All of the stories are remarkably entertaining, rich in detail, and an interesting return to the Adirondacks of a century ago. Related title(s): Adk Camp Stories, The Hermit and Us, Spring Trout, Life with Noah, Noah John Rondeau's Adk Wilderness Days, Under an Adk Influence, Adk Adventures, Adk Characters, Adk Kaleidoscope, Adk Logging, Adk Memories, Adk Wilds, The Adks' Moose River Plains

Encompassing the lands immediately surrounding the upper reaches of the Beaver River from its headwaters at Lake Lila to Beaver Lake at the settlement of Number Four, Beaver River country is the largest undisturbed tract of forest in the entire northeastern United States. During the nineteenth century it was widely considered to be the very heart of the Adirondacks and was visited by thousands of tourists seeking outdoor recreation. The area boasted a busy railroad station, two grand hotels, an exclusive resort, and an elaborate great camp, as well as dozens of guides camps and sporting clubs. Pitts traces the generations of people who inhabited the region, from the ancestors of the Haudenosaunee, to the early European settlers, to the vacation communities and seasonal visitors. With each generation, Pitts shows how Beaver River country escaped the forces that fragmented and destroyed the wilderness in much of the Northeast. The forest and waters that attracted the early visitors are still there, preserved by a combination of happenstance and dedicated effort. Filled with rare vintage photographs, this book is a vivid portrait of this wild region, revealing how it came to be and why it survives.

The lakes of the Adirondack region are explored in this superb collection of masterful images, most of which are previously unpublished. The photographs in Adirondack Lakes were taken by well-known and lesser-known photographers of the region, including Seneca Ray Stoddard, George W. Baldwin, H. T. Hull, Katherine E. McClellan, William Kollecker, William L. Distin, and Henry M. Beach. Dating from 1858 to 1948, they are clear, focused, visually engaging, and historically significant. They show the men and women who developed the Adirondacks, from monied entrepreneurs to manual laborers, from hoteliers to roadside attendants, from vacationers to year-round residents-a cast of characters reflecting nearly a century of Adirondack activity.

All of the stories are remarkably entertaining, rich in detail, and an interesting return to the Adirondacks of a century ago. Related title(s): Adk Camp Stories, The Hermit and Us, Spring Trout, Life with Noah, Noah John Rondeau's Adk Wilderness Days, Under an Adk Influence, Adk Adventures, Adk Characters, Adk Kaleidoscope, Adk Logging, Adk Memories, Adk Wilds, The Adks' Moose River Plains

In simple, darkly faceted stories, Philander Deming writes as a person whose childhood knowledge of the Adirondacks has been honed to a fine sense for its potential human tragedy. In this, the first collection of his best work, a haunting vision of the Adirondacks comes through that is hard to forget. Deming's themes revolve around deception and self-deception, loneliness, and good intentions gone awry. Most of his stories occur just before or after the Civil War. In almost every story, however, Deming shows his characters looking back towards the mountains, from the Mohawk or St. Lawrence Valley or from lonely settlements on the edge of the forest, or across Lake Champlain. Few Adirondack writers have been so convincing in conveying the keen isolation of life in the northern forest and its peculiar effects on the human mind. The wilderness community is cruel, fostered by ignorance and isolation. In the end, the mountains, seemingly a neutral back drop against which individuals confront a collective morality, are the real source of his inspiration.

Encompassing the lands immediately surrounding the upper reaches of the Beaver River from its headwaters at Lake Lila to Beaver Lake at the settlement of Number Four, Beaver River country is the largest undisturbed tract of forest in the entire northeastern United States. During the nineteenth century it was widely considered to be the very heart of the Adirondacks and was visited by thousands of tourists seeking outdoor recreation. The area boasted a busy railroad station, two grand hotels, an exclusive resort, and an elaborate great camp, as well as dozens of guides camps and sporting clubs. Pitts traces the generations of people who inhabited the region, from the ancestors of the Haudenosaunee, to the early European settlers, to the vacation communities and seasonal visitors. With each generation, Pitts shows how Beaver River country escaped the forces that fragmented and destroyed the wilderness in much of the Northeast. The forest and waters that attracted the early visitors are still there, preserved by a combination of happenstance and dedicated effort. Filled with rare vintage photographs, this book is a vivid portrait of this wild region, revealing how it came to be and why it survives.

