Beaver River Highway
Roads were not a serious concern for the Fishers when they first started to market their cottage lots. Both areas where they had lots for sale could be reached by the Number Four and Stillwater Roads. In 1921, however, they became alarmed when they discovered that the state planned to greatly expand the Stillwater Reservoir. The projected high water maps they received from the Black River Regulating District showed that their road access would be cut off from a large tract slated for future development north of the Beaver River as well as from a forest tract on the east side of Twitchell Creek. Seeing no other alternative to protect their business, they sued to stop construction of the higher dam at Stillwater.
Before the case could come to trial, the Black River Regulating District reached a settlement with the Fishers. According to a detailed article in the Lowville Journal and Republican, January 12, 1922, the Regulating District promised to maintain access to the Fisher’s land north of the reservoir by an improved ford across the river. Access to the plot east of Twitchell Creek was to be via a ferry service set up by the Regulating District. Although an informal barge service was already being used to cross Twitchell Creek, the Regulating District assured the Fishers that ferry service would actually improve after the water was raised because there would be no dead trees in the way. Once a formal settlement agreement was filed, the Fishers withdrew their lawsuit.
Settling with the state didn’t make Clarence Fisher’s dream of a highway go away. If anything, the dream grew stronger. Every time he saw a Model T Ford drive by, he sensed a lost opportunity. He had prime waterfront property for sale in a beautiful part of the Adirondacks, but buyers weren’t knocking on his door. The solution, he concluded was a highway that directly connected Lowville on the west side of the Adirondacks with the Fulton Chain of Lakes where cottage development was booming.
So, Fisher got out a map and formulated a plan. There was already a road passable by automobiles that ran from Lowville to Number Four and on to Stillwater. To cross the reservoir, cars could use the ferry the Regulating District had promised to establish. The car ferry would connect Stillwater where the road ended to a dock on the east side of Twitchell Creek where the remains of the old Carthage-to-Lake Champlain Road connected to Beaver River Station. From there, the road could follow an old logging road up the South Branch of the Beaver River to Twitchell Lake where an existing road ran downhill to Big Moose and then to Eagle Bay on Fourth Lake. The plan seemed feasible to Fisher. I have roughly sketched the Stillwater to Beaver River to Twitchell Lake section on this current DEC map of the reservoir.
Fisher was eminently practical. His first step was to form an organization called the ”Beaver River Highway Association” dedicated to making his highway dream come true. The officers of the board of directors were all politically well-connected. Founding board members, in addition to Clarence Fisher himself, included: John N. Carlisle, former state highway commissioner and President of Northern New York Utilities; Seymour Van Santvoord, former chairman of the Public Service Commission; and John Dence, former President of the Lowville Chamber of Commerce. The board also included the major real estate developers active in the area: William Thistlethwaite, Adirondack Development Corporation, Old Forge; Lyon de Camp, Ga-Wan-Ka Adirondack properties, Thendara; and H. C. Weller, H. C. Weller Co., Inc, Eagle Bay. Finally, the hotel proprietors most affected along the course of the proposed road were added to the board including Cora Fenton Palmer, owner of the Fenton House, Number Four; Louis Beach, manager of the Norridgewock Hotel, Beaver River; Earl Covey, owner of the Twitchell Lake Inn; and Charles Williams, proprietor of the Lake View Lodge, Big Moose Lake.
Fisher understood that the project also needed the support of the localities most directly affected. Before announcing the plans to the public, he acquired the endorsement of the Lewis County Board of Supervisors, the Herkimer County Board of Supervisors as well as the Lowville Chamber of Commerce and the Central Adirondack Hotel Association.
You can’t blame Fisher for being optimistic about achieving his highway dream. It was an era of road building in the Adirondacks. The Chamber of Commerce of Carthage, NY had just secured state highway designation for the old Oswagachie Trail that led from Carthage to Tupper Lake. In 1918 the state constitution had been amended to permit a major state highway linking Old Forge to Saranac Lake by way of Raquette Lake, Blue Mountain Lake and Long Lake.
When all of Fisher’s preparations were complete, the plan was unveiled to the public on Aug. 23, 1923 in a feature article in the Lowville Journal and Republican titled “The Beaver River Highway.” The article boldly claimed, “Lowville and Lewis County are to have an improved road into the heart of the Adirondacks, via Number Four and Beaver River to Twitchell Lake, connecting with the Old Forge - Big Moose system of state highways, as soon as the business and hotel men in both sections can secure it.”
The article argued that the lack of a direct road connection between Lewis County and neighboring Herkimer County was costing both locations dearly in lost tourism dollars. “The beautiful Adirondack region around Beaver Lake and Number Four is not only one of the most attractive features of Lewis County, but of commercial advantage to Lowville. Realizing that a good road built from Lowville through this section would make the region more accessible for Canadian travelers, and the touring public from other parts of the country, and increase the trade of Lowville business men.”
The article presented the proposed road as almost a reality. The road from Lowville to Number Four was already being improved, and plans were in the works to significantly improve the road all the way to Stillwater. The settlement agreement providing a car ferry across the reservoir provided the next link. So, crossing the reservoir in the warmer months by ferry seemed assured. In winter the reservoir was already being crossed on an ice road.
