The Bethany and Rufus Roots Quartet will bring folk and world music to View in Old Forge on Thursday, August 16, at 7:30 p.m.

Vocalist, Bethany Yarrow, daughter of Peter Yarrow of the legendary folk-pop group, Peter, Paul and Mary, was surrounded by music while growing up, she said.

“I was always singing with my dad on stage and at rallies. I grew up in the political sphere and I also sang at fundraisers. But I wasn’t really a singer’s singer,” she said.

And singing wasn’t on her mind when she won a fellowship in college to make a feature length documentary in South Africa, called “Mama Awethu!”.

The 1994 award-winning film won prizes at Sundance Film Festival and other festivals and was aired nationally on PBS.

“It ended up being very successful as a documentary, but I didn’t want to be a documentary film maker. It was just something I wanted to say. But singing (professionally) was something I always assumed I would do,” Yarrow said.

After graduating from college she decided to try to make it as a singer. And she did. Her debut CD, “Rock Island,” released in 2003, received great reviews.

Her voice, with her dramatic interpretations of American folk, jazz and blues, has been described as “smokey and mesmerizing.”

Continue reading →

Kurt and Ximena Gardner

It’s only been two years since Kurt and Ximena Gardner launched their local production company, Adirondack Mountain Productions, but already the couple has attracted domestic and international film and print crews to the area.

A short film by a group of New York University film students in the winter of 2010/2011 was the first project managed by the Gardners.

The drama, “And Winter Slow,” won Best Narrative Short Film at the 2011 Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, CA.

And recently they wrapped up their work with a Danish high fashion menswear magazine, Jack & Jones, that shot on location in Port Leyden, Hawkinsville, Blue Mountain Lake and at Wheeler Pond in Old Forge.

In both projects the Gardners scouted for all of the locations and took care of all of the film crew’s needs—from transportation to catering to furnishing photo props.

The Gardners are currently awaiting word on two new projects, one of which is a photo shoot for a French menswear bathing suit catalog that could possibly begin in late August.

Kurt, a native of Victor in the Rochester area, studied photography in college and worked at Kodak.  Continue reading →

St. Williams on Long Point at Raquette Lake, an historic and architecturally unique church, was built in 1890 by Adirondack developer William West Durant to attract wealthy urbanites to purchase summer residences away from the noise and crowding of the cities.

According to Bea Garvin, a charter member of St. Williams on Long Point, Inc, the church was also constructed for the workmen who were building Durant’s Great Camps that included Camp Kill Kare and Pine Knot.

A photo of St. Williams Church’s original dedication

He commissioned the J. C. Cady Architectural Firm in New York City to design it, she said.

“He had established a town on the north shore of a point of land called Long Point, and he named it Durant,” Garvin said.

It included a store and the church, which Durant deeded to the Catholic Church, she said, adding that church was administered by Franciscan Friars who used it as a summer retreat. “It sits on the back side of a piece of ground where Durant built Pine Knot, his earliest Great Camp,” she said.

The waterways were the only means of travel at that time, but with the arrival of a railroad spur from New York City to what is now Raquette Lake, the land locked point called Durant declined and eventually became known as St. Williams on Long Point.

Garvin said that in 1990, her late husband Anthony Garvin and Brother Edward Falsey, a Franciscan Friar and director of St. Williams, were concerned about the deteriorating condition of the historic church which was celebrating its 100th anniversary that year.

A special Mass celebrating the Centennial had to be held at St. William’s Chapel at Raquette Lake, because the foundation of the church on the Point was not safe enough to accommodate a congregation.

Winter ice had also torn the logs loose under the dock, making it unsafe.

“My husband noticed that the church was going to literally fall into the ground. It had never been restored,” Garvin said.

Garvin herself became involved in the church’s restoration plans following her husband’s death in 1992.

“We started the Pier Fund in 1992-93,” she said. “I went out and raised money, along with others, to fix the piers under the church foundation.” Continue reading →

DEC Police Officer Russell Ritzel takes notes on the damage by the bear as Candy Cottage owner, Larry Starer describes the incident. Photo by Carol Hansen

Larry Starer, owner of The Candy Cottage in Old Forge was surprised on Tuesday morning, July 24 with a call from a neighboring business informing him that a bear had ripped off siding from his building.

The bear was apparently trying to get inside but had somehow gotten scared off.

After Starer reported the incident, Department of Conservation Police Officer Russell Ritzel, arrived on the scene to investigate.

“He smelled the fragrance of the candy inside and he ripped off the siding and almost made entry. You can see the claw marks,’ said Ritzel, pointing out the deep scratches to Starer.

The baseboard at basement level had also been ripped away and showed signs of another attempt by the bear to gain entry. (Starer said if the bear had gotten inside the security alarm would have sounded.)

Upon taking a closer look, Ritzel said, “I’ve got to check this out. He could be in there sleeping.”

After Ritzel checked out the basement, he determined that the bear had made entry through the opening but presumably backed out because of the smell of the fuel tanks inside, which killed the aroma of the popcorn and sweets.

“Then he decided he was going to try going in through the wall,” he said.

“This (activity) is what I’m trying to prevent. With our dry conditions, we have the bears coming in town looking for food because there’s no food in the woods. The Bears are opportunist. People are throwing them ice cream and marshmallows and just creating problems like this. It’s a people problem,” he added.

Ritzel wants to remind the public to secure their garbage, secure their dumpsters, lock their car doors, do not leave food inside their cars, and do not leave screens open, to discourage bears from coming into town.