The Weekly Adirondack printed a full page of transportation schedules from a July 1900 issue of The Adirondack News.
I found this while working at the Goodsell Memorial Museum for the Town of Webb Historical Association during the summer of 2007.
On one page were all of the routes available for reaching the west central Adirondacks as far as Blue Mountain and Long Lakes.
While the choices were modern for that day, the ad included options available before steamers and railroads invaded the region.
The last year of the 19th century would be the end of business for some of the transportation companies and the first year for others.
The ad also revealed a local train station probably forgotten until now.
The Adirondack News was a new weekly paper printed in Utica by the Adirondack News Company.
It would be “devoted to Fulton Chain, Raquette Lake and Blue Mountain Lakes” and have “departments for Big Moose, Little Moose, White and Otter Lakes.”
It was managed by Campbell W. Hodges of Utica and F. Remington Switzer of Little Falls.
Its Fulton Chain correspondent was Miss Lou Garmon of Old Forge (Samuel Garmon’s daughter) who had been a correspondent for the Utica Daily Press.
Its inaugural issue was July 4, 1900 and the paper would be printed every Wednesday during the summer season.
Issues surviving today are a valuable resource for anyone wishing to identify early Old Forge businesses.
I could not determine whether the paper existed in 1901.
Splitting the ad vertically in half, I will now examine the transportation companies advertised on the page.
LEFT COLUMN OF ADVERTISEMENT PAGE.
The Raquette Lake Railroad Company
First on the page, the Raquette Lake Railroad Company presented its inaugural schedule.
The railroad was completed during 1899 and its president, Collis Huntington of Pine Knot Camp, rode in his private car over the new rails to Raquette Lake that October.
Its directors also included Alfred Vanderbilt, Dr. Webb, W.W. Durant, J. P. Morgan and two Whitneys.
After being opposed in court by the Old Forge Company and its transportation companies during 1899 and early 1900, Huntington’s line just opened to the public.
Before, travelers took a 2 mile railroad from Fulton Chain (Thendara) Station to the Forge House dock followed by the long steamboat ride to Fourth Lake.
Now, they could disembark one stop further north at Clearwater Station and take this new railroad to Eagle Bay.
To reach Raquette Lake from Fourth Lake, they no longer needed to take a series of steamers and stages to Brown’s Tract Inlet.
The line listed flag stops at four popular resorts and had its terminus at Raquette Lake.
Later, Bald Mountain Station would be renamed Minnowbrook. One month after opening his railroad, Collis Huntington died at Pine Knot Camp.