Smith's Lake, wilderness paradise

Smith’s Lake was named for the hermit David Smith who cleared a few acres and built his cabin on its western shore about 1830. Not many visited the remote lake until after 1845 when the Carthage-to-Lake Champlain Road created a route around the ten miles of rapids on the Beaver River. From 1845 until 1891 Smith’s Lake was quite a popular wilderness destination. It offered many attractions. Not only was it remote and extremely beautiful, it was deep and cold enough to support a sizable population of lake trout. These fish, called salmon trout back in those days, could reach lengths of twenty inches or more and were extremely tasty. The area was also home to herds of white tail deer, especially around nearby Albany Lake. Most importantly, it met everyone’s definition of a true Adirondack wilderness. As the writer H. P. Smith put it in 1872, it was:

 

“A place where the toil-worn man of business may find new life, and where the lover of the pure and the beautiful may become satiate; if such can be, with all these grand old scenes about; where man, away from all that is contaminating, can commune through nature’s glorious work with nature’s everlasting God.”

 

It usually took three days to reach Smith’s Lake from Lowville. The first day was by road. The Number Four Road ran from the Black River for about eighteen miles to the Beaver River where there was a pioneer settlement called Number Four. Here a meal could be obtained from Lucy and Orrin Fenton before pushing on east up the Carthage-to-Lake Champlain Road eleven more miles to Stillwater. Parties usually spent their first night at Stillwater. Guides could leave their horses and wagons at Stillwater and pick up the boats and gear they had stored there. The next two days were occupied in ascending the Beaver River to Smith’s Lake. Guides positioned open camps all along this route thus allowing for trips with a variety of stops.

 

Guides built semi-permanent camps at Smith’s Lake to shelter the groups they expected in any given season. These camps typically consisted of a number of lean-tos or even enclosed cabins as well as camp fittings such as tables, benches and dining shelters, all constructed of logs, bark and branches. These guide’s camps were usually located overlooking the lake near springs of fresh water. Some of the camps were maintained for many years by guides who cultivated groups that would return year after year. The guide William Higby built such a camp as early as 1851. The Syracuse Camp was a particularly long-lived camp repeatedly mentioned in Wallace’s Descriptive Guide. The Towanda Camp was also on Smith’s Lake, and there were doubtless others whose names are no longer remembered. The Watertown Camp and the Partridge Camp graced the shores of Albany Lake.

 

Smith’s Lake also attracted a few Hudson River School artists in search of wilderness scenes to paint. The young artists Jervis McEntee and his friend Joseph Tubby camped at the lake for two weeks in 1851 to sketch. Levi Wells Prentice visited the lake in later years and painted not only the views but the guide’s camps. A copy of Prentice’s painting of the Towanda Camp is reproduced at the top of this post.

 

McEntee was much taken with the natural beauty of the place. He recorded his impressions not only with sketches but with poetic descriptions in his journal.

 

"The hills on the opposite shore appeared clothed in a thin blue haze, softened by the afternoon shadows emitting from the lake. The forest stretched away into the distance, almost blending with the faint misty peaks of the Adirondacks that appear over the tops of the trees on the pine island. Finally, before us the lake was still, and their summits were reflected in it, forming a picture of surpassing beauty. We felt too much elated by the sight, and taking the boat, we rowed down the lake in search of points to take sketches."

 

The wonders of the place spread by word of mouth and through articles in newspapers and the national magazine for sportsmen, Forest and Stream. As the years passed its fame grew and increasing numbers came to visit. In the later 1870s, a guide named S. Boyd Edwards took advantage of the growing tourist trade by building a substantial camp on the west side of the lake near the old Syracuse Camp that included a log bunkhouse. This camp was later acquired and expanded by the James Lamont family. The compound eventually included a family cabin and several guest cabins in addition to the two-story log dormitory. It could accommodate up to forty people at a time. Travelers described this rustic hotel as comfortable and beautifully situated. 

 

In January 1891 a group of friends who regularly camped at Smith’s Lake, led by Lowville businessman William Morrison, formed the Smith’s Lake Park Association. They knew that all across the Adirondacks some of the most beautiful locations were being purchased by wealthy business owners and closed off to the public. To preserve access to Smith’s Lake, they pooled their resources and purchased most of the land surrounding Smith’s Lake and part of Albany Lake. The purchase included Lamont’s Hotel. They added a new two-story building intended to house women visitors. Morrison even financed a telephone line that connected the hotel with Lowville. Their future plans included establishing a fish hatchery somewhere on the Beaver River. 

 

The Smith’s Lake Park Association only survived for five months. In June 1891, Dr. William Seward Webb purchased all the land surrounding the upper Beaver River, including the property briefly owned by the Smith’s Lake Park Association. Just as they feared, Webb demolished Lamont’s and all the old camps around both lakes and posted the land against trespass to make room for his private game preserve and great camp. On June 25, 1891 the Lowville Journal and Republican reported that Webb had hired fifteen former guides as game protectors to keep the public off his property.

 

Webb renamed Smith’s Lake for his wife Lila (Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb). He also renamed Albany Lake “Nehasane” after the original Haudenosaunee name of the river. Forty thousand acres surrounding Lake Lila remained in the Webb family until 1979 when New York State acquired the 7,200 acres immediately surrounding the lake. The state razed Webb’s great camp at the request of the Webb family as part of the acquisition process. 

 

Today Lake Lila is part of the William C. Whitney Wilderness Area and is open to the general public without charge. Covering 1,436 acres, the lake is the twenty-second largest body of water in the Adirondack Park, and the largest lake in the park whose shoreline is entirely state-owned. There are state primitive camp sites in various places around the lake. Boat access to the lake is by hand-launch only and motors are strictly prohibited. On the southeastern side of the lake there is an extensive wetland drained by the Shingle Shanty Brook, which feeds the lake.

 

After 88 years in private hands, the lake can once again be enjoyed by anyone willing to make the trip and endure its occasional hardships. I believe the generations of campers who enjoyed this special place between 1845 and 1891 would be pleased.