USA > New York > Warren County > Warren county : a history and guide > Part 2
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The upper Hudson River is swift; it drops almost a thousand feet in the fifty miles it travels from the Essex County line south across Warren County and, in a sweeping arc, east to Glens Falls. Up from Corinth the Adirondack branch of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad and a state highway follow the river through its deeply cut, rugged valley, which at times narrows to a ravine flanked by peaks that rise precipitously to a height of 1,500 feet above the stream. The railway stops at North Creek, but the highway continues into Essex County.
West of the Hudson River in Warren County the mountains are higher, the valleys narrower, the villages smaller and fewer, and there are large areas reached only by woodland trails. Indeed only one through highway, State 8, crosses the 25-mile western boundary line into Ham- ilton County. Gore Mountain towers to a height of 3,595 feet and there are many lakes and ponds of glacial origin, several at an altitude of more than 2,000 feet. The streams that do not drain directly into the Hudson River help feed the Sacandaga Reservoir, which controls floods and main- tains a steady flow into the Hudson River during dry seasons.
Lake George, the largest body of water in the Adirondacks, dotted with many islands, lies almost wholly in Warren County. Occupying one of the deepest basins in the State, its surface, only 323 feet above sea level, looks up to mountain heights of over 2,500 feet. Prospect Mountain (2,021 alt.) and Tongue Mountain (2,258 alt.) tower conspicuously above the Warren County shore, while even more imposing peaks rise from the east side, Black Mountain in Washington County (2,665 alt.) being the tallest sentinel.
Schroon Lake (807 alt.), which juts into the County from the north, is more than nine miles long and averages about a mile in width. Brant Lake (801 alt.), a few miles to the southeast, measures six miles long and a half mile wide.
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Not far away is Loon Lake (866 alt.) an irregular triangle that affords a vista of more than two miles across its surface, and just south of that is Friends Lake (915 alt.), only a little smaller.
In the northwest corner of the County, Thirteenth Lake (1,674 alt.) lies nestled among tall peaks. In the southwest corner is Harrisburg Lake (1,494 alt.), two miles long, lying at the end of the road that climbs up a narrow valley from Stony Creek. In the southern projection of the County, Lake Luzerne (624 alt.), a mile long and half a mile wide, lies close to the Hudson River. All of these and many smaller lakes and ponds are reached by good roads, but there are scores of others that can be approached only by woodland trails or bridle paths.
Warren County is subject to wide extremes of temperature varying from about 40° below zero in the coldest winter nights to a 37-year record high of 101° at Glens Falls in summer. The nights are usually cool even during July and August. Light frosts have been known as late as June 20, and as early as August 26, but killing frosts seldom come after the middle of May or before late September. The mean annual temperature varies from 46° in the southern part to 43° along the moun- tainous boundary as compared with 52° to 53° for New York City. The growing season for crops varies widely in different parts of the county. In the Glens Falls area there is an average of 151 days without frost; at Lake George, 140 days; and at North Creek, only 134 days.
The annual precipitation over the southern slopes of the Adirondack Mountains, including Warren County, is about 35 to 39 inches, higher toward the north; but during June, July, and August there are compara- tively few rainy or cloudy days, though there are occasional severe elec- trical storms. In early spring and autumn there are likely to be cloudy days and chilly evening fogs. Winter snow fall, with a yearly average of 68 to 75 inches, is heavier at the higher altitudes and in the northern part of the County. It varies from year to year, but there is usually snow for winter sports in the mountains for several months, and some winters bring deep snow to the valleys and the Queensbury plain. Except at high altitudes and on a few exceptionally cold days, there is usually a slight thaw daily in the early afternoon sun, but those unaccustomed to such low temperatures as occur even in the bright early morning sunshine must be especially careful to protect ears, hands, and feet, wear warm clothing, and keep active while out of doors.
Plant and Animal Life
W ITH its forests, dells, and hills, Warren County presents a wide variety of trees, plants, shrubbery, and wild flowers. Most of the plants grow at every level from the valleys to the highest summit, although, in some sections, hardwoods inhabit the hollows and lower slopes, while evergreens grow toward the mountain tops. On the highest peaks a few alpine plants are found. On rocky summits where the soil is thin and moisture drains rapidly away, the forest trees are fre- quently dwarfed into a scrub growth, gnarled and twisted by the wind.
