History Trivia Questions & Answers

Which High Peak was originally named "Gorge of the Dial"?

    The Gorge actually refers to Hunter's Pass on the eastern slope of Nippletop. The western flank descends into Elk Pass, the shortest route to this 4620ft. summit. It probably was named "Dial" by Professor Emmons in 1837 - but locals insisted on calling it "Nippletop" because of the anatomical profile from the southern vista. Check out the ad for Elk Lake Lodge in a recent Adirondack Life Magazine at the mountain at lake's end! Incidently, ADK's High Peaks guide uses two words, "Nipple Top" but I've seen it more often as one word.

    Source: Peaks and People of the Adirondacks, 1927m //russell Carson
In 1842, which mountain was referred to as "Saint Anthony"?

    Listed as the 14th highest summit, Santanoni's name is believed to be an Abenaki derivation of St. Anthony. The French Franciscan fathers ministered the Abenaki Indians and probably were paying tribute to St. Anthony of Padua. Emmons referred to "Saint Anthony" mountain in his Natural History of New York in 1842, but this wonderful peak viewed from Newcomb was first ascended in 1866 by Dve Hunter and Theodore Davis of New York.

    Source: Peaks and People of the Adirondacks, 1927m //russell Carson
It gracefully stands sentinel on the northeastern corner of the park and is distinguished as being the first Adirondack High Peak to have a name.

    At 4867 ft. the 5th highest summit, Whiteface, was known at one time as Thei-a-no-guen, and Indian name for "white head" and also Wa-ho-par-te-nie, an Algonquin name meaning "it is white." The 1st recorded ascent is credited to Professor Emmons, Sept. 20, 1836, and late in the century was a popular mountain to climb on horseback, or snowshoes or skies.

    Source: Peaks and People of the Adirondacks, 1927m //russell Carson
This mountain is currently named for the most prominent individual in Adirondack history - but was given the name "Sabele" by Old Mountain Phelps and also briefly called "Sebille".

    Phelps origionally named this peak for the Indian who discovered the ore at McIntyre. In 1873, Verplanck Colvin. superintendent of the Adirondack Survey ascended Mount Hurricane and inquired about the name of Sabele, which he could see to the west. His local guide said he believed it was nameless. On August 20th, they climbed it and later Colvin in his 1873 report claimed his guides named it for him. Phelps who was a friend of Colvin's, had no objection. Although critized for his egotism, insensitivity to the welfare of his men and failure to complete a map of the Adirondacks, Colvin pioneered efforts to establish the Adirondack State Park and a State Forest Preserve.

    Source: Peaks and People of the Adirondacks, 1927m //russell Carson
Here's an easy one - this High Peak was named for a 15-year-old who lived at the base of the mountain in 1839. It is the most northern of the all the High Peaks!

    The family's name was McComb. An all night search party looked for their daughter Esther who attempted to climb Whiteface against her parents wishes but got lost on this 4240 ft. peak. The 1st reference to the name Esther Mountain appears in Opening of the Adirondacks in 1865 by an anonymous author.

    Source: Peaks and People of the Adirondacks, 1927m //russell Carson
Who is known as the father of today's Forest Ranger Force?

