USA > New York > Warren County > Warren county : a history and guide > Part 19
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also it is a busy place, for it is the largest shopping center in the region of dude ranches, and the hub of a section that attracts more fishermen and hunters than any other part of the County.
North Creek appeared in the headlines in 1930, because of Samuel L. Coplon, who first came to North Creek in 1904, a Spanish-American War casualty seeking health in the clear, pine-scented mountain air. He re- mained for two years, during which time he operated a general store, and in trading with the hill families learned that broods of 15 children were not unusual. He knew that youngsters who walked six miles to school on snowshoes might have plenty of salt pork and potatoes, but very few luxuries or toys.
Returning in 1906 to his regular job as a toy salesman, Coplon, with the aid of his business associates, before Christmas time collected a goodly stock of the things children hope to get from Santa Claus. Unostenta- tiously he journeyed to North Creek with Christmas cheer for the children of the hills. Establishing his headquarters at the Braley and Noxon Hard- ware Store, Mr. Coplon returned each year, on the same errand, but it was not until 1930, almost a quarter of century later, that the story broke in newspapers all over the country. Then it was told how priests, min- isters and organizations gave him lists of poor families and helped to spread joy over several Adirondack counties.
In 1936 Mr. Coplon transferred his headquarters to the nearby village of Bakers Mills, but his stay there was short. Advancing years were tak- ing their toll, and the Christmas of 1937 was the last on which Coplon made his rounds as the Santa Claus of the Adirondacks.
Beyond North Creek the highway follows the west bank of the Upper Hudson, a narrow stream, docile in the summer but inclined to rampage in the spring and even to toss blocks of ice upon the highway.
At 22.7 m. is a free picnic site, equipped with tables and benches in a cool pine grove. Nearby is a colony of Adirondack tourist cabins, some of them equipped with kitchens and outdoor fire places that serve both over-night tourists and others who remain for their entire vacation.
At 23.6 m. (L) is the junction with a good dirt road.
Left on this road is a five mile ascent of 1,600 feet. It is plowed after snow storms and kept open all winter, but is so steep that in freezing weather chains are essential. Paralleling a tumbling brook it passes a LUMBER CAMP that produces railway ties, fence posts, and red pine lumber. At the end of the road is the BARTON GAR- NET MINE. Rock containing garnet is quarried and processed for use as an abrasive. Only a few gem stones are found, but they may be purchased in the rough by visitors for cutting and mounting (see Commerce and Industry) .
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From the Garnet Mine parking places, it is a ten minute walk up a foot trail to a lean-to at the head of the GORE MOUNTAIN SKI TRAIL SYSTEM. Nine trails wind down the slopes of this great bowl, with such a wide variety of terrain that sport is provided for the novice, intermediate or expert skier. The system is under the sponsorship of the Gore Mountain Ski Club, in which membership is open to anyone interested in winter sports. There is a three-link ski-tow in operation on week-ends, and an annex of the North Creek American House provides refreshments, hot foods, and warm shelter (see Sports and Recreation) .
NORTH RIVER, 24.2 m. (1,000 alt., 200 pop.), is a tiny mountain community on the boundary of Warren and Hamilton Counties. There is good hunting country roundabout, but the chief means of livelihood for the villagers is providing accommodations for ski fans. Here also is a junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road is THIRTEENTH LAKE, 5 m. In a mountain setting, the lake is two miles long and one-half mile wide. Scattered camps skirt the shores and the trout fishing is good. Above the lake (L) on the flank of Gore Mountain is the Hooper Garnet Mine, similar to the Barton Mine.
The Warren-Hamilton County Line is at 24.3 m.
For a loop tour, return on State 28 to junction with State 28N at North Creek, 4.8 m., and turn left to bridge the Hudson at 5.1 m. The Warren-Essex County Line is reached at 10 m .; at 10.4 m. turn right to Olmstedville. Leaving the village, turn right at 11.9 m., cross the line back into Warren County at 13 m., and continue to junction with US 9 at Pottersville, 17.8 m. (see Tour 1) .
Tour 5
Lake George to Glens Falls via Lake Luzerne; State 9K and County Road. 28.4 m.
Two-lane concrete and macadam road open throughout year.
Between Lake George and Lake Luzerne State 9K winds through a narrow valley of undulating green fields and wooded hills walled in by forested mountain ranges, a valley that is really a continuation of the deep basin of Lake George. Much of the route is dotted with cottages rented to summer visitors who go to Lake George or Lake Luzerne for play. Nearer to Lake Luzerne are several small lakes, some encircled by woods, around which have been developed a summertime playground of cabins, cottages, and dude ranches. Beyond Lake Luzerne, the most im- portant resort on the route, a county road follows the broader valley of the Upper Hudson close to the river for a few miles, turns abruptly east to wind over a spur of the Luzerne Mountain range, and again parallels the river to Glens Falls.