In the days when lumbering was "big business" the county was cut over from two to four times. Today the forest has been restored to such an extent that, while it is generally less dense, and the trees are compara- tively young, it approaches in area its original extent. Even in the farming sections there are extensive woodlots and in many places trees and bushes are encroaching step by step on pasture and meadow.
Warren County forestland is under State protection with much of it reserved as a part of the Adirondack Park, a vast public domain, open for the free use of the people as a health and pleasure resort, and as a source of timber and water supply. In line with this policy the State, the County and the City of Glens Falls have reforested several regions with pine and spruce. One of these is the Theodore Roosevelt Forest, established by the State near North Creek in 1926, along a part of the route which Mr. Roosevelt was traveling when he became President of the United States on September 14, 1901. The Charles Lathrop Pack Demonstration Forest, north of Warrensburg, 2,200 acres of pines and hardwoods, serves as an outdoor classroom for students of the New York State College of Forestry. Its purpose is to show that trees can be grown as a continuous crop by harvesting the ripe timber without disturbing the younger growth. Wherever space permits varieties suited to the soil and climate are planted to replace mature trees that have been cut before they begin to deteriorate.
White pine, an abundant and valuable tree in the old logging days, is still the predominant species in the County, while hemlock, red spruce and balsam are also plentiful. In low, damp areas black spruce and white spruce are widely scattered. Among the introduced species, Norway spruce and European larch have been extensively planted in reforestation plots.
The trembling aspen is important as temporary ground cover on burned acreages. It is quick-growing but short-lived, and other trees soon replace
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it. The common juniper and the shining willow, while not abundant, are . distributed over much of the County. Pitch pine is plentiful in the low- lands, whereas red pine grows in clumps on low hills. The jack pine is found in sandy, barren soils that will not support larger trees.
Of the hardwoods the most abundant and valuable are sugar maple, yellow birch, beech, white ash, and white birch. The American elm graces roadsides, hedgerows, and fields in farming country and adorns the street of hamlets and towns. The residential sections of villages have magnifi- cent old elms to shade their parks and homes. Another ornamental tree, the mountain ash, which has attractive white flowers and red berries, grows in only a few areas. Other varieties commonly distributed through- out the County are red maple, scrub oak, grey birch, striped maple, and mountain maple.
The plant life of the Adirondacks is impressive in its diversity. Moun- tainside, swamp, meadow, and sand plain - each has its typical flowers, shrubs, mosses, and ferns. On the forest floor rich green mosses, pale lichens, and delicate flowering plants abound; in wet places peat mosses and club mosses thrive. There are wintergreens and sometimes a deep resilient carpet of the smaller partridge berry. White Cladonia and yellow buellia lichen grow from the cracks of blackened rocks, while reindeer moss and Iceland moss appear among the non-flowering types of ghostly lichens.
The delicate maidenhair, the large bracken, the cinnamon fern, the interrupted fern, the polypody, the marginal shield ferns and the small royal ferns thrive on the rich moist floor of dense lowland forests.
Slender white Greenland sandwort abounds high in the mountains, and yellow mountain goldenrod grows among the balsam. Together with the reddish-striped wood sorrel, dwarf dogwood, and mountain aster, they lend color and beauty to the uplands.
Even before the last snow has been piled in drifts by the March winds, the pussywillows send out their furry buds, while along woodland brooks and in the marshes the skunk cabbage, first flower of spring, soon appears. Snow still lies in the fence corners and shaded hollows when the fragrant trailing arbutus opens its pink flowers close to the ground among last year's leaves. Yellow violets, first of the numerous violet tribe, nestle close to the forest floor in the chilly days of early spring with hepatica, bloodroot, anemone, and a host of others. Only a little later the swamps are ablaze with cowslip or marsh marigold. On the hillsides a few brilliant . pink azaleas bloom.
Dogwood and chokecherry in the early spring are the most conspicuous wild flowering trees on wooded hills and along the roadsides. Although
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not plentiful, cherry, pear, and apple blossoms add their color. Alder, elderberry, shadbush, and red osier contrast with the delicate greens of the opening buds and tender leaves of willow, tamarack, and other marsh- land trees and bushes.
In early summer the open fields are bright with dandelion, patches of bluets, daisy, buttercup, clover, blackeyed Susan, devil's paintbrush, blue lupine, and other flowers familiar in the landscape of New York and New England. Meanwhile in the woods columbine, trillium, saxifrage, Indian pipe, jack-in-the-pulpit, and Solomon's seal appear.
