern end, rises a more recently built casino. Across the pond, on the east shore, are the buildings and golf course of the Glens Falls Country Club (private, green fees $2.50).
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Dipping across a marshy lowland the highway crosses MEADOW RUN at 3.8 m., so named because it was one of the few natural clearings from which pioneer settlers could obtain hay for their cattle. Military men of early days named it FIVE MILE RUN, indicating its distance from Fort William Henry.
At 4.3 m. the highway intersects a dirt road.
Right on this road is GLEN LAKE, 1.4 m. (R), hidden in a basin between French Mountain on the north and wooded hills on the south. A post office, cottages, and a few public pavilions are scat- tered among the trees along the shoreline. Most of the western shore may be traversed by automobile. A regatta and water carnival are held on the lake during August, while swimming, fishing, boating, and dancing are regular attractions.
At 4.4 m. US 9 intersects a paved road.
Left on this road, 0.3 m. (R), is the driveway to WESTMOUNT SANATORIUM, Warren County's tuberculosis hospital, which can be seen from the main highway. Set on the lower slope of the Luzerne Mountains, its buff-colored stucco exterior stands out prominently against the dark green background of pines. A two-story, flat-roofed structure in the Mexican adobe style, the building accommodates about fifty patients.
At 5.2 m., at the foot of the hill, is a blinker traffic light, a paved road intersecting (R), and a large colonial building (L). Now rebuilt as a modern roadhouse, this was once a gay stagecoach stop for the belles and beaux on a holiday, a famous tavern, whose proprietor, George Brown, provided land nearby for the first Warren County fairs. Across the high- way, a little to the south was FORT WILLIAMS, a French and Indian War stockade, of which no trace remains.
From this point to Lake George, FRENCH MOUNTAIN (R) towers its irregular ramparts above the highway. During the French and Indian War, French scouting patrols and English Rangers under Major Robert Rogers made the mountain a "no man's land."
At 5.7 m. a roadside marker (R) indicates the location of the WIL- LIAMS MONUMENT, a white marble shaft on a huge native boulder, hidden among the trees 200 feet down a steep grade from the road. On September 8, 1755, Colonel Ephraim Williams at the head of 1,000 Colonials and King Hendrick in command of 200 Mohawks marched unsuspectingly into an ambush. They proceeded well into the pass before the French and Indians hidden among the trees on both sides of the Military Road poured a cross fire on them. Colonel Williams fell with a bullet through his brain; fat King Hendrick was killed by a French
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bayonet after his horse had been shot from under him. The survivors fought a desperate rear guard action as they retreated, but many lost their scalps before the detachment reached General William Johnson's camp at Lake George. This opening engagement of the Battle of Lake George is known as the Bloody Morning Scout.
High on the wooded slope, almost directly across the road from the Williams Monument, is the WILLIAMS MARKER, a small slab of native stone crudely engraved with the initials E. W. It marks what is said to be the original burial place of the gallant officer. Later, his body was removed to Williams College. Before leaving Albany he had made his last will, leaving a sum to found a school at Williamstown. Thirty years later his bequest served to endow Williams College, whose alumni erected the monument on the spot where he died.
At 5.9 m. the route crosses the southern boundary of Adirondack State Park.
At 6.7 m. (R) is BLOODY POND, a stagnant pool in the woods close to the road, another scene of carnage, now designated by a marker beside the road. Around it at the close of the day of the Bloody Morning Scout, 300 Canadians and Indians, who had been victors in the engagement and had later tasted defeat in the Battle of Lake George, were resting. Sud- denly from the forest burst a death-dealing hail of lead. Surprised by an equal force of Colonials from Fort Edward, they had no chance to escape. Bodies of the dead by the hundred were cast into the pond, the water was red with blood, and tradition has it that the attackers crossed the pond on a bridge of corpses.