State 9K was a tributary to the Northern Turnpike, now US 9, in that quarter century of rapid Adirondack development after 1800. Like many another early highway it was at first a wood road, little more than a wagon trail, stump-studded and rutted. Over it hides for the tanneries, lumber, potash, and supplies were dragged by wagon or sleigh.
After the forests had been destroyed, it was improved as a dirt road, over which farmers sent their produce to market. With the coming of the automobile, it became a modern State highway, and agriculture, never very successful, gave way to resort development.
Today the region along State 9K is returning to what it was before the advent of the white man and forests once more clothe its rolling hills. Except for a few cabin colonies, dude ranches, roadhouses, tourist homes, and cottages, there is not much to break the continuity of woodlands and their mountain backdrops.
From LAKE GEORGE, 0 m., start south on US 9 (see Tour 1) to junction, 1.5 m., with State 9K, and turn right.
LAKE VANARE, 7.0 m. (R), is a crescent-shaped pond with a two- story hotel, private camps, roadside restaurants and tourist cabins on or near its shores. A 9,000-acre dude ranch has its main buildings on the north shore. There is bathing, boating, fishing, and horseback riding.
LAKE FOREST and LAKE ALLURE (L) on Adirondack State Park land and several privately owned ponds are close to the road for a few miles, and on their shores are camps, cottages, and dude ranches that pro-
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vide boats, tennis courts, riding horses, and other recreation facilities. At 9.5 m. (R), where the road comes out into a broadening valley above Lake Luzerne, are the STONE MOUNTAIN SKI TRAILS. Novice and intermediate trails and open slopes are on the west side of the mountain, a novice open slope plainly visible from the highway.
LAKE LUZERNE, 12.3 m. (635 alt., 800 pop.), is a summer and winter resort community that more than triples its population in the summer season. Hotels, restaurants and souvenir stands rub elbows with modest dwellings on the tree-lined streets that slope down from the high ground beside the lake to the flats bordering the confluence of the Hudson and Sacandaga Rivers. The resort business, a little farm trade, some local manufacture and the paper mills at Corinth provide a livelihood for the people of the village. There are band concerts in summer and a golf course just across the Hudson in Hadley.
Lake Luzerne was settled in 1770 by Tory followers of the Loyalist brothers, Edward and Ebenezer Jessup, big speculators in Adirondack lands. The settlement was destroyed in 1777 by General Gates, but after the Revolution, new settlers soon rebuilt Lake Luzerne. In its early days the embryo settlement developed its own sawmills and also traded with the lumberjacks who herded the spring drives from the north past this little town. Other industries of the times were gristmills, clothing works, and a tannery.
With the waning of the lumber business, the community became a small trade center for the backwoods farms that for a few years occupied the lands stripped by the reckless tree butchering of get-rich-quick loggers. As agriculture also declined, the village began to realize that serving sum- mer visitors, attracted by the scenic beauty of its woods and waters, offered the greatest hope of lasting prosperity.
In 1832 the lone tavern of Luke Fenton was supplemented by the open- ing of Rockwell's Hotel. The Riddle House, The Wayside, and others followed. As the picturesque but slow and uncomfortable stage coach gave way to railways and automobiles, Lake Luzerne and its neighboring communities joined the race for summer and winter patronage by pro- viding varied facilities for outdoor play and indoor diversion - golf, tennis, bathing, hiking trails, picnic sites, parks, dude ranches, cabin colonies, tourist homes, roadhouses, and hotels.
The recent demand for winter sports has brought such new facilities as ski trails on Stone Mountain, Constitution Mountain (1,440 alt.) and across the Hudson on Mt. Anthony (1,664 alt.) ; a skating rink and har- ness racing track on Lake Luzerne; and a toboggan slide on the west slope of Stone Mountain. Sponsored by the Lake Luzerne-Hadley Ski Club, there are active winter sports that appeal to the youthful enthusiasts who
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have spare energy to work off; for the less active who prefer to be spec- tators, there are trotting races on the ice of Lake Luzerne.
Climbing steadily, but by easy grades, the highway, at 22.0 m., reaches a summit of the Luzerne Mountains. Ahead lies the valley of the Hudson River, which deviates from its north-south course at Corinth to cut its devious way east to Hudson Falls through a mountain gorge, with pre- cipitous cliffs at some points. Far into the distance the course of the river may be traced as bits of silvery ribbon winding in and out among the hills as far as the eye can reach. Beside it Glens Falls appears in miniature, its buildings mere white specks in the distance.
