Tag Archives: Adirondack

Where in the world…

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Before I write more stories of the history of these fifty acres of Beach and Wood, I think it may help to show you where they are.

Where shall I start.  Those who have had the privilege of gracing her waters will not accuse me of grandiosity when I claim that Raquette Lake is the most beautiful place on Earth.  Better writers than I  have extolled her virtues as the Queen of the Adirondacks.

The beauty of Raquette Lake has been sung by poets; and the charm of its clustering islands, bright gleaming bays, and jutting points are now famous throughout the land yet, few would know that out of the thousands of acres of dense forest, which reach from its shores to the encircling mountains, only here and there a point has private owners, and that all the rest is public domain.

– Verplanck Colvin 1884 Report of the State Land Survey

So let us begin with the proper perspective and start here

1 world jpeg

As we come down to Earth, we see the State of New York.  Notice how even from space the lush forests of the Adirondacks are a verdant green in the northern one third of New York State.

2 NYS

The Adirondack Park is the largest protected area in the contiguous United States, encompassing 6.1 million acres of both private (55%) and public lands (45%).    The park covers a land area roughly the size of Vermont and is larger than the Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier and the Great Smokey Mountains national parks combined.  The public lands were forever protected by an amendment to the New York State Constitution in 1894.  However, these lands are unique because 137,000 Adirondackers make their home here year-round.  It is not and hopefully never shall be a land without its people.  These lands are bounded by the famous blue line, which is visible from the International Space Station (ok…perhaps not).

3 Adirondack Park Blue Line

Raquette Lake is found in the West Central Adirondacks, a golden curve of bays and coves that stretches a shoreline of ninety nine miles. She is the largest natural lake within the original Adirondack Forest Preserve.

4 Raquette in yellow line

Jutting out from the western shore is Indian Point.  Although this peninsula encompasses hundreds of acres, the “Indian Point” written about here and in many Adirondack histories refers to the twin tips at the northeastern end.

5 Indian Point in blue

Within the years of 1837 and 1840, Matthew Beach and William Wood became the first permanent settlers of Raquette Lake, building a cabin and clearing land for crops on the fifty acres to the east of the red line.  In 1876, John Boyd Thacher purchased the lands to the east of the yellow line.  The little red, one room cabin stands at the extreme eastern edge of the northern fork of Indian Point which our family named Birch Point.

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Preface

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“The author has been an assiduous but superficial student of the literature.  He has read extensively rather than intensively.  The resulting work is that of an enthusiastic amateur, who  handles in a jaunty manner the most difficult historical manuscripts, as if every word was to be accepted with utmost faith.  The very style in which the book is written throws discredit on the scholarship.  The language and phrase are stilted, and too much fine writing shows an undue desire for popularity.”*

I could not find a better description of my book.   Written in 1903, this critique of my Great-Great Uncle John Boyd Thacher’s book on Christopher Columbus speaks to my attempt at being a writer.  Wherever possible I have chosen to close my mouth and let the voices of the past speak through reprints of earlier writers.

In 1867, JBT purchased an island on Blue Mountain Lake for the use of his father George Hornell Thacher.  Three years later, Rev. Murray’s Adventures in the Wilderness brought throngs of tourists to the North Country.  To provide his father with a quieter, more remote retreat, JBT purchased the tips of Indian Point on Raquette Lake in 1876.

Our family still enjoys every summer on Birch Point, the northern fork of Indian Point.   What began as a search to discover the history of our family’s little red, one-room cabin grew into years of research and discovery.

Discover with me the story of Matthew Beach and William Wood, the first permanent white settlers of Raquette Lake.  Search for the remains of their original cabins on Indian Point.   Learn the part they played in the early extinction of the beaver and the moose in the Adirondacks.

A lover of Adirondack history will recognize the names of Sir John Johnson, Professor Ebenezer Emmons, Joel Tyler Headley, Mitchell Sabattis, Alvah Dunning, John Plumley and Rev. Murray, Verplanck Colvin, Nessmuk, Arthur Tait and Levi Wells Prentice.   Few would suspect the intricate weave of life’s thread that ties all these icons to Indian Point.

I seek to capture both fact and fiction and the attention of my readers as I chronicle the amazing Adirondack heritage that flows through these fifty acres of Beach and Wood.

Adirondack histories are full of embellishments and half-truths.  The local Raquette Lake author Ruth Timm famously claimed William Wood was present at the death of his friend Chief Uncas, the fictional character of The Last of the Mohicans.    Ned Buntline lived at Indian Point according to Thomas Morris Longstreth in The Adirondacks.   Neither of these is factually accurate.

I could follow the footsteps of these writers and exaggerate the history of my family:

“John Boyd Thacher was instrumental in writing and passing the Forest Preserve Act of 1885 which was the first step in creating the Adirondack Park.” **

I will not spin a yarn with this chronicle.  I do use the conceit of historical fiction to make reasonable allusions to unknown but probable fact.   The difference is that I will not leave the reader guessing.  For the studious among you, the footnotes reveal the truth.

** Although John Boyd Thacher was a NY State Senator in 1885 and did vote to pass the Forest Preserve Act, he was just one of 35 senators who unanimously passed the law.  He was not a member of the Agriculture Standing Committee that drafted the law.

NOTES:      * The Independent. Vol 55 May-Aug. 1903 pg. 1460