Annals of the Beaver River

After deriding the expansion and gentrification of most hotels across the Adirondacks, Hopper’s article praises Smith’s Lake because it had remained in its untouched “primordial” state. Hopper feared that railroads would soon penetrate all parts of the forest. As a result, Hopper warned, the wilderness “is fast being brought into narrower limits by a ruthless inevitable march of civilization.”   Hopper concluded his article with the urgent and ultimately ironic advice to other sportsmen to “go there!” Hopper had no way of knowing that by the time his article was published it would already be too late for the general public to go to Smith’s Lake. In early 1891 Dr. Wm. Seward Webb purchased tens of thousands of acres surrounding the upper Beaver River and tightly closed them off to the public [see my post of 10/29/21]. Webb also purchased and demolished both Lamont’s and Muncy’s hotels. The railroad that Hopper feared, cut diagonally across the area. [see my post of 04/27/21]   ...

A rare find, this excerpt from a private letter sent from Lamont’s Smith’s Lake Hotel was discovered recently by Tim Mayers and graciously shared with me. The letter was simply signed with the author’s initials, SHL. There is no indication of the identity of the recipient except that his first name was John.   It is included here because it gives an unstudied account of daily life at Lamont’s. More information on the Smith’s Lake Hotel is in my post of 04/11/21. My dear John,   I seize is this opportunity to send you a note by a man who is actually going to a railroad town to-morrow. You will be delighted to know that this is a place 40 miles away from a RR in a direct line; consequently, deer are plenty & the woods unbroken. I have often thought how you & George would enjoy the hunting, but the poor boy, is debarred, as it seems to be a man’s place exclusively. Don’t let it seem a contradiction when I tell you that for 10 days I have resolutely excluded from contempla...

Local newspapers also printed enthusiastic stories of Adirondack trips penned by sportsmen. This one was suggested to me by Stillwater and Baldwinsville resident Jim Fox. It not only provides a good description of how to make a trip to Smith’s Lake but also vividly illustrates how the interests of tourists gradually broadened from fishing and hunting to include an appreciation of the natural beauty of the wilderness.   The author,  William F. Morris,  was the owner of Morris Machine Works. In 1887, the year this article was written, his company was the largest employer in Baldwinsville, NY. The company manufactured pumps of all kinds and shipped them nationwide on the nearby Erie Canal as well as by rail. The company continued to manufacture its pumps in Baldwinsville until 1981 when the company was sold to the  Gould Pump Company in Seneca Falls, NY.   The painting at the top of this article is by Levi Wells Prentice of Syracuse who visited Smith’s Lake on...

Henry Hunn Thompson wrote prolifically about his camping trips to the Adirondacks. Many of his articles, including the one reproduced here, appeared in   Forest and Stream . He also wrote for   The American Angler  of which he  served as   assistant editor in 1887 - 88. His writing often raised concerns about the depletion of Adirondack fish and game caused by novice hunters and fishermen. This attitude contrasts sharply with that expressed in the previous two posts where the sportsmen boast about how many fish they caught in a single day. Henry Hunn Thompson’s trip to Salmon Lake in 1876 occurred shortly after he began to work in the finance department of the Erie Railroad Company in Buffalo, NY. Another officer of the company, Mr. R. B. Cable, accompanied him on the trip. It should be noted that the Salmon Lake featured in this article is located at the head of the east branch of the Shingle Shanty Brook on the Brandreth Preserve, not the lake of the same name...

Frank Bolles, Jr. was a highly skilled wood engraver from Springfield, MA who owned a small business engaged in creating illustrations for books and magazines.   Judging from the number of articles he wrote for the national sporting magazine  Forest and Stream,  he was a frequent guest at the Fenton House during the 1870s and close personal friend of Charles Fenton. Several of Bolles’ published articles, including the one reproduced here, are literary non-fiction based on stories he was told by Fenton. Frank Bolles, Jr., “A Snow-Shoe Trip to Albany Lake,” Forest and Stream , May 6, 1875, Vol. 4, #13, p. 197.   Mr. Fenton, Carter, and Green, the last two from Massachusetts, took a fishing trip on snow-shoes to Albany Lake, March 10. Thinking it might be interesting to brother sportsmen, I give you Mr. Fenton’s account of the trip. Mr. Carter has been stopping at the Fenton House, No. 4, all winter, and has spent most of the time tramping about hunting and trappin...

My next six posts are my transcriptions of articles written by enthusiastic sportsmen who visited the Beaver River country between 1874 and 1891. Four of the articles were published in the popular national sporting magazine,   Forest and Stream . One is from a local newspaper and one is an excerpt from a private letter. They are but a small sample of the very large number of articles in this vein published at the end of the nineteenth century that stoked interest in outdoor recreation. Each paints a vivid picture of what it was like to take a vacation along the upper Beaver River in those days. William W. Hill owned a business in Albany, NY that manufactured carriage and harness hardware. By the time of his trip in 1874 his business was quite successful and he had just been elected a member of the Albany Institute, an organization composed of Albany’s leading citizens dedicated to advancing citizen scientific research. He was a Civil War veteran, a Mason, and a devoted fly-fis...