Adirondack Life – Vol LVII No 05 JulyAugust 2026 – Adirondack Life

One thing it could never be called is boring. It may seem like any other quiet patch in the wilderness, but the history of this little town on the western edge of the Adirondack Park is a roller- coaster ride, giddily swinging be- tween high-fl ying boom times and devastating blows. The community came to life in 1840, modestly at fi rst, growing up around a chair factory and sawmill. Its expansion was supercharged over the next decade by the construc- tion of the feeder canal, a 10-mile waterway from the settlement to Boonville’s Black River Canal, which fl owed into the Erie Canal.

The feeder gave those thirsty canals their fi ll of water while opening markets to the riches of the Adirondack backcoun- try. Lumbering and tanning boomed. Mills, stores and saloons multiplied. Forestport (then known as Wil- liamsville) was part of the town of Remsen until the 1860s, when there was a messy breakup over a stolen ballot box. Remsen and Williams- ville had traded election hosting du- ties every other year—a system that didn’t have many fans.

But lumber- jacks working in the forests around Williamsville were especially sore, complaining that it was nearly im- possible for them to get all the way to Remsen before polls closed. So one year they liberated the ballot box, carting it back to their neck of the woods. The citizens of Remsen were not amused. The towns offi cially split in 1869, with the new town encom- passing the village (now hamlet) of Forestport and what would become the communities of Otter Lake and Woodgate.

Things got off to a bumpy start. The community’s train station wel- comed tourists to Adirondack woods and waters, though the village itself often catered to a grittier crowd. ADIRONDACK LIFE July + August 2026 That same year the dam at North Lake failed 20 miles upriver, send- ing a half-million cubic feet of water “roaring down the Black River chan- nel, sweeping away everything in its path,” according to Michael Doyle, author of The Forestport Breaks.

The flood wiped out the Forestport dam, three mills and every bridge across the river, an estimated loss of $30,000 to $40,000. That wasn’t enough to stop the town’s growth. By the 1870s, the pop- ulation had soared to around 1,200 souls, though many of those souls weren’t altogether saintly. In Com- plete History of Forestport, NY, Patricia Avery wrote that the lumberjack-rich area developed a reputation that bor- dered on lawlessness, with its plen- tiful saloons policed by baseball bats stashed behind the bars.

Still, the last decades of the 19th century were prosperous—the com- munity even scored a presidential visit. In August of 1886, Grover Cleve- land and his brand-new bride visit- ed the village’s Presbyterian Church, which was led by the president’s brother.

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Rediscover your sense of wonder June 1 to October 31, 2026 at F E AT UR E S 38 Gentle Giant Remembering Lake Placid’s Jim Tolkan BY ANNIE STOLTIE 44 The High Life Capturing a place like no other PHOTOGRAPHS BY NICHOLAS SPOONER-RODIE 48 Boom & Bust The shifting fortunes of Forestport BY NIKI KOUROFSKY 52 52 Charted Territory An in-depth view of Blue Mountain Lake BY NEAL BURDICK 56 56 My Keene Valley The generational pull of a storied mountain home BY CHASE TWICHELL 60 60 On the Edge of Paradise Hunting for the Adirondacks’ iconic welcome signs TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEFF OBKIRCHNER 62 62 Deaf Man on a River Joseph Grigely, the Ausable and the language of silence BY JAMES PROSEK D E P A R T M E N T S 7 BOX 410 Letters to the Editor 12 SHORT CARRIES Heavenly Hiking BY ANNIE STOLTIE 15 NORTHERN LIGHTS Reading Between the Blue Line 20 DINING Mark’s Hometown’Cue BY TIM ROWLAND 26 BACKPACKING Facing Failure BY SAM NORTON 30 FOR THE RECORD Couxaxraga BY PHILIP TERRIE 80 ARTIFACTS War Correspondents BY CANDANCE O’CONNOR 89 MARAUDING The Legend of Cap’n Chubb BY WALTER LINCK 94 NORTH COUNTRY Penciled In BY TIM ROWLAND 100 BARKEATER Lessons in Chemistry BY CATHERINE J.

DORIAN 104 BACK PAGE Water Colors PHOTOGRAPH BY NANCIE BATTAGLIA COVER: Grace Peak photo- graph by Nicholas Spooner-Rodie. THIS PAGE: Lincoln Pond pho- tograph by Nancie Battaglia.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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• Title: –
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• Language: English (en)

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