Dropping into the valley, the road passes a colony of little houses, almost identical in pattern, at 23.3 m., near the SHERMAN ISLAND DAM, a hydroelectric development on the Hudson, operated by the International Paper and Power Company (see Industry and Commerce) . The company- built homes along the highway above the dam and power station, are the living quarters of the workmen.
At 24.7 m. (R) is the junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road 0.9 m. is the SHERMAN ISLAND DAM and POWERHOUSE (visitors admitted). From the high bank, steps lead to the 70 foot concrete dam which stretches for 551 feet straight across the river and then curves like a horseshoe for the remaining 864 feet to the spillway at its southern end. A second flight of steps leads from the north end of the dam down to the powerhouse, built on steel piling driven through quicksand in the bed of the river. From the headworks of the dam, water is brought to the powerhouse thru a 3,600 foot V-shaped canal. Twelve huge penstocks carry the water into the powerhouse to turn the wheels of the four, 10,000 hp. turbines. Tied into the widespread network of the Niagara-Hudson System, Sherman Island is linked with Spier Falls, five miles upstream, and Feeder Dam, two miles downstream, in a hydroelectric development unequalled in New York State except at Niagara Falls.
At 28.4 m. is the intersection with US 9 at Monument Square in GLENS FALLS (345 alt., 18,836 pop.), the one city and chief business and industrial center of Warren County (see Glens Falls) .
Tour 6
Lake Luzerne to Warrensburg; County Roads and State 418. 22.5 m. Two-lane macadam road open throughout the year. Accommodations limited except in summer months.
The route is paralleled by the Delaware and Hudson Railroad.
This tour winds through one of the most mountainous and least settled regions of Warren County. Timbered heights that sometimes reach down to the western (L) side of the road, are never far in the background. On the east (R) the Hudson, flowing between sand hills, occasionally spreads over a little meadowland, and across the river rise more mountains. There is not much level land for tilling or even for building. The permanent residents are few, and they do a little farming and lumbering, but mostly they cater to hunters, fishermen, and vacationists at the dude ranches, farm tourist homes, or summer camps. There are no large villages in the whole region and even tiny hamlets are few.
This is a country that attracted lumbermen during the boom days, but lost much of its population with the passing of that industry because there was little to take its place. Only recently have paved highways re- placed some of the dirt roads, and some of the macadam roads are nar- rower than those in more traveled sections. The back country bordering the route is reached over dirt roads that end in bridle paths or foot trails heading into the wilderness of wooded mountains where unfrequented brooks flow from hidden lakes and ponds.
LAKE LUZERNE, (635 alt., 800 pop.) (see Tour 5), is the most important summer and winter resort in the southwestern part of Warren County. Starting from the corner of Main and Bridge Streets, 0 m., cross the bridge over the Hudson River into HADLEY, 0.1 m. (630 alt., 300 pop.), in Saratoga County. Here is the Delaware and Hudson Railroad station that serves the sister villages of Hadley and Lake Luzerne. Some farm trade, a small concrete pipe factory, The International Paper Com- pany mill in nearby Corinth, and catering to summer and winter visitors provide employment for Hadley's permanent residents.
STONY CREEK, 9.9 m. (810 alt., 100 pop.), is a crossroad hamlet with a few homes, a general store, and a big-porched, rural inn. Doubling its population in the warm months, the accommodations offered in the Stony Creek region are mostly farm tourist homes and summer camps along the river. Hiking, horseback riding, fishing, bathing, boating, range shooting, tennis, and other active sports are the main attractions.
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At 18.7 m. is the junction with State 418.
Left on State 418, which climbs steeply, to ATHOL, 1.3 m. (800 alt.), a hamlet with an inn, post office, and general store, the largest center of population in the sparsely peopled town of Thurman (435 pop. in entire town). Here live some of the descendants of the orig- inal settlers who came from Athol in Scotland more than a century ago. At 3.3 m. is an intersection (R) with a dirt road that crosses a brook and goes north 4 miles to its junction with State 28 at The Glen.
The macadam road continues its winding, hilly way to THUR- MAN, 7.7 m. (1,311 alt.), a tiny hamlet with a post office and general store. This entire region was once more thickly settled than at present, with many a little farm on land cleared by lumbermen in the boom era. But in the high, narrow valleys there is only a short growing season between the tardy arrival of summer and the early autumn frosts, so that many farms have been abandoned. However, visitors find the cool summer nights and the beautiful scenery attrac- tive, and the remaining inhabitants have a new source of income in catering to vacationists. This is a region of farm homes and dude ranches.
