The Big Moose to Stillwater Road

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 Stillwater used the train. The road from Lowville and Number Four was still in use primarily by employees of the Beaver River Club at Stillwater. It was a narrow, rough dirt road, the last twelve miles of which ran through deep forest with no houses along the way. It was just barely suitable for travel by horse and wagon. Automobiles started to use the road after the introduction of the popular Model T Ford in 1908. As auto use increased, there was a need for road improvement.

 

At first the road from Lowville to Number Four was periodically repaired at private expense, but by 1923 the improvements necessary exceeded the financial resources of the adjoining property owners. Accordingly, the Lewis County Board of Supervisors designated the Number Four Road and a section of the Stillwater Rd. up to the Herkimer County line a county highway and took over maintenance. This resulted in many new cottages being built, especially around Beaver Lake at Number Four.

 

At the same time, work was going on to raise the dam at Stillwater to create the present reservoir. Most of the land at the west end of the projected reservoir was owned by Fisher Forestry & Reality. Fisher Forestry had originally opposed expanding the reservoir because it would cut off road access to its forest lands north of the Beaver River and east of Twitchell Creek. It successfully obtained an injunction halting the dam construction, but settled with the state when promised the right to build a bridge over the Beaver River and a promise that the state would establish a ferry service across the reservoir connecting the Stillwater shore to the existing Six-mile Road on the east side.

 

Fisher Forestry & Realty was having great success selling cottage lots at Beaver Lake, so they had their property at Stillwater surveyed and divided into cottage lots. Clarence L. Fisher, owner of Fisher Forestry, knew that he could sell more cottage lots at Stillwater if there was a road that connected to the growing cottage communities along the Fulton Chain of Lakes. He convinced the Board of Supervisors of Lewis County and of Herkimer County to endorse the idea of building a road to connect Big Moose with Lowville via Beaver River and Stillwater. He banded together with other influential business owners, especially hotel and land owners, to form the Beaver River Highway Association with the sole purpose of making the connecting road a reality. 

 

Their plan was announced in great detail in the Lowville Journal and Republican, August 23, 1923. The Town of Webb would improve the existing road from the county line near Number Four to the shore of the reservoir at Stillwater. From there the promised state car ferry would take cars across the reservoir, where they could continue to Beaver River Station over an improved Six-Mile Road. From Beaver River Station a new road would be built through the State Forest Preserve to Twitchell Lake where there already was a road to Big Moose Station. An established road led from there to Eagle Bay on the Fulton Chain of Lakes.

 

Although the proponents of this new connecting road felt sure of their eventual success, they acknowledged two significant problems. Their plan required an amendment of the state constitution to allow a new road through the Forest Preserve. In the newspaper article they explained they felt this could be accomplished because they had the backing of the state Conservation Commission. The other problem was that there was not yet a car ferry service on the Stillwater Reservoir. Despite their confidence, and the fact that Clarence Fisher was a member of the state assembly at the time, the plan failed when the state legislature did not pass the necessary constitutional amendment.

 

The current Stillwater Reservoir was completed in 1925. As shown in the photo at the top of this post, the rough dirt road from Number Four ended at the water’s edge in front of recently rebuilt Stillwater Hotel. Fisher Forestry & Realty sold a fair number of cottage lots near the hotel, but Clarence Fisher had not given up on the idea of a road connecting to Big Moose.

 

Fisher Forestry owned the property along the west side of the new reservoir about half way to Big Moose. The property from there to Big Moose Station was then owned by Champlain Realty Company, a subsidiary of International Paper. International Paper had built a small logging town at Wood’s Lake in 1914 along with a spur railroad and a network of logging tote roads connecting their twelve logging camps to Big Moose Station. By 1925, however, logging activity at those camps had mostly ceased as all the soft wood trees had been logged off. There was a foot trail to the Stillwater Mountain Fire Tower from the Big Moose side, but boat access on the reservoir was preferred.

 

According to Bill Marleau’s book Big Moose Station, p. 311, in 1926 Clarence Fisher convinced the Town of Webb that a road should be built to Stillwater from where the existing road ended at Big Moose Station. Fisher also lobbied International Paper seeking a right of way over their land. By 1926 - 27 International Paper relented and granted the Town of Webb permission to convert the tote road to their #1 camp near the shore of the reservoir to a public road. Fisher Forestry quickly commissioned a detailed survey setting the course for the new road. As seen on that map below, the route of that road is essentially the same as the route followed by the present road.

Also in 1927, the Town of Webb agreed to improve the road from Stillwater to the county line near Number Four by widening and grading. This made the road a bit safer and more comfortable. The improved road made reaching Stillwater by car from Lowville the preferred transportation method, gradually replacing travel by train.

 

For some reason the Town of Webb did not move forward with building the road between Big Moose and Stillwater until 1955, almost thirty years later. I suspect the main reason for the delay was financial. The 1927 road survey disclosed just how difficult and expensive road construction would be. Then came the great depression, followed by World War II. Town budget priorities probably placed building a new road far down the list. Stillwater camp owners who wanted to have better access by car kept up pressure on the town. Construction began during the summer of 1955 and the road was finally open during the 1956 summer season.

 

Building that road was such big news that the Utica Observer Dispatch sent their staff photographer, Dante O. Tranquille, to document the progress. His photographs were featured in the Sunday edition on October 2, 1955. As of that date, considerable progress had been made, but there was still a lot more to do.

In his effort to get as close as possible to where the work was being done, Tranquille and his team managed to get their four-wheel drive jeep stuck in the debris.

Once the road was finished, it was possible to take a car trip from Stillwater to Old Forge to shop or play. People from the east and south of the Adirondack Park could now conveniently reach Stillwater Reservoir for camping, boating, and fishing. Unfortunately, Clarence Fisher did not live long enough to derive much enjoyment from the road he had worked so hard to achieve. He died in April 1959.

 

Sources:

Bill Gove, Logging Railroads of the Adirondacks, Syracuse University Press, 2006.

William Marleau, Big Moose Station: A Story From 1893 to 1983, Marleau Family Press, 1986.

“Beaver River Highway,” Lowville Journal and Republican, August 23, 1923

Dante O. Tranquille, “New Road in the Wilderness,” Utica Observer Dispatch, October 2, 1955.

Road survey map courtesy Beth Pashley and Town of Webb Historical Association.