VANTAGE POINTS (auto turn-offs) at 7.4 m. offer a long range view down Lake George. Narrowed by distance, the island-studded ex- panse of water is a dark jewel between lofty mountain ranges, whose peaks, like the prongs of a gem setting, notch the blue horizon.
At 7.8 m. (L), is a junction with State 9K (see Tour 5).
At 8.5 m. is a paved road (R), entrance to Battleground Park (see Lake George) .
At 9.1 m. is the junction with the Beach Road (R), an outlet of State 9L (see Tour 7).
LAKE GEORGE, 9.3 m. at village hall (331 alt., 803 pop.) (see Lake George), is built around the head of the lake. It is a leading Adirondack summer resort and winter playground, headquarters and communication center for the entire lake district.
At 9.7 m. is the junction (R) with State 9N, beyond which US 9 is a two lane concrete highway ascending an easy grade through a steep-sided valley so narrow as to leave no room for filling stations, road stands or cabin colonies.
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The highway crosses the Schroon River at WARRENSBURG, 14.5 m. (700 alt., 1,500 pop.), to emerge into the broadest part of the Schroon Valley where the village occupies the gentle slopes and low hills above the north bank of the river. The highway constitutes the long main street, flanked by garages, stores, restaurants, hotels, and old mansions mellowed by time. The latter, with their landscaped grounds, are remin- iscent of New England, whence came the pioneer business men who built them to display their wealth acquired in lumber, potash, and tanning.
Along the southern fringe of the community the Schroon curves to its junction with the Hudson, two miles west. Here are the pulp and paper mills, a shirt factory, and small manufactures that tend to make Warrens- burg both a resort town and an industrial village. Tourists, visitors, factory workers, and farmers keep the local merchants busy the year round, for this part of the Schroon Valley is one of the most extensive farming areas in the county.
Close to the village, among a bower of trees, is little ECHO LAKE, Warrensburg's summer playground. On its sandy shores are a municipal bathing beach and summer camps. Nearby are a golf course, riding acad- emies, and tennis courts. In the summer months many visitors frequent the shopping section, or listen to the weekly band concert.
In Warrensburg's main square at 15.5 m. is the FLOYD BENNETT MEMORIAL, a circular bandstand with tall, white columns, a tribute to the heroic aviator, a native son. Floyd Bennett (1890-1928) at 17 years of age left his farm home on Harrington Hill in Warrensburg for work in a lumber camp to earn money for studying at an automobile engineering school. After graduating he continued to study engines while he worked as a garage mechanic in Ticonderoga.
With America's entry into the World War, he enlisted in naval avia- tion, and re-enlisted after the war. In 1925 Bennett went to Greenland as Commander Richard E. Byrd's mechanic, pilot, and friend. Though he had worked without sleep for the 24 hours preceeding their historic flight in the tri-motored Josephine Ford, Bennett remained at the controls for 151/2 hours, while Commander Byrd navigated the ship from Spitz- bergen to the Pole and returned, the first time that men had flown over the top of the world. Bennett received the Congressional Medal of Honor and an advancement to Warrant Machinist in the Navy for this achievement.
In 1927 he was selected to fly Byrd's plane, America, across the Atlan- tic. The ship crashed in a trial flight, and though Bennett escaped death, he was confined to a hospital bed for months. Before he had fully recov- ered, he jumped into the task of preparing for Byrd's first South Pole expedition. This work he laid aside to fly to the rescue of German trans- Atlantic fliers, who had made a forced landing on lonely Greeley Island in
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the North Atlantic. Ill when he started out, Bennett was forced down in Quebec. A hurry call for serum sent Charles Lindbergh flying with it from New York over Lake George to the Quebec hospital where Bennett lay with pneumonia. But it was of no avail. On April 25, 1928, he died and was laid to rest in the Arlington National Cemetery on the Potomac. In 1936 Bennett's childhood home on Harrington Hill was destroyed by fire.
