Main Idea: Travel from the city to the Adirondacks in the 1800s was very difficult.
Introductory segment
(Diane)Today's episode is about getting to the Adirondack mountains in the time before automobiles. Without cars, how did you get here? How did people get around the Adirondack Park long ago? What was a trip to this region like for early visitors.
(Taylor)After listening you might want to take a long look at a map of NYS. Find the Adirondack Park. Notice that even today, there are not a lot of roads. There are a lot of mountains and a lot of water.
(Diane)Travel back in time with us on todays’ episode “Are We There Yet?”
TRANSITION - ADKX Podcast Intro - Ready to earn some extra credit? This is Taylor and Diane and you are listening to ADKX-tra Credit. A history podcast for students made by Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, located in the heart of the Adirondack Park of New York State.
TRANSITION -
(Taylor)Let's start before settlers. Before the area was named a forest preserve. Before there was even a NYS. Before houses and roads. The first people here were Native Americans. They lived here, hunted here, and travelled throughout the region.
(Diane)The forest was very different from what it is today. The trees were huge and there wasn’t much brush. Without the background noise of cars and trucks and people that we are so used to in modern life it would seem silent. But, the sounds of the birds and bugs were loud. If you heard a huge rushing noise it wasn’t a truck on the highway, it might be a storm whipping up from the west.
(Taylor)The first white visitors were early European hunters and soldiers. Soldiers in the French and Indian Wars and in the American Revolution. There is even a legend about a group of Revolutionary soldiers trying to navigate the Adk wilderness by foot. Their actions led to the naming of one of the largest lakes in the region.
TRANSITION - another voice
Early spring deep in the Adirondack forest, snow covers the ground and the lakes are frozen over. It’s May 1776, the American Revolution is well advanced.
Sir John Johnson lives just south of what will become the Adirondack Park. He owns a lot of land and he is a loyalist; a supporter of English rule. He has been opposing the revolutionary efforts in New York and now he’s a wanted man.
Quickly, he gathers a group of followers and they sneak away from his mansion in the dead of night. Their plan is to take a trail through the wilderness north to Montreal, Canada. It’s not as easy as they had hoped. The trails in the woods are still covered in deep snow, moving fast using snowshoes is tricky if you aren’t used to them. The nights are frigid. They don’t have enough food. The NY colonial troops are hot on their tail.
Then, as often happens in May in the mountains, the weather turns warm and the snow and ice begin to melt. Travel by snowshoe is impossible. So, they leave their snowshoes in a big pile at the edge of a large lake and continue on by foot. Eventually they outrun the colonial army with help from their friends.
But, those snowshoes stayed on the edge of that lake. They became something of a landmark. A trapper might say “take a left when you reach the lake with all the raquettes.” That’s the French name for snowshoes. Eventually that lake was named Raquette Lake.
TRANSITION - sounds
(Diane)Obviously, walking was the main way of getting around back then. Can you guess what the second most popular method was?
(Taylor)Yes, boats. Early people used the waterways. The adk has over 3,000 lakes and ponds, and 30,000 miles of rivers and streams. You could get anywhere you wanted to go using boats and hiking.
(Diane)The era of tourist travel to the Adk begins with The Rush to the Wilderness. That's what the newspapers called the new trend of travelling to the Adirondacks for fun and recreation. A guy named WHH Murray; his nickname became Adk Murray, wrote a book titled Adventures in the Wilderness or Camp-Life in the Adirondacks. It was a huge hit. Not Harry Potter huge but still huge for its time. It was published in 1869. Adventures in the Wilderness was all about how to have a great time camping, hiking, hunting, and fishing in the Adk. It had funny stories and advice. Those stories stirred the imaginations of people stuck in the city.
(Taylor)In 1869 the Transcontinental Railroad had just been completed. People were incredibly excited by the idea that travel to new places, wild places was now possible. So, when Adk Murray wrote about a place that was close to NYC and Boston where they could have terrific adventures people started planning their vacations! See, even with the Transcontinental Railroad traveling out west still took weeks. The Adk was just a couple of days away.
(Diane)Today if you want to come up the Adirondack Experience from NYC it will take you about 5 hours. In the 1870s the trip took about 18 hours. That’s if your trip went as planned without delays or breakdowns. You couldn't just jump into your car and go either. It took a lot of planning and luck.
(Taylor)Let's look at the trip from NYC to Blue MT Lake in 1870. Of course people came from other places, Boston or Syracuse, for example. And they went to other places in the Adirondack Mountains. The Adirondack Experience wasn't even here in Blue Mt Lake back then. Even in the 1870s there were lots of rustic hotels and resorts in the towns that dotted the ADK. But, we love our little corner of the mountains so let's use that example.
(Diane)The first step of your journey would have been by train. By 1871 a person could travel by train all the way from NYC to North Creek. It took about 10 hours and you had to change trains. So you might not be able to travel all the way in one day, you might have to stay overnight in Saratoga Springs, NY where you changed trains. You have to understand that train travel was growing by leaps and bounds. When Adk Murray wrote the book in 1869 you could only take a train as far as Glens Falls. Just two years later you could go another 40 miles.
(Taylor)Two years seems like a long time. But, Imagine the effort it takes to cut through forests and around lakes to lay that much track. They had to build stations at all the villages the train went through too.
(Diane)Exactly. It wasn't until 1875 that North Creek had two trains a day with passengers and mail and other goods. For many people that was the end of their journey. It was enough of an adventure to take the train into the wilderness. Trains for the average person were frequently not luxurious but always exciting.