In the less frequented forests are found wild orchids. These moccasin flowers or lady slippers, pink or yellow, rise on single stalks from clusters of leaves. Another variety, in swampy woods, has a tall leafy stem bear- ing several blooms of white splashed with bright red. In the swamps and the marshy edges of ponds, or in and along running streams are horsetail, cattail, hellebore, boneset, cardinal flower, and water cress.
There are at least two insect-eating plants: the sundew, and the pitcher plant, into whose leafy receptacles, half full of water, the unsuspecting insect crawls from the inviting lip of the pitcher only to find his egress barred by bristly hairs pointing downward. In early spring the pitcher plant flower opens a bright purple, green, and yellow rosette on a tall, slender, green stalk.
The spring pastel shades that later flare into the flaming colors of summer give way as winter approaches to the more subdued browns, blues, purples, and grays. In the woodlands, hardy goldenrods, asters and wintergreens are among the last to fade; in the meadows and fields, as milkweed silk drifts in the autumn air, asters, gentians and goldenrods make their last stand; in swamps the ferns and cattails linger on.
Cultivated flowers are for the most part those especially dependent on sandy soil. Among the shrubs capable of surviving, the early yellow forsythia, pink flowering almond, and lilac are the first to bloom in the spring. The crocus, bleeding heart, lily-of-the-valley, peony, marigold, calendula, larkspur, delphinium, dahlia, rose, pansy, tulip, daffodil, chrysanthemum, cosmos, and aster are grown in Warren County gardens and flower beds.
Some gardeners specialize in wild flower or formal gardens, or in special varieties of plants. The gardens of Robert J. McMullen, Glens Falls, open in the spring to visitors, are well known for their tulips.
All types of covert - mountain wilderness, open woodland, farmland, swamps, lakes, and streams - afford refuge for a great variety of mam- mal, bird, fish, and insect life in Warren County. Indeed the opening of
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the big woods by lumbermen has made conditions today more favorable for most species of wild life than the primeval forest. True, the wild turkey, the heath hen, the passenger pigeon, and the moose are gone, and some fur bearers are almost extinct; but the modern gun, trap, and auto- mobile have been the cause, rather than lack of suitable habitat.
The largest wild animals in the County, the white-tailed deer and the Eastern black bear, are natives of the woodlands. Ambling bruin, unless cornered or wounded, is more frightened than the hunter who suddenly comes upon him gorging in a berry patch. Deer provide a major sport and their abundance in Warren County is indicated by the fact that 384 were bagged in the one-month open season in 1939 and 351 in 1940.
That fierce predator of pioneer days, the timber wolf, is today only a memory, but a smaller relative, the brush wolf or timber coyote, a migrant from the West, is spreading through the Adirondacks. A few have been killed in the deep woods near Brant Lake. Wildcats, once thought to be wiped out, are also returning to the County for they have been seen near North Creek. The fisher and marten, hunted for their valuable pelts, are gone; the otter, until late years almost extinct, is re- turning, but is none too popular with fishermen because of his fondness for trout.
The varying hare or snowshoe rabbit, another of the fur-bearing species, which has periodically increased and declined, is today holding his own and even shows a tendency to multiply with the growth of more spruce and pine, his natural coverts. Mink, red fox, and grey fox are reported as abundant as in early times. The grey fox is said to be extending his range northward and accommodating the breeding season to the more rigorous climate.
The beaver, almost exterminated by 1900, has become so plentiful under protective legislation as to invade farms, where he occasionally be- comes a nuisance with dams that flood fields and roadways. In 1940 an open season was declared and 69 Warren County trappers bagged 146 beavers for a profit of more than $2,500.
Birds of many species haunt the County's woodlands. The shrill cry of the blue jay may sometimes be heard warning the partridge and deer of the approach of a hunter. From tree tops drifts the clear whistle of the hidden wood pewee or the varied call of the red-eyed vireo, while down on the forest floor the ovenbird screams his repetitious "teacher - teacher." The delicate trilling of the black-throated blue warbler, chest- nut-sided warbler, black and white warbler, and the redstart comes from protected woodlands, and also the calls of the downy or red-headed wood- pecker, pine grosbeak, flicker, and chickadee.