Out of Warrensburg US 9 climbs steadily by easy grades into the more rugged reaches of the Adirondack highlands. Forests flank the roadside, and mountain ranges tower close. Between the little villages, the country- side is scantily populated, and through conservation, reforestation, and protection against fire, it has practically returned to the primitive state that existed before the white man began his roaring adventure in Adiron- dack despoilment.
At 18.3 m. is the junction with State 28 (see Tour 4) .
At 19.1 m. is the junction with a paved road and a sign marking THE CHARLES LATHROP PACK DEMONSTRATION FOREST (see Industry and Commerce).
Charles Lathrop Pack (1857-1937), a native of Michigan, studied forestry in the United States and Europe. Appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt, he became a member of the nation's first Con- servation Commission. He promoted the idea of demonstration forests and wrote two widely distributed books, Trees as Good Citizens, and School Book of Forestry. For aid in the reforestation of war-ruined sections of Europe, he received decorations from France and Italy.
CHESTERTOWN, 27.6 m. (854 alt., 500 pop.), at the junction with State 8, is a "homey" village, its neat frame commercial buildings and stone church occupying today the crossroads site selected by its original New England settlers. A century of progress for the Adirondacks is writ- ten in these Chestertown roads, once mud tracks in a primitive wilderness, now paved highways traversed each year by close to a million city dwel- lers. In its picturesque wooded mountain setting, Chestertown has hotels with wide verandas, tourist homes, a shopping center, and recreation facilities that include a golf course, tennis courts, boating waters, swim- ming holes, riding academies, and road houses with music and dancing. The village is the trade center for a farm area as well as a summer resort, for the Schroon Valley just east of Chestertown has good, rich soil. The farmers mingle easily with resort visitors who find the Adirondack natives an unusually cosmopolitan group.
Between 27.6 m. and 31.5 m. with mountains dead ahead, US 9 unites with State 8 (see Tour 2), along the outlet of Loon Lake.
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At 29.6 m. is an intersection with an unmarked dirt road.
Left on this road, which crosses the inlet, to FRIENDS LAKE (R) 1.6 m. The route continues south along the eastern shore of the lake for its entire length, 2 miles. The name is derived from the Indian Atateka (friendly water). With its sandy beaches and blue- green water, the lake is rimmed by low hills, crowned by tourist homes and summer hotels. Annual restocking gives the angler an opportunity to boast truthfully of his catches of bass, pickerel, and pike perch.
At 31.5 m. US 9 separates from State 8 to resume its northward course up the low-lying and irregular western shore of LOON LAKE. Two and one-half miles long, shaped like a kite, the lake received its name from the loon that once inhabited its shores. Today those shores swarm with summer visitors who spend their vacation at the camps, cabin colonies, and tourist homes that abound here.
POTTERSVILLE, 36.5 m. (875 alt., 329 pop.), a mountain village, lies at the foot of Schroon Lake where the valley widens. It serves tourists and vacationists in summer and hunters in the autumn, for there are deer and bear and small game in Pottersville's wooded hills. The village also does business with the farmers of the Schroon Valley. A sawmill beside the highway is reminiscent of the earliest Adirondack lumbering.
Just beyond Pottersville at 37 m. is the junction with State 9M.
Right on State 9M, 0.5 m., is a bridge across the outlet of Schroon Lake and just beyond it the road swings left along the lake shore to ADIRONDACK at 5.1 m., a summer resort on the southeastern shore of Schroon Lake, with farm home accommodations, converted farms, a departure from the cabins, cottages and camps so numerous along US 9. Off the beaten track and in rugged country, Adirondack is a place for relaxation, for hiking, mountain climbing and horse- back riding.
At 37.1 m. is a junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road is NATURAL BRIDGE, 2.5 m., an overhang- ing rock 60 feet high beside a deep gorge cut by the turbulent waters of Trout Brook in ancient sedimentary rock. Beneath it the stream plunges to emerge from a cave beyond. There are also many inter- esting rock formations, whirlpools, pot holes, and caverns. The Van Benthuysen family, early settlers, owners of the farmland surround- ing it for approximately 100 years, sold the site in 1940 to business interests. The property has been converted into a 265-acre park with stone stairways, board walks, bridges, and signs explaining points of interest (guides; adm. summer $1, other seasons 50c) .