    His name is Col. William Freeman Fox, 1840-1909 appointed Superintendent of Forests in NYS in 1891. See related story in my Adirondack People section.
What future President spent a summer at Paul Smith's Hotel in 1871?
    The seeds of wilderness preservation may well have sprouted in Theodore Roosevelt will visiting with his family in 1871 at Paul Smith's Hotel on St. Regis Lake. He was twelve years old at the time. Thiry years later on another visit to Mt. Marcy, he received notice that President McKinley was dying from a gunshot wound in Buffalo. Teddy was rushed through the night south along today's Rt.28N to North Creek where he took the oath of office for the Presidency of the United States. On the state level s Governer of New York, he was a strong advocate for greater forest service protection. As President he was instrumental in establishing our National Park System.
    Source: Adirondack Firsts, 1992, David Cross & Joan Potter
In 1887, who was the largest landowner in the Adirondacks?
    It began with Dr. Thomas C. Durant who pruchased 250.000 acres in 1848 for five cents an acre. Over the next 35 years Dr. Durant as principle controller of the Adirondack Company - continued to acquire land at the same low price, all tax exempt until 1883. In 1887, papers revealed that his son, William West Durant and companies he controlled owned 670,000 acres, most for railroad options but as much as 250,000 acres attained in tax sales.
    Source: The Great Forests of the Adirondacks, 1994, Barbara McMartin
Who occupied (squatted) on Dr. Thomas Durant's Osprey Island in Raquette Lake from 1869 to about 1880?
    That would be Alvah Dunning, the hermit guide of Raquette Lake, born in Lake Pleasant 1816. He guided the first white men into Raquette at age twelve, it is reported, moved there to Indian Point at first and then in 1869 took up residence on Osprey Island in an open camp for three years before he enclosed it. Owned by Dr. Thomas Durant who had a buyer in 1980, Alvah fought off eviction with a gun to his shoulder until one day by chance Mrs. Durant induced him to come to tea at Camp Pine Knot. Whether his weakness for this beverage or femine persuasiveness (probably the tea), he grudgingly accepted $100 to vacate the island. For more on Alvah's incredible story, check out my Adirondack People section.
    Source: A History of the Adirondacks, Vol. II, Alfred L. Donaldson
What Adirondack Poet, born in 1879, was also a model, once on the cover of Vanity Fair, as well as a Gibson girl and the famous "Fisher Girl"?
    She grew up in Essex, Warren and Hamilton Counties, "farmed out" to relatives when her own parents struggled through economic hardships raising a family on a lumberjack's wages. Born in 1879 near Crane Mountain, Jeanne Robert Foster's future changed dramatically after marrying Matlock Foster, a man older than her father who recognized her potential. They eventually moved to New York City where Jeanne found work in fashion journalism and modeling. Their next move took them to Boston where Jeanne studied, wrote book and poetry reviews, and got a job as a war correspondent in Britain. She is best remembered today by her stories and poetry of old neighbors and friends in the North Woods of the Adirondack Park. Alfred Kazin says it best in the Forward to Adirondack Portraits - a collection of her work published post-humously in 1986 - "The book is a thoroughly unexpected, delightful contribution to our living. It fills a void left in our hearts by the demons of progress and the acceleration of time." For more on Jeanne and a sample of her work - visit my site on Adirondack People.
    Source: Adirondack Portraits, 1986, Reidinger-Johnson, Editor
    The Woman in the Mountain, 1989, Kate H. Winter
In 1646, who named Lake George "Lake Saint Sacrament"?
    In 1609 Samuel de Champlain, on a foray with Canadian Indians south of the St. Lawrence area, came upon a group of Iroquois, and in the battle that followed two Iroquois were shot and killed. Less then 40 years later, a French Jesuit missionary, Father Jogues became a prisoner of the Iroquois, and is believed to have been the first European to see today's Lake George. Although he was tortured mercilessly, he eventually escaped and returned to France. In 1646 he returned to Canada and again traveled south in hopes of making peace. It was on this journey that he passed Lake George again and named it "Lake Saint Sacrament". The Mohawks, still hating the French alliance with their old arch enemies the Canadian Indians, overtook Father Jogues several months later and murdered the gentle peacemaker.