While living far from civilization at ¿Cold River City¿Population one,¿ Noah John Rondeau, the original Adirondack Hermit, wrote daily diary entries to document his experience. To conceal incriminating information from ¿snooping game protectors¿ he developed an enigmatic code that was said to resemble the ¿footprints of an inebriated hen.¿ In 1946, Rondeau wrote his entire journal in code, making it the most mysterious of all. Attempts to break the code all ended in failure until David Greene discovered a key and shared his findings with author William J. O¿Hern. Noah John Rondeau¿s Adirondack Wilderness Days¿A Year with the Hermit of Cold River Flow, tells the story of how the code was broken and then reveals the real story of a fun-loving hermit thriving in the wilderness. In addition to Rondeau¿s decoded journal entries, letters, photographs and reminiscences from friends who visited him complete the story of the misunderstood recluse. Why did Noah create the code? What secrets does it contain? Learn the answers in Noah John Rondeau¿s Adirondack Wilderness Days. Features over 135 vintage photographs and illustrations!

"Murder in the Adirondacks is the true story of the Chester Gillette - Grace Brown murder case, which was the basis for Theodore Dreiser's classic novel An American Tragedy and the movie "A Place in the Sun" with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. Although the trial in Herkimer, New York was front page news throughout the nation in 1906 and millions of words have been written about Dreiser's novel, this book is the first complete account of the fascinating facts behind the fiction. Gillette, a former prep school student and railroad brakeman, was the nephew of the owner of a skirt factory in Cortland, New York, where he met Grace Brown, the daughter of a Chenango County farmer. Soon after Grace discovered she was pregnant with Gillette's child in 1906, they left on a trip to the Adirondacks. Grace thought it was to be a wedding trip, but Gillette was planning murder, not matrimony. At Big Moose Lake in Herkimer County, Gillette rented a boat and took Grace to a deserted section of the lake called Punky Bay. She ended up at the bottom of the lake and Gillette escaped to Inlet, where he was arrested three days later. The spectators at Gillette's trial sobbed when the district attorney read Grace's letters, but Gillette sat quietly and chewed gum until it was his turn to testify. Then he said Grace jumped out of the boat and committed suicide. The jury didn't believe him and he was sentenced to die in the electric chair in Auburn. Gillette's mother waged a campaign that led all the way to the governor's mansion in Albany and a last minute attempt to save her son's life. By the 1980s, the fiction had overpowered the facts and many people accepted Dreiser's novel as the true story. This book sets the record straight. Meticulously researched, it relies on the original courtroom testimony and the 1906-1908 newspaper articles. It contains letters, documents and photographs that have never before been made public. Facts about Gillette's early life and his family are revealed here for the first time anywhere. After 80 years, readers can finally find out what really happened at Big Moose Lake in 1906. The true story of Upstate New York's most famous murder case can finally be told."--Back cover

After his friends Harvey Dunham and Mortimer Norton passed away, Lloyd Blankman dreamed of organizing his newspaper and magazine articles, along with articles by his friends, into a book. Sadly, Lloyd died before getting very far into the project.Author William J. O?Hern has resurrected Blankman?s vision, by joining his original writing with the enduring works of Blankman and his contemporaries in Adirondack Characters and Campfire Yarns, a mosaic history of the lives and traditions of the settlers of the Southern Adirondacks. Venture into the wilderness with French Louie and Alvah Dunning and learn about lesser known characters such as Old Lobb of Piseco Lake and Moose River Plains guide Slim Murdock. Travel the trapline with Richard Woods, E. J. Dailey and Burt Conklin, "the greatest trapper." Explore the turbulent waters of the West Canada Creek in search of trout, learn about the tools of the spruce gum trade, and find out why "the liars club" of Forestport called their get-togethers "parting with the dog." Adirondack Characters and Campfire Yarns not only fulfills Blankman?s dream, it fills a void in the recorded history of a seldom written-about region and the people who settled it.Over 80 vintage photographs!