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Panorama
PARADISE BAY, LAKE GEORGE
Photo by John J. Vrooman
ADIRONDACK HIGHWAY IN THE AUGUST SUNSHINE
THE SACANDAGA SPILLS INTO THE HUDSON
UPPER HUDSON VALLEY, SOUTH OF GLENS FALLS Photo by John J. Vroom
POTASH MOUNTAIN RISES FROM A PLAIN
STATELY PINES, PACK DEMONSTRATION FOREST, NEAR WARRENSBURG
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Many insect families add their undertone to the sounds of the woods- the rasping buzz of the cicada, the low humming in their brief season of swarms of the "no-see-ums," punkies, deer flies, black flies, and sand flies. Evidences of the harmful work of the pine weevil and the tent caterpillar may be seen where they have attacked trees in forest, field, and village.
The timber rattlesnake ranks as the most dangerous reptile in the County, but is not plentiful and usually holes up in the most inaccessible mountainous regions. The hognose snake, the black snake, and the garter snake, common in the woodlands, are non-venomous.
The stirrings of the birds and beasts and the sounds of animals that prowl at night make darkness in the big woods a bit awesome for the rookie hunter, hiker, or angler. The maniacal laughter of the loon, the hoot of the screech owl and the great horned owl, the chattering of the little brown bat and the chimney swift, the croaking of frogs, the scream- ing of night hawks, the rustling of such numerous little beasts as the Canadian white-footed mouse and the masked shrew, the ghostly passage of deer, bear, fox, and weasel, and the clatter of the noisy porcupine are some of the sounds that excite the imagination in the forest night.
Like the woodlands, the lakes, streams, and swamps of Warren County have their characteristic fauna. Brook trout, lake trout, bass, pike, pick- erel, pikeperch, and bullheads respond to the angler's lure in a variety of fishing waters. In swamps and ponds the brown-shelled mud turtle, the orange-trimmed painted turtle, the yellow spotted turtle, the dark- colored wood turtle, and the moss-backed snapping turtle, the only edible species, are common. Along the shores and among the cattails are hidden the spring peeper or tree frog, the wood frog, and the toad, the eft, the red newt, and the spotted salamander, the crayfish, and the harmless water snake.
High over swampy areas wheel blackbirds, bitterns, great blue herons, and marsh hawks, while deep in the rushes swamp sparrows, Maryland yellow throats, and marsh wrens nest. The kingfisher, poised for diving, hovers above lakes, and migratory woodcocks and black ducks, scarce a few years ago, now rest frequently on the waters. Among the reeds and grasses swarm caddis flies, dragon flies, damsel flies, and Dobson flies, the larvae of which are sought as bait by fishermen. Around lakes and ponds fish flies or May flies make a brief appearance.
In woodlot and farm the skunk and raccoon are estimated to be more numerous today than when Henry Hudson sailed up the river that now bears his name. Muskrats are not plentiful, but the cottontail rabbit, once found only on Long Island and in the lower Hudson Valley, has followed the settler's ax, plow, and cabbage patch into all parts of
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Warren County. The red and the grey squirrel, woodchuck, and chip- munk, as well as the porcupine, are common everywhere, except in the heavy timber.
An outlaw occasionally encountered in fields adjacent to woodlands is the European hare, sometimes called by hunters the Texas jackrabbit, an animal which may weigh up to 18 pounds. Neither released nor protected by the Conservation Department, this hare has drifted into the Adiron- dacks from other regions of the State. Such good hunting does he provide that sportsmen have made requests for his propagation.
The native pheasant, which remains in the County the year around, is not plentiful but still survives. Fed by the Conservation Department and by local fish and game clubs, they provide good hunting in the short open season. The quail, almost extinct, is being propagated but suffers from lack of proper covert.
Field, meadow, and orchard birds inhabit Warren County in great variety. Frequently heard is the high, shrill voice of the meadowlark, the call of the field sparrow who teasingly draws attention to himself but is rarely seen, the warbling of the bobolink, the singing of the brown thrasher; and the imitations of the catbird. The close observer may dis- cover a flicker searching the ground for ants, a fierce kingbird catching insects from a high branch or engaging a hawk in combat, and crows, in the daytime, pestering sun-blinded owls. In garden and orchard, on fence post and bush, may be seen the chicory-eating goldfinch, the brilliantly garbed bluebird and Baltimore oriole, the white-breasted nuthatch and the little wren.