(Taylor)Author Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote of her first train trip in her novel "By the Shores of Silver Lake." It’s not set in the Adk, but still a wonderful description of someone's first train trip.
TRANSITION - another voice
The train jerked, jolting her backward.
Laura’s chin bumped hard on the seat back, and her hat slid on her head.
Again the train jerked, not so badly this time, and then it began to shiver and the depot moved.
“It’s going!” Carrie cried out.
The shivering grew faster and louder, the depot slid backward, and under the car the wheels went, faster and faster. The lumberyard and the back of the church and the front of the schoolhouse went by, and that was the last of town.
The whole car swayed now, in time to the clackety-clacking underneath it, and the black smoke blew by in melting rolls. A telegraph wire swooped up and down beyond the window. It did not really swoop, but it seemed to swoop because it sagged between the poles. It was fastened to green glass knobs that glittered in the sunshine and went dark when the smoke rolled above them. Beyond the wire, grassland and fields and scattered farmhouses and barns went by.
They went so fast that Laura could not really look at them before they were gone. In one hour that train would go twenty miles - as far as the horses traveled in a whole day.
TRANSITION - sounds
(Taylor)After rattling around like that for a day our weary traveller would disembark the train and get into a stagecoach. Have you ever ridden in a stagecoach?
(Diane) Story of personal experience - (I rode in one at an amusement park when I was little. It was great fun. We only went probably half a mile. There was plenty of room for 6 or 8 little kids. When the horses pull the coach you get jerked forward. I remember falling off the seat. Once the horses get going they really just plod along. The coach sways back and forth and you bump around over the rough ground.)
Here's an account from 1890 of a stagecoach ride.
TRANSITION - another voice
It blows the cobwebs out of one to sit there, holding on with both hands and feet as the coach rocks and sways, with the wind blowing the hair about one's eyes, cool and invigorating from the mountains. Up we go - down we go. Now slowly climbing a steep hill, with horses straining, and foaming at the mouth; now on the summit, the chain traces and whiffletrees relaxed and clanking, the road stretching away in front, and suddenly breaking off short in what appears to be an impenetrable clump of trees. Slowly we go forward, there is a turn in the road, and then it seems to break away, and what looks like a sheer precipice confronts us. The horses plod cautiously down, the coach follows with a lurch, the driver gathers up his ribbons tightly and puts his foot heavily on the break. The hill is not so steep as it looked, and as it makes an abrupt turn to the right, we cross a noisy little stream. The worst of the hill is over, the pace is slightly accelerated, the skid sends out a shower of sparks, and the cloud of dust flies up in our wake.
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(Diane)That person enjoyed the ride but not everyone was so lucky. Stagecoaches might carry as many as 24 people. Eight crammed inside and the rest sitting on top, outside in the weather. Here's part of a letter from someone who did not enjoy their trip.
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Saratoga Springs, NY August 24, 1881 - Dear, I am just starting for Boston having just arrived last evening from (Blue) Mt. Lake. The ride over was as bad as ever. I left the Prospect (House Hotel) at 7 and never reached the (railroad) at North Creek till 3 o’clock that afternoon. The stage was full and I had to ride backwards. By the way, they upset the coach last week, with 18 people inside and out, but very fortunately no one was hurt. A fact which I cannot understand.
TRANSITION - sounds
(Taylor)Riding the stage through the wilderness was often uncomfortable. If it rained the people sitting outside would get drenched. Rain also meant muddy roads since all the roads were dirt. Nothing was paved. If the coach got stuck you had to get out and walk so the horses could get the stage moving again. The stage coach trip from North Creek ended in Blue Mt. Lake. Your transportation choices changed again at this spot depending on where you were going to stay. The stage stopped at two hotels in Blue Mt. Lake, the Prospect House and Holland’s Hotel. If you were staying at one of those hotels, you were all set to start your vacation. But there were other hotels that weren't on the stagecoach route. You might walk to your hotel if you were staying at one close by. They might even send a carriage or wagon to get you.
(Diane)I think the most fun was when your hotel was boat-access only. That means that you could only get there by boat, no roads. You could rent a boat and paddle there yourself. Many visitors hired a guide. That person would operate the rowboat, canoe or guideboat and take them to their hotel. The guide was hired for the entire visit. He didn't just take you to your hotel, he would take you fishing and hiking and hunting, too. He was like the manager of your vacation.
(Taylor)The most exciting mode of transportation, in my opinion, was the steam boat. Blue Mt Lake and nearby Raquette Lake had a regular steam boat route. They picked up and dropped off passengers at various hotels, homes, or the village. Just like a school bus route. We have an example of one here at the museum, the Osprey.
(Diane)Once you arrived at your resort, you were ready to do all the fun things Adk Murray wrote about in his book, Adventures in the Wilderness. The trip to Blue Mt Lake in the 1870s was not easy or quick. But definitely an adventure.
TRANSITION - sounds
TRANSITION - ADKX Podcast Conclusion - Thank you for joining us for an episode of ADKX-tra Credit. This podcast is brought to you by Adirondack Experience, the museum on Blue Mountain Lake. Our mission is to expand understanding of Adirondack history and the relationship between people and the Adirondack wilderness, fostering informed choices for the future.
Listen in again two weeks from now when we will have a brand new episode. In the meantime, if you want to learn more fun Adirondack history visit our Activities Page located on our website theadkx.org