Annals of the Beaver River

Between November 1924 and the end of January 1925 Harlow and Minnie Young with the help of friends dismantled the old Beaver River Inn that sat on land destined to be flooded by the expanded reservoir. They moved the salvaged material to a lot they owned on higher ground nearby [see my post of 8/6/24 at  https://beaverriverhistory.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-beaver-river-inn.html ]. They used the salvaged material to construct a new hotel a short distance back from the projected new shoreline. As shown above, the new Beaver River Inn had a two-story section on the side facing the water with rooms upstairs. The entrance was through a story and a half building attached behind the main building. A wrap around porch provided a place to relax overlooking the reservoir and surrounding hills. The reincarnated Beaver River Inn was open for business for the 1925 summer season.   Although it’s hard to see because of the extensive later renovations, the present Stillwater Hotel is still in ...

1923 Snowmobile, collection of the Volo Museum, volocars.com These days, winter business at the Norridgewock Lodge in Beaver River Station is fueled by snowmobile tourism. When the Stillwater Reservoir freezes solid or snow buries the railroad tracks, snowmobilers arrive daily by the dozens. In her memoir,   Beaver River: Oasis in the Wilderness   (2000), Pat Thompson, mother of the current owners of the Norridgewock, vividly recalls that the first snowmobile roared into Beaver River during the winter of 1959. It didn’t take the Thompson family very long to embrace snowmobiling. Business at the hotel picked up so much that the Thompsons were able to give up the animal trapping that previously supported them during the winter [ see   Thompson, pp. 125 – 129].     While modern recreational snowmobiling at Beaver River started in 1959, the first snowmobile actually arrived there much earlier. That snowmobile was most decidedly not a recreational vehicle. It was a m...

Photo from the collection of Tim Mayers The photo above has intrigued me for some time. The names of the people are written on the back of the postcard in fancy, hard-to-read script. A caption appears at the bottom that reads, “These are the boys from hear [sic] and the Guide house.” I have added the names to the photograph based on my best guess. Mr. and Mrs. Goons probably ran a boarding house that catered to guides. Because I recognize a few of the names, I know the photo was taken in Beaver River Station, but I have never heard of a building called the guide house. The card is not dated and because it was never mailed, it has no postmark.   Carl McCormick, standing on the far right, sports a distinctive walrus mustache. He shows up in a few other photos taken between 1900 and about 1920 in various locations along the upper Beaver River. I decided to try to find out more about him from old newspapers and the census.    Carl Charles McCormick was born on March 7, 1...

  J. Wilder's open camp at Crooked Lake 1896 The Iroquois established the Red Horse Trail centuries ago for use in their travels between their southern territories and the St. Lawrence River valley. It is one of the oldest footpaths in the Adirondacks. The southern part of this trail still exists. It begins on the north side of the Beaver River, now the Stillwater Reservoir. It follows the Red Horse Creek, connecting Big Burnt Lake, Trout Pond, Salmon Lake, Witchhopple Lake, Clear Lake and Crooked Lake. It formerly continued on northeast to the High Falls of the Oswagachie River, but this segment was buried by the big blowdown of 1995 and has not been reopened. I posted an article on this blog back on 03/01/21 giving the basic history of the trail.   https://beaverriverhistory.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-red-horse-trail.html   Detail from H. Beach postcard map, about 1910   In the early 1870s sporting tourists and their guides began to use the old trail. The first publi...

Donald Kempton Thompson was born ninety years ago on October 20, 1934. He is the sole living member of the third generation of the Beaver River Thompson family. His paternal grandparents, William and Hattie Thompson, moved to the Beaver River country to operate a sportsman’s hotel in 1911 [see my post of 6/2/21]. That’s Hattie Thompson with most of her grandchildren in the photo above. Don is not in that picture because he had not been born yet. Don’s maternal grandparents were Will Kempton [see my post of 8/27/23] and Etta Wagner Kempton [see post of 8/17/23]. We know a great deal about Etta and Will because of the survival of Etta’s remarkable daily journal. Don’s parents were Walter Thompson and Gladys Kempton. Walter was the oldest son of Hattie and William Thompson. Walter’s brother Clinton is the grandfather of the three brothers of the fifth generation of the Thompson family that now operates the Norridgewock [see my post of 10/20/22]. Gladys Kempton, Don’s mother, was the only ...