    Source: Adirondack Country, William Chapman White, 1985
Which community in the Adirondacks once was known as "Timbuctu"?
    John Brown (of Harper's Ferry) settled his family in 1848 on a track of land abolitionist Gerrit Smith offered to black settlers. This was the first African-American settlement in the Adirondacks and was referred to as "Timbuctu". It is located just south of today's Lake Placid on Rt. 73 and a small museum is open to the public at the site.
    Source: Adirondack Firsts, David Cross & Joan Potter, 1992
Who was Martha Rebentisch?
    I love this story! Martha Rebentisch (eventually Ruben) arrived in Saranac Lake in the late 1920's to take the "cure" for tuberculosis. Much had changed at the sanitorium since Dr. Trudeau's time. Bed-ridden and uncured by 1931, Martha responded to an ad by a local woodsman, Fred Rice of Saranac Lake, to participate in a study he wish to conduct. He wanted to take a patient twelve miles by boat to Weller Pond, to test his theory that the best cure was the open air. Rice, about 55 at the time and a guideboat builder, did not expect a woman barely 20, but Martha responded quickly to his care. Many times she was left alone, yet this NYC born woman soon immersed herself in her surroundings, was liberated from her disease and underwent a "metaphoric baptism in the purifying life of the mountains." Over the next 28 years she kept a journal, and eventually published several books: The Healing Woods - 1952, The Way of the Wilderness - 1955, A Sharing of Joy - 1963. Here is a sample from her second book, p. 78.
    "To the wilderness around us thirty years meant only a tiny bit of decay and replacement, a few more inches of girth to the trees, a little more duff on the forest floor. Out here, time, as we measured it, seemed to stand still, and prehaps that, more than anything else, was what men found so sustaining and so seductive."
    Source: The Woman in the Mountain, Kate H. Winter, 1989
Which President spent a year of his life in a lean-to, known then as a half-faced camp?
    I had always thought the lean-to was indigious to the Adirondacks! It seems Daniel Boone used one as did Abe Lincoln and his family during their first year in Indiana. Abe was seven years old at the time. It is not known if Indians in the Adirondacks used lean-tos, but settlers and trappers built them as provisional shelters as early as 1803.
    Source: Adirondack Pilgrimage, Paul Jamieson, 1986
Where is Cathedral Pines?
    The Cathedral Pines I am referring to is a small stand of virgin timber which is located just off Rt. 28, south of Raquette Lake. The DEC sign post is on the right side of the road just past the 8th Lake Campground entrance. These trees are HUGE & beautiful - and there is a memorial to a pilot who was downed over France during WWII. It is inscribed as follows:
    This Tree was created by God and old when our country was born,
    fine and clean and straight, grained like the boy himself,
    2nd Lt. Malcolm L. Blue, Navigator of a Liberator Bomber
    with the Eighth Airforce, killed over France, June 2, 1944
    Few men have earned so fine a memorial
Who was the Saranac guide who hiked the High Peaks with Bob and George Marshall?
    His name was Herbert Clark, a local guide, expert fisherman, master guideboat rower and as Bob said --teacher, philosopher, and most humorist person he ever met. Without his friendship, Bob's life may well have taken quite a different path. Herb had a brother John from Newman, also a guide, and Herb's descendants still live in the Saranac area.
    Source: A Wilderness Origional, James M. Glover, 1986 & email
What were the former names for Mount Marshall?