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Tour 7
Glens Falls to Lake George; State 9L. 19.2 m.
Two-lane concrete road, open throughout the year.
This route traverses farm lands and an extensive resort area as it rolls and dips over the low, sandy hills north of Glens Falls and then skirts the mountains that rise above the eastern shore of Lake George. Beyond the city line the road passes through a new and growing suburban commu- nity: homes for city workers. Beyond that are the cultivated fields of truck gardens and dairy farms for a few miles before reaching the Lake George valley, a vacation playground with summer residences, tourists homes, camps, and hotels on the wooded mountain sides or along the shore of the lake.
Called locally Ridge Road, State 9L follows or parallels a route ante- dated in Warren County only by the first military highway, now US 9. Each of the Quaker pioneers staked out his claim to a goodly slice of land, thus spreading their little farm clearings widely across the sandy lowland, then covered by lofty pines. Today, except where reforestation projects have set out selected varieties, the uncultivated fields have grown up mostly to scrub pine, and there are few large trees.
Several communities flourished here during the era of the lumber boom, at least one of them outstripping in importance for a few years the village at Glens Falls; but by 1813 the forest had been felled, and thereafter the crossroad hamlets became only local farm centers. Blessed with a larger area of level, well-drained, arable soil and a longer growing season than any other part of Warren County, these lands, the first to be cleared, are still fertile enough to make farming profitable. This applies only to that part of the sandy plain that drains not into the Hudson River or Lake George, but directly into Lake Champlain, an area that includes Glen Lake, a mile and a half long, several smaller ponds, and also a few depres- ยท sions that would form ponds of considerable size and depth were it not for subterranean streams that drain them.
The tour starts at the end of Ridge Street where it intersects Glen and Warren Streets in the heart of the shopping center of GLENS FALLS, 0 m. (345 alt., 18,836 pop.) (see Glens Falls) . On Ridge Street at 0.6 m. (L) is the FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE, a plain brick building that replaced the first meeting house built by Quaker pioneers farther out on the Ridge Road. North of the spreading suburbs are dairy farms with cattle grazing in the pastures and with grainfields and meadows spreading around comfortable farm houses, ample barns, and silos. There, too, are
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truck gardens with their neatly planted rows and roadside vegetable stands.
QUEENSBURY, 5.1 m. (390 alt.), a little crossroads hamlet, is better known locally as THE ONEIDA, a name it acquired when Tom Ham- mond, an Oneida Indian, established one of its first stores in the days of its prosperity as a lumbering center. Today it has only a few houses, a gasoline filling station, a Grange hall, and a church. Here is a junction with a macadam road. .
Left on this road to LAKE SUNNYSIDE, 0.5 m. (R) (350 alt., 0.3 m. long), formerly called Round Pond, which has picnic grounds, bathing beach and pavilion, row boats along the southern and west- ern shore. Cottages dot the low sandy hills across the water. At 0.9 m. the road crosses BAY ROAD and at 2.6 m. it passes a side road (L) leading (1.3 m.) to GLEN LAKE (see Tour 1), with FRENCH MOUNTAIN (1,522 alt.) (R) towering so close that its steep wooded slope hides the summit. At 3.7 m. is a junction with US 9 at the HALFWAY HOUSE (see Tour 1) .
State 9L enters the ADIRONDACK STATE PARK at 5.5 m. just as it descends into a steep valley to cross a brook, rise over a low ridge and enter a hollow that would be a lake nearly a mile long but for the subsur- face drainage. As it leaves this basin there is a junction, at 6.8 m., with the last through crossroad, south of the mountains, between Lakes George and Champlain. Through more rugged country along the base of SUGAR LOAF MOUNTAIN (1,018 alt.) (R) the highway approaches the marshes at the head of WARNER BAY, the southeastern tip of LAKE GEORGE (water level 322 alt.) with BRAYTON, a little group of houses, overlooking them. Here, as the road turns sharply left across the marsh, is a junction with a macadam road at 11.3 m.
At 12.2 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road down a long, low point jutting into Lake George between Warner Bay and Harris Bay. At 0.8 m. is a junction with a road (R) that leads to the tip of SHELDON POINT 1.5 m. Straight ahead at this intersection the road leads to CLEVERDALE, a flourishing summer community with a post office, a few stores, a dance pavilion, and other recreation facilities including bathing beach and boats, and a large hotel near the tip of RIPLEY POINT, 1.7 m. Between the two points is SANDY BAY.