The final few miles of the proposed highway would follow the course of an old logging road. This road had existed in some form since the mid-1870s, pre-dating the establishment of the hamlet of Beaver River Station by twenty years. One of Verplanck Colvin’s surveying teams in the area during July and August 1877 noted that they used a road that ran up the South Branch to reach Twitchell Lake. Colvin himself used this same road when he was doing surveying work in 1879. This road appears on Seneca Ray Stoddard’s “Map of the Adirondack Wilderness” of 1891 and 1893, and more clearly on the 1895 map of Hamilton and Herkimer County. It’s also shown on Henry Beach’s undated postcard map shown below, probably drawn about 1905. Although each of these early maps only roughly depicts the course of the road, they confirm its existence.
In 1923, when Fisher was dreaming up plans for his Beaver River Highway, the logging road from Beaver River Station to Twitchell Lake was still technically passable by horse and wagon. This road had most recently been in active use from about 1893 until 1902 for transporting logs from the Lonis lumber camp at the head of the valley of the South Branch to the Ouderkirk saw mill at Beaver River Station. In his book Big Moose Station, Bill Marleau notes that this logging road continued to be occasionally used even after logging ended. “Pop Bullock at Beaver River, among others, used the old tote road for many years to haul hunters and campers back to Lonis with a team of horses and wagon.”
It’s reasonable to assume that Fisher wanted to use the South Branch Road as part of his proposed highway because it already existed in 1896 when the state acquired the land through which the road passed from Dr. Webb. This meant that property immediately became part of the protected Forest Preserve. Under normal circumstances, that would mean the road could no longer be used. However, under the terms of the “Webb Covenant” attached to the sale, the road would have to remain open to the public. A discussion of the terms of the Webb Covenant is contained in my prior post “Remains of the Road.” https://beaverriverhistory.blogspot.com/2026/03/remains-of-road.html
Even though the Webb Covenant would technically allow the old logging road to remain open to the public, it would not cover any re-routing or major improvements. The old road passed through about six miles of the Adirondack Forest Preserve. The rough condition of the old logging road made it obvious that it was not fit for use by automobiles. Fisher realized that to widen and grade the tote road a large number of trees would have to be removed. In order to legally take that action, there would have to be an amendment to the “Forever Wild” provision of the state constitution. Fisher was confident that such an amendment could be obtained. In addition to help from his politically powerful friends, Fisher received encouragement from the New York Conservation Commission (forerunner of today’s DEC) who advised him they favored this road as it would directly connect two important Adirondack counties.
Despite doing his homework, recruiting politically connected board members and the support of government and business organizations, the Beaver River Highway was never built. The existing road from Lowville to Stillwater was gradually improved, but the road extension to Twitchell Lake was never even attempted. The state car ferry on the Stillwater Reservoir was never established.
There is no mention in the historical record of the reason that Fisher’s plan failed. The most likely reason seems to be the unsuitability of the South Branch logging road. Not only would the road need major improvements, but access to the road on both ends was about to become nearly impossible. The soon to be expanded Stillwater Reservoir would totally flood the existing road from Beaver River Station to the South Branch. At the other end, changes in land use at Twitchell Lake would cut off the projected connection to the road to Big Moose. I suspect that when surveyors took a hard look at the proposed use of the South Branch logging road, they shook their heads and advised Fisher to drop the plan.
Big dreams die hard. Clarence Fisher didn’t abandon his highway dream because he failed make the Beaver River Highway a reality; he simply pivoted to a new and better plan. By 1926 he had founded the “Lowville - Big Moose Highway Association.” His new plan was to build a completely new road that would directly connect Stillwater to Big Moose along the west shore of the reservoir using only private land, half owned by Fisher Forestry and half by International Paper. That route would not require a constitutional amendment, only easements from the property owners. It proved to be a far more feasible plan. That road is the one in use today. The story of the Stillwater to Big Moose Road is set forth in detail in my prior post. https://beaverriverhistory.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-big-moose-to-stillwater-road.html
Clarence Fisher's highway through the forest was still only a dream when he died in 1953. The road he worked so tirelessly to create was not completed until 1956.
Sources
Articles from the Lowville Journal and Republican, “Clarence L. Fisher and Mrs. Jackson Withdraw Objections,“ January 12, 1922; “Number Four Road,” April 20, 1922; and “The Beaver River Highway,” August 23, 1923.
Clarence L. Fisher, ”Adirondack Mountains - Number Four Settlement,” Black River Democrat, September 21, 1922.
Hugh R. Jones, Beaver Lake Country, published by Fisher Forestry, 1923.
William Marleau, Big Moose Station: A Story From 1893 to 1983, Marleau Family Press, 1986.
Special thanks to Noel Sherry and Nate Vary for technical research on the existence and location of the South Branch logging road.
Photo credits
On the State Highway to the Central Adirondacks, N.Y., postcard collection of the research library of the Adirondack Experience.
Rolling the Road Across Stillwater Reservoir, Rowley collection, courtesy of Ginger Thompson
Rough Wagon Road, New York State Library, E. Lounsbery DuBois papers. This photo is not of the South Branch Road, but of a similar road being used to haul supplies to a remote hunting camp at Copper Lake.
Henry Beach undated postcard map, about 1905, courtesy of the collection of Frank Cary
Portrait of Clarence Fisher, 1940, Lyons Falls History Association
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