    Herbert & Mt. Clinton. Really interesting story! A Mr. Carson in the Adirondack Mountain Club proposed 6 names for various high peaks, among them, Mt. Marshall for a peak in the Dix Range and Herbert for the current Mount Marshall in the MacIntyre Range. These names appeared on a NYS Conservation Commission map in 1928. The following year, a Mr. Anthony from Newburg, also a club member, got the State to issue a law prohibiting the naming of any natural object for a living person. Many felt this was due to anti-Semitic feelings against the Marshalls and Jewish people in general during that time. The controversy continued. After Bob's death in 1939, the Forty-Sixers in Troy petitioned to the State to have a mountain named for him. A 1953 Map shows the current MacIntyre Peak as Mt. Clinton, but in 1972, the US. Board of Geographical Names officially gave the 4,360 peak the name Mount Marshall to honor him for the first recorded ascent. Sadly - it was the very peak that originally was named Herbert by Carson in the 1920's, yet the most popular route to this trailless summit is up Herbert's Brook - a diminutive tribute to Bob's guide, companion and friend.
    Source: Ibid., & Guide to the High Peaks Trails, ADK Inc., 1985
Who was the 1st female Fire Tower Ranger in NYS?
    The Fire Tower was Bald Mt. (Rondaxe) in the Southern Adirondacks. Her name was Mrs. Charles Mykel of Old Forge, daughter of Ned Ball - a local builder and game officer. Although she commuted daily to her work, her sucessor, Miss Harriet Rega, lived at the summit for 6 summers. Harriet was also well known as a guide, trapper and expert hunter.
    Source: Up Old Forge Way, David H. Beetle, 1948
What waterway did the Iroquois word "Te-ka-hun-di-an-do" refer to:?
    The Iroquois referred to the Moose River by this name. It is said to have meant "to clear an opening."There were two primary routes throught the Adirondacks in Champlain's day, the Hudson-Lake George-Lake Champlain route and the inland North-South route from the Mohawk Valley-Moose River-Fulton Chain-Raquette River-Saranac Lakes. The Fulton Chain is more friendly to birch-bark navigation, compared to as the French used to say "the wind she blow on Lake Champlain".
    Source: Up Old Forge Way, David H. Beetle, 1948
Who was known as the "Hermit of Ampersand"?
    His name was Walter Channing Rice, 1852-1924. The plaque reads: "Hermit of Ampersand, who kept Vigil from this Peak, 1915-1923"
    Source: Guide to Adirondack Trails: High Peaks Region, ADK Inc. 1985
Who said in 1838, "the cluster of mountains in the neighborhood of the Upper Hudson and Ausable rivers, I propose to call the Adirondack group..."
    The statement continues..."a name by which a well-known tribe of Indians who once hunted here may be commemorated." It was printed in the Report of the Geological Survey of New York, Feb. 1838 by Professor Ebenezer Emmons of Williams College. A remarkable individual I plan to do a story on at some point. In 1936, he was appointed geologist-in-chief to survey this area by the NYS Legislature (remember this was 30 years before Verplanck Colvin began his studies).
    The word "Adirondacks" is authentic Iroquois and is supposed to have been a vord of derision spat at the Algonquins, who were forced to live on tree buds and bark during severe winters. The word first appeared in print as "Aderondacke," in a vocabulary of Mohawk words compiled in 1634 by Dutch Traders who were in contact with the Indians. there the word means "Frenchmen and Englishmen." (See below)
    Source: Adirondack Country, William Chapman White, 1954, 1967
What is the origin of the name "Couchsachrage"?
    The Mohawks were one of the Five Nations of the Long House in Central NY called Iroquois by the French. (They subsequently expanded to Six Nations in the 18th century with the Tuscaroras - a group expelled from North Carolina). The Five Nations claimed the area north of their valley as a private hunting preserve long before the arrival of white men. The entire wilderness was labeled "Couchsachrage," which meant, "The Beaver Hunting Grounds of the Iroquois". Meanwhile the Algonquins who lived on the northern fringes of the Park in the St. Laurence River area and on into Canada, frequented southward along the same water routes enjoyed by hunting and trapping parties of Iroquois. Savage battles ensued and eventually Couchsachrage become known as "the dark and bloody ground", shunned for certain fear of doom. The long-house, organized Iroquois contemptously referred to their enemies, the Algonquins, particularily the Montagnais as Ha-de-ron-dah, "eater of trees". The gutteral sound was translated by white folks as Adirondacks.
    So.. in short - it does come from an Iroquois word - a derisive term for probably for the Montagnais, who were round-aboutly commemorated by Professor Emmons in 1838!
    Source: Adirondack Country, William Chapman White, 1954, 1967

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Last updated: March 8, 1997