— Part Two —
The Raquette Lake
Railroad Company
First on the transportation schedules page that appeared in a July 1900 issue of The Adirondack News, 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.
George Clinton Ward, its superintendent, had been Boon-ville’s town supervisor in the 1880s, later a Black River Canal Superinten-dent responsible for state reservoirs and a noted civil engineer who had surveyed a Raquette Lake route for Dr. Webb in 1892.
Ward was Huntington’s supervisor for surveying and building the Raquette Lake Railroad. His headquarters was Eagle Bay Station.
Ward would later associate with Henry Huntington’s hydroelectric projects in California and manage the drilling of a 12 mile tunnel through the San Jacinto granite gorge.
Located in the Sierra National Forest, Ward Tunnel and Ward Dam are popular Southern California Edison tour spots named after George C. Ward.
After Huntington’s death, Dr. Webb became president, leased the line to the New York Central in 1901, the N. Y. Central acquired it in 1917 and its operations ceased in 1933.
At Raquette Lake Station, passengers connected with the Blue Mountain and Raquette Lake Steamboat Line.
Blue Mountain and Raquette Lake Steamboat Line
The Blue Mountain and Raquette Lake Steamboat Line was an unincorporated company started by W. W. Durant in 1879 to provide transportation between the two lakes.
Passengers traveled by steamer to Bassett’s Carry, now Marion River Carry Lower End (L. E.), then rode a stage or walked to the Upper End (U.E.) and took another steamer through the Eckford Chain to Blue Mountain Lake.
In 1900, the steamer on Raquette Lake was the “Killo-quah” and one year later the “Adirondack.”
At the Upper End, passengers took either the “Utowana” or the “Toowarloondah” through the Eckford Chain.
The new steamer “Tuscarora” would be launched at Blue Mountain on June 26, 1900; today this ship is a camp on the lake’s shore.
The Utowana stop at Blue Mountain Lake was the former Prospect House. Blue Mountain House is on the site of today’s Adirondack Museum.
New for travelers, the Marion River Carry Railroad replaced the short trip by stage.
It had been constructed by Durant in 1899, was now open and, at little over 3/4 mile long, was the shortest standard gauge railroad.
With the death of Huntington, Dr. Webb became its president in August 1900 and the company, steamers and railroad were reorganized as the Raquette Lake Transportation Company in 1901.
It operated the Carry Railroad until 1929 and its steamers as public carriers until 1930.
J. George Thompson had been Durant’s superintendent since 1890 and continued in that role, to which in 1902 was added the new Fulton Navigation Company and Fulton Chain Railway.
After he died in the summer of 1902 from an accident occurring at a launching of the “Tuscarora,” his assistant Maurice Callahan succeeded him in 1903.
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New York Central and Hudson River Railroad
This major line was formed by the Cornelius Vanderbilt merger in 1869 of the New York Central, formed by Erastus Corning in 1853 when he combined 8 operating lines and two others planned, and the Hudson River Railroad, acquired by Vanderbilt in 1864.
Because Utica was the major hub for trains north to the Adirondacks, The NYC&HRR provided this schedule of east and west connections in New York state to its Utica Adirondack Division.
In 1914, its name changed to the New York Central and in 1968, this railroad merged with the rival Pennsylvania Railroad to became Penn Central.