Color and motion is added to the fields and meadows by many kinds of insects. Prominent are the monarch, swallowtail, and cabbage butterflies, grasshoppers that leap ahead as you walk, ladybugs, the cucumber, tiger, and soldier beetles, and other varieties too numerous to list. Ants may invade your picnic lunch if you trespass on their hills and bees or wasps will protect their store of food if their homes are invaded, and mosquitoes are troublesome in the spring, especially near woods or swamps.
Night over the open country brings its own activity and sound. Moths - luna, cecropia, sphinx, polyphemus - dash against lighted windows, fireflies flash pinpoints of brilliance, frogs croak, and katydids and crickets utter their insistent chirp.
Red Men, White Men, and Border Warfare
M ORE than two centuries before white men settled in Warren County contending forces were at work upon the fate of North America. Bitter warfare between the Algonkian population and the invading Iroquoian tribes was deciding which of these great racial groups should occupy the Upper Hudson, and engendering hatreds that echoed all through the bloody struggle between Frenchmen, Englishmen, and Americans for possession of a new empire.
Long years before Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence in 1534, the Algonkian tribes were lighting their council fires at Pem-pot-a-wut-hut, the Fire Place of the Nation, on land where their paleface brothers have since built a city called Albany. Various tribes of this stock, including the Pequots, Narragansetts, and Mahicans, spread out through present- day New York and New England.
The Mahicans then held northeastern New York, built summer en- campments on Lake George, Lake Champlain, and the Hudson River, and sought game in the vast stretches of the great beaver hunting country, that highland wilderness now known as the Adirondacks. Across Warren County and the mountains beyond wound the trails of the Indians. Later these became the wood roads of the pioneer and the modern highways of today.
Warren County, a wild, almost inaccessible region of forbidding win- ters, was also disputed border territory. It was the scene of much fighting between hostile Indians, which seems to justify the historical conclusion that it was never a place of permanent abode for the aborigines. The remains of stone implements, bits of pottery, pipes, arrow-heads, and spear-heads, found at Dunham's and Northwest Bays on Lake George, at Harrisena, Round Lake, Glen Lake, and at the Big Bend in the Hudson above Glens Falls, indicate at least brief Indian encampments.
About the beginning of the fourteenth century the pleasant lands of the relatively mild-mannered Mahicans were invaded by a warlike race from the west, the Iroquois. For a time the newcomers were only another group among the large number of Algonkian tribes. Then, toward the latter part of the sixteenth century, they formed the League of the Five Nations. Possessing a key position geographically, they began to drive out, subdue, assimilate, or exterminate their Algonkian neighbors. At
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last, utterly broken, the Mahicans retreated into New England. The Schaghticokes, by leave of their Iroquois masters, lived in subjection and were allowed to extend their hunting grounds to the shores of Lake George. The Hurons, Ottawas, Pequots, Abenakis, and other tribes, were scattered and pushed relentlessly northward to the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. The Algonkians along the lower reaches of this stream were derisively dubbed Adirondacks, Tree-eaters, by their con- querors. Thus they continued to foster a deadly hatred for the Five Nations who had reduced them, a race of successful hunters and warriors, to the necessity of existing for a time on herbs, bark, tree buds, and roots.
This hatred between two great Indian groups provided motive and plot for the first act of a bloody drama of conquest as Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635), French explorer, sailed up the St. Lawrence in 1608 to found a permanent settlement at Quebec. From the Indians he heard wondrous tales of Caniaderiguarunte, "the lake that is part of another lake." They agreed to guide him to the fabulous waters if he in turn would use his "firestick" to help them defeat any war party of Iroquois met on the way.
On July 4, 1609, Champlain and two of his companions with sixty Hurons and Algonkians under their chiefs, Yroquet and Ochastequin, entered the great lake to which Champlain gave his name. Impressed by the magnificent vistas of mountain, forest, and field, he paddled south- ward with his white companions and dusky allies. On the evening of July 29, he encountered near Ticonderoga a strong raiding party of about two hundred Iroquois warriors.
Battle lines were drawn, and the morning of July 30, 1609, saw a wilderness encounter which did much to decide the future of America. Champlain posted the other two white men with their firearms on his left flank, while he stood surrounded in the center of his red allies. When they advanced to within thirty paces of the Iroquois, the Algonkian ranks opened and the white adventurer leveled his arquebus. At the first shot,. two enemy chiefs fell dead and another was mortally wounded.
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