John Warren - Historic Tales from the Adirondack Almanack

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2009 by John Warren

All rights reserved

Images are courtesy of the author unless otherwise noted.

First published 2009

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.257.2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Warren, John, 1967

Historic tales from the Adirondack almanack / John Warren.

p. cm.

print edition ISBN 978-1-59629-727-2

1. Adirondack Mountains (N.Y.)--History--Anecdotes. 2. Adirondack Mountains Region (N.Y.)--History--Anecdotes. 3. Adirondack Mountains Region (N.Y.)--History, Local--Anecdotes. 4. Adirondack Park (N.Y.)--History--Anecdotes. I. Adirondack almanack. II. Title.

F127.A2W35 2009 974.7504--dc22 2009023593

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

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Dedicated to Adirondack poker and those who play it.

CONTENTS

.

PREFACE

Over the past four years, through the online journal Adirondack Almanack, I have tried to offer a look at the modern Adirondack Park that includes historical context to todays political, cultural and economic news and trends. For example, when mining accidents made national news, I wrote about the mining accidents that occurred in the Adirondack region with regular frequency in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. When the excursion boat Ethan Allen sank in October 2005, I wrote about similar accidents on Lake George that had also taken a large number of lives. When debate raged over allowing floatplanes to continue to land on Lows Lake, I wrote a short history of the areas development. Local events, places and attitudes have been sources of fodder for the Adirondack Almanacks historical cannon. Bank robberies, the Ku Klux Klan, snowmobiling, gambling, railroads, buried treasure, raising hops, rattlesnakes and earthquakes are just a few of the things that inspired historical pieces about the Adirondack Park. They are all collected here, with a few whimsical historical explorations thrown in for good measure. These essays were meant to be glimpses of history, short pieces on context, not complete historical narrativesalthough a five-part history of snowmobiling in the Adirondacks may be an exception. Ive edited them lightly, trying to preserve their character while translating them from the Internet to the printed page.

Thanks are due to the readers of the Adirondack Almanack, many of whom provided feedback and encouragement when these stories were first posted. Although errors and omissions are entirely my own, a debt of personal thanks is owed to those who helped locate relevant photos, including Lawrence Gooley, Jill McKee, Mike and Jessica Todriff, Allan Smith, June Peoples, Mark McMurray, Darlene Leonard, Thomas Blauvelt and John Hammond. The History Presss Kate Pluhar ably shepherded the project with the assistance of Hilary McCullough, designer Natasha Momberger and copyeditor Jaime Muehl.

Discussion, comments and corrections are welcome at www.adirondackalmanack.com.

PART I

Adirondack Accidents, Danger and Disaster

THE CRUISE BOAT ETHAN ALLEN AND OTHER LAKE GEORGE TRAGEDIES

Sunday, October 2, 2005

According to local news reports, the forty-foot cruise boat Ethan Allen capsized today on Lake George. It happened at 3:00 p.m. with forty-nine senior citizens onboard, which is too many in my mind for such a small boat. The Associated Press reported that twenty were killed, making it the most deadly tragedy in the history of Lake George and the Adirondack region. Ive been told that the emergency room at Glens Falls Hospital was overwhelmed and was forced to send patients to Saratoga Hospital.

The Ethan Allen was one of the first boats operated by Shoreline Cruises when the company began in the mid-1970s. At the time, Shorelines berths were at King Neptunes Pub in Lake George Village; they are now located beside Neptunes, within view of the camera to which Capital News 9 cuts when it goes to commercials and during the weather reports.

This latest news is horribly tragic, and similar accidents on Lake George have occurred in the past. On July 30, 1856, the 140-feet-long John Jay (built in 1850) was delayed at Ticonderogas Baldwin Dock, waiting on the stagecoach from Lake Champlain. Due to the large number of passengers, the stagecoach had to make several trips to get everyone to the boat. It wasnt until 7:00 p.m. that the John Jay, now loaded with seventy people, backed away from the dock. About an hour later, the boat was ten miles down the lake. Below, the fireman stoked the boilers as the captain called for top speedthen the worst happened. Owing to that old bonnet on the smokestack, the engineer is reported to have told one of the passengers, it stopped the draft, and forced the flame out of the furnace doors.

The flues were jammed with soot, filling the boiler room with smoke and driving the fireman above before he could get the firebox doors shut. The sparks ignited the woodwork over the firebox. I saw a dense mass of smoke puff out, then another, one passenger later recalled, and there was an instantaneous and indiscriminatescramble for places of safety. Captain Gale, upon hearing the alarm, ran to the wheelhouse and ordered the pilot to steer directly for shore a half mile away as he yelled to try to calm the passengers. The rest of the crew began fighting the fire.

In the meantime, the passengers in the path of the smoke at the rear of the steamer tried to make their way forward. Some of the men attempted to inflate the life preservers but found them inoperable. Another man, T.C. Thwing of Boston, tried to lower the one lifeboat that hung amidships, but the flames had already spread too far, blocking his efforts. The passengers crowded into the steamers bow, as one later wrote,

men, women and children, not knowing but the next moment would be their lastmothers clinging to their children, and children holding fast to parents. Fathers, with pale faces and compressed lips, watching the progress of the flames, and looking about for the means of escape when the boat should reach the shorewomen, young and fair, gathered around their protectors and asking piteously: Is there no way to be saved?

As they approached the shore, the boat struck a rock hard and nearly keeled over. It was then that some of the panicked passengers, five in all, including Thwings wife, Annie, and his sister-in-law, jumped or were thrown overboard. Some leapt into the water with deck chairs and anything else they could find that would float as the flames spread, cutting the tiller lines and making the boat impossible to steer. Some made it ashore, but five drowned. At the waters edge, those still onboard leapt for their lives as the John Jay burned to the waterline. We had scarcely reached shore, one man reported, when the baggage which had been rescued from the wreck was seized upon by a gang of harpies, who took articles of apparel which happened to suit their fancy, and appropriated them without ceremony to their own uses.