State 9L crosses the marshy tip of HARRIS BAY on a causeway and skirts the northern slopes of BURNT HILL to a junction with a dirt road at 13.0 m.
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Right on this road, down a narrow strip of land along Harris Bay, is ASSEMBLY POINT, 1.6 m., jutting far out into Lake George. Here is a VANTAGE POINT with a good view of the lake and of LONG ISLAND, which stretches across the mouth of Harris Bay. The road is lined with modest cottages, occupied by summer visitors, most of whom return year after year.
BAY ROAD intersects at 14.1 m. (L). It is a macadam road that parallels State 9L from Glens Falls, a more direct route, 9.6 m. to this point. The highway continues along the steep, rocky shore of Lake George, curves around the crescent-shaped base of FRENCH MOUN- TAIN (1,522 alt.) and climbs its wooded slope to a height of more than 100 feet above the level of the lake.
At 15.5 m. is a junction with a macadam road which makes a very steep ascent up the mountainside.
Left on this road, which becomes a dirt road at the top of the steepest grade, is a high plateau at 1.6 m. with a hotel, "Top O' the World Lodge," (R) (900 alt.), a nine hole golf course (greens fee $1.00), tennis, shuffleboard, croquet, and other games. Saddle horses are available and there are bridle paths and hiking trails to the ridge of French Mountain. From the LONE PINE, close to the Lodge, there is an eagle's view outlook down the length of Lake George. In winter there are two ski tows, each of 1,200 feet. A descent with grades somewhat less steep may be made by continuing on the road, past the Lodge, which intersects with Bay Road at 3.0 m.
Completing its circuit of the northern bastion of French Mountain the highway passes through CROSBYSIDE, an extensive cottage colony, to an intersection, at 17.9 m., with the Beach Road.
Right on this road, which skirts the long public beach, past the OLD DOCK, 18.4 m. (R), at which Abercromby in 1758 and Am- herst in 1759 embarked their armies to sail down the lake on their way to attack Ticonderoga (see French and Indian War). Continue - to junction with US 9, 18.9 m. and turn right into LAKE GEORGE VILLAGE, 19.1 m. (sce Lake George and Tour 1) .
Route 9L continues to the junction with US 9, 19.0 m. which leads right to LAKE GEORGE VILLAGE, 20.0 m. (see Lake George and Tour 1).
PART IV Sports and Recreation
Adirondack Recreationland
W ARREN COUNTY, with all of its territory, except the Glens Falls area, included in the Adirondack State Park, appeals espe- cially to the vacationer and the sportsman. Its lakes and streams abound with fish; deer and other game are plentiful. Well-kept trails run through the forest preserve, over the pine- and spruce-clad mountains, up the lofty peaks. Long canoe trips can be taken with only short carries. On Lake George, which stretches for thirty miles along the eastern bound- ary of the County, and on many lesser lakes, there is boating of all kinds. For those who seek only rest, there are many resorts on the lakes and in the mountains. For those who prefer to journey by automobile, good roads reach the most picturesque spots. And in winter, under a lasting mantle of snow, the mountainous country provides keen sport for the skier.
Adirondack State Park, comprising 5,575,000 acres, includes the State- owned forest preserve of more than 2,160,000 acres, which is, with the exception of Yellowstone, the largest preserve in the United States. Miles of trails have been cut, and the many campsites established by the State were used by close to half a million persons in 1940. The park is protected by State rangers and fire wardens. Through its southern and eastern sec- tions five mountain ranges - Luzerne, Kayaderosseras, Schroon, Boquet and the main Adirondack range - parallel one another. Within Warren County are some of the highest elevations in the State - Gore Mountain, 3,585 feet; Puffer, 3,480; Eleventh, 3,303; Crane, 3,254; and Baldhead, 2,920. Not far to the north, in Essex County, are the State's highest mountains - Marcy, 5,344 feet; McIntyre, 5,112; Skylight, 4,920; and Haystack, 4,918.
Creation of the park by the legislature in 1885 was the result of a hundred years of protest against uncontrolled lumbering operations and the slaughter of game. The slashing of timber began in 1763 when the first sawmill was installed in Warren County. Many other mills soon were erected, but the greatest damage was done when it became the practice to run logs down the mountain streams to mills on the Hudson River. The fish were killed by the plunging logs and the game that was not ruthlessly slain fled from the denuded hills. From the hills themselves, stripped of the protective trees, the rich soil was washed away by rains which caused irreparable erosion. At the middle of the last century, millions of feet of lumber were shipped each year from the Adirondacks.
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