Annals of the Beaver River

While window-shopping through the beer display at my local grocery store in Syracuse I happened to notice they are selling Congress Beer. I vaguely remembered that back in 2018 the Onondaga Historical Association partnered with a local craft brewer,  Willow Rock Brewing Company,  to resurrect a beer that was once extremely popular in Syracuse and throughout upstate. I also remembered that the popularity of Congress Beer among Adirondack sportsmen and lumberjacks was a factor in the creation of the second Norridgewock Hotel. Here’s that formerly untold story. As I explained in my post of 6/8/2021, the original Norridgewock Hotel burned to the ground on May 8, 1914. At the time, the hotel and most of the surrounding private property at Beaver River Station was owned by Bert B. Bullock. Bullock did not want to rebuild the hotel since his family planned to relocate to a more cosmopolitan setting. The concrete block stable just across the road from the original hotel was undamaged by the fi