Annals of the Beaver River

Everyone recognized the Beaver River station agent.   In the fifty years between 1893 and 1943 the Adirondack Division of the New York Central Railroad employed a full-time station agent at Beaver River Station. There were only two Beaver River station agents during those years: John E. Dowd for the twenty years between 1893 until 1913 and William R. Partridge for the thirty years between 1913 until 1943.   The two-story depot building at Beaver River was designed so that the station agent and his family could live upstairs. The agent needed to be present at the station around the clock. Emergency communications could come at any hour. Night trains sometimes had to be flagged down. In winter the station agent had to stoke the stove and be sure the platform was cleared of snow. Although the station agent played a key role in railroad operations, it was not a particularly prestigious job. The only job requirements were a sound mind, a friendly personality, some ability in bookke...

  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...