Annals of the Beaver River

The first time I drove in to Stillwater Reservoir it was on the road from Big Moose Station. I assumed that the road had been there for a very long time, maybe for a century, maybe longer. I was wrong. The bumpy, curvy, often dusty section between Big Moose and Stillwater was built in 1955 – 56, so it’s only 70 years old. Here’s the story. From 1845 until 1956 the only road access to Stillwater on the Beaver River was from Lowville by way of the Number Four Road then on the old Carthage to Lake Champlain Road. My previous post of 2/15/21 tells how that road was built and the trials of keeping it open. You can read that article here.  https://beaverriverhistory.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-carthage-to-lake-champlain-road.html . The current road from Number Four to Stillwater and the Six-Mile Road to Beaver River are surviving parts of that old road.   After the Adirondack Railroad started to carry passengers in October 1892, most people who travelled to Beaver River Station or Stil...

Between November 1924 and the end of January 1925 Harlow and Minnie Young with the help of friends dismantled the old Beaver River Inn that sat on land destined to be flooded by the expanded reservoir. They moved the salvaged material to a lot they owned on higher ground nearby [see my post of 8/6/24 at  https://beaverriverhistory.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-beaver-river-inn.html ]. They used the salvaged material to construct a new hotel a short distance back from the projected new shoreline. As shown above, the new Beaver River Inn had a two-story section on the side facing the water with rooms upstairs. The entrance was through a story and a half building attached behind the main building. A wrap around porch provided a place to relax overlooking the reservoir and surrounding hills. The reincarnated Beaver River Inn was open for business for the 1925 summer season.   Although it’s hard to see because of the extensive later renovations, the present Stillwater Hotel is still in ...