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EAGLE POINT CAMPSITE (R), with two entrances at 38.8 m. and 39.0 m., is maintained by the State Conservation Department. It has 40 tent sites under tall pines along a mile of sandy beach on Schroon Lake (see Sports and Recreation) .
At 40.4 m. (R) is the entrance to Scaroon Manor with its 9-hole golf course.
For a loop tour continue north on US 9 for 21/2 miles beyond Schroon Lake Village to junction with State 73 (R). This is a scenic mountain road, 19 miles to State 9N at Ticonderoga. Turn right on State 9N to return to Warren County (see Tour 3) .
Tour 2
Hague to Warren County Line; State 8. 49 m.
Two- and three-lane concrete and macadam highway open throughout year.
State 8 zigzags a southwest track across the entire breadth of Warren County, from Hague on Lake George in the east to the boundary of Ham- ilton County on the west. Through the forest, it rises over mountain ridges, dips into northeast-southwest valleys, touches several summer resort lakes, crosses the Schroon and Hudson, and leaves the County through the narrow, rugged valley of the East Branch Sacandaga River.
HAGUE, 0 m. (330 alt., 200 pop.), is a summer resort village on the west shore of Lake George, with hotels, stores, and homes around the junction of State 8 and 9N (see Tour 3) .
Between Hague and Chestertown State 8 climbs directly west from the relatively low level of the Lake George shore to the high altitude of a wooded mountain range, descends the pastoral valley of Mill Brook, and follows along the southeast shore of Brant Lake. Except for the resort developments at Brant Lake, this section of the route is but scantily peopled. It is a rugged country of small swift streams, towering moun- tains, and widespread forests.
In a long climb past sloping farm lands with open fields affording a wide outlook, the highway rises 1,200 feet from Lake George to reach THE SITE OF GRAPHITE, 4.1 m., a once flourishing mining village that supplied the graphite processing plant at Ticonderoga with ore. Imported ore made it unprofitable to continue working this mine, though there is still a rich vein that would yield a supply of graphite. Today only the roadside marker calls the passing motorists' attention to the aban- doned mines.
At 4.8 m. the road reaches its highest point (1,684 alt.) as it crosses Hague Mountain, looking down upon a forest of pine, spruce, and hem- lock. At 5.1 m. NORTH POND appears (L) and the road follows its shore to the outlet where there is a sign, 5.5 m. (L), indicating the marked FOOT TRAIL to the SWEDE MOUNTAIN FOREST FIRE OBSER- VATION TOWER.
A mile walk on a well trodden path rises steadily through wood- land free from underbrush, and leads to the fire warden's cottage and the tower (1,930 alt.). From its observation platform may be seen several lakes, the Green Mountains to the east, the highest Adirondack peaks to the north, and other high ridges and peaks break the sky line in all directions.
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Descending the grade along Mill Brook with the SECOND BROTHER (1,870 alt.) and FIRST BROTHER (1,740 alt.) MOUNTAINS in the foreground, the highway approaches BRANT LAKE (801 alt.).
The highway parallels the southeastern shore of Brant Lake to an intersection, 15.5 m., with a paved road at its outlet. Half a mile in width, Brant Lake reflects wooded mountains which rise above its coves, bays, and sandy beaches. Tiny green islands dot its surface; hotels, sum- mer camps, and cottages peer through leafy screens. Away from the more crowded highways, Brant Lake is secluded, yet easily accessible. The lake is stocked with trout, bass, pike, perch, and pickerel; deer and small game abound in the surrounding hills. Bathing, boating, fishing, hiking, and horseback riding are the major sports in summer.
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