Elliott's Camp

The Elliott Camp was the first accommodation for sportsmen to open in the vicinity of the new Beaver River Station. The camp was located directly on the Beaver River not far from its junction with the South Branch near a well-established camping spot called the Sand Spring [see my post of March 7, 2021]. A simple wagon track ran through the woods from the station for about a mile and a half to the camp. The main building probably opened for business sometime in 1893.

Chet Elliott and his brother William built the camp with the assistance of their uncle, Joe Dunbar. During the spring and fall throughout the 1880s Chet and his brother had worked for their uncle at the Dunbar Hotel at Stillwater on the Beaver River [see my post of April 9, 2021]. When they found out that the Dunbar Hotel was going to be sold to a group of regular guests who wanted to make it the headquarters of their exclusive Beaver River Club [see my post of May 3, 2021], they decided to build a sportsmen’s hotel of their own.

 

They knew that vacationing sportsmen were already arriving regularly at the Beaver River train station. They correctly concluded that there would be plenty of need for lodging near the station. They were careful to build their camp on land the state was in the process of acquiring from Dr. Webb, thus avoiding the troublesome technicality of having to purchase their own property for the camp. Chet and his brother William initially operated Elliott’s Camp together with Chet’s wife Addie doing the cooking. William soon found a job at a hotel in Lowville and moved to town. 

 

Chester J. “Chet” Elliott was born in 1853. His wife, Addie Odett, was born in 1856. They married in 1879. Their son William was born in 1879. Joseph, their second son, was born in 1882. Their daughter Jessie was born in 1885.

 

Chet Elliott became quite the wilderness entrepreneur. As a service to his guests, Chet met every train with his wagon and team so he could transport them and their baggage to his camp. If visitors were bound for the Beaver River Club, he would drive them about a mile to Grassy Point where he kept a small homemade side-wheel steamboat docked on the river. He used the little boat to ferry visitors to their clubhouse at Stillwater. He called his steamboat “Wild Jess” after his adventurous daughter.

 

All three of the Elliott children spent their summers at the Elliott Camp. After the children completed school, the family moved to Beaver River full-time. As could easily have been predicted, the Elliott children grew up experienced in the ways of the wilderness. As soon as they were old enough the boys began to work part-time as guides for guests and Jessie helped her mother with the meals. As early as 1898 the Elliott boys were being praised in newspaper accounts for their skill as guides.

 

When she was old enough, Jessie Elliott added guiding to her other chores at the camp. Eighteen-year-old Jessie was featured in a lengthy article that appeared in the St. Lawrence Republican and Ogdensburg Weekly Journal on Dec. 9, 1903. The article recounts a weeklong stay at Elliott’s Camp by the author, L. A. Withington, and his friend Art. Withington described “Miss Jessie” as an attractive young woman who “will serve you at meal time with flap-jacks, venison and coffee, take your photograph, beat you shooting, run a foot race, paddle a canoe, spring tricks on you at camp-fire, or teach a Sunday school class.”

 

On his first afternoon at Elliott’s, Jessie “gave the writer a dare” to go on a horseback ride through the woods. She led him on a merry chase down back trails, fording streams, through the autumn woods, across a corduroy bridge and finally, sensing the author was tiring, back to camp. A little later in the week she told Withington that she was prepared to prove her claim to being an expert hunter. Before noon she had tracked and shot a big buck as the men looked on in awe. “As she stood by his carcass that afternoon, after we hung him up, rifle in hand, relating how it occurred, they look a pretty pair of Adirondack beauties.” 

 

The same article noted that Jessie took photographs for guests of the camp. In 1903 Kodak had introduced the No. 3A Folding Pocket Kodak. The camera was specifically designed for postcard-size film. This made it easy for the photographs to be printed on standard sized postcard backs. It was popular for Adirondack hotels to sell specialty postcards to guests. Jessie made such cards, including this hand tinted one of her father Chet and his dog.

For a few years the Elliott Camp was the only place a visitor could stay in the vicinity of the Beaver River train station. The camp prospered. Chet improved the main building and added a dozen cabins along the riverbank. Newspapers from all over upstate New York carried favorable articles about successful fishing and hunting expeditions based at Elliott’s. In 1896, the founders of the Rap-Shaw Club met at Elliott’s.

 

In the spring of 1912, after twenty successful years, the Elliott family sold the camp to W.H. and C.B. Johnson. The entire Elliott family moved to Carter Station, a small community down the railroad tracks closer to Old Forge, and took over management of a substantial hotel called the Clearwater House. In those days Carter was a busy place because it was the start of an important spur line to Raquette Lake.

 

The Elliott family ran the Clearwater House until about 1916. Addie Odett Elliott died in 1917 and Chet Elliott died in 1918. By 1921 Jessie Elliott was living back in Beaver River. The rest of Jessie’s interesting story can be found in my detailed account that appeared in the Adirondack Almanack on April 15, 2018.

 

 

Photo credits: annotated detail of Henry Beach real photo postcard of Elliott’s Camp, and hand tinted photo postcard by Jessie Elliott courtesy of Frank Carey