Part 2: Big Moose Landing, once familiar spot on 4th Lake

A look at local days gone byEmil Murer, with his wife Mary Geiskopp Murer, had either bought or leased the Arnold Camp.

Probably observing the busy traffic of weary boaters at Big Moose Landing, Murer saw an opportunity for both profit and service.

In the spring of 1891, Emil Murer hired experienced camp builders to construct a hotel at Big Moose Landing.

Chris Goodsell, Sam Dunakin and Josiah Helmer built Murer’s main camp (24 x 40 ft.); a barn (13 x 25 ft) was planned.

Murer added cottages later that summer.

Murer’s services prompted the Boonville Herald to pronounce it a “fine camp” and that it “will supply a long felt need to those who travel the north branch trail.”

The following year, a sad task was performed by Emil Murer on the “Carry Trail.”

Clarence Covey, 16 year old son of Henry Covey, drowned while bathing with his brother Earl at Big Moose Lake in August 1892.

Emil Murer and Emmett Marks accompanied Mr. Covey over the trail with the body and helped transport it to Watson for internment.

Murer made improvements to his camp in 1897, adding hardwood floors and new ceilings.

In 1899, Murer’s Camp attractions included a “private fish pond” where guests could “enjoy good fishing at any time.” This is Surprise Pond.

The Carry Trail’s reason for being was lost when Dr. William Seward Webb’s railroad was completed in October 1892 and established a Big Moose Station.

A road built from the west shore of Big Moose Lake to the station also enabled guests to reach Dart’s hotel by a wagon road.

The Carry Trail has “forever wild” significance.

As a provision in his Beaver River land sale agreement with the state in January 1896, Dr. Webb required that “all trails and ways of communication of whatsoever kind or nature, whether by land or water, across and over the lands of Township 8…shall forever remain open and free to the people of the state of New York”.

Norman VanValkenburgh claimed that this was the first time that the state acquired trails or even the rights to trails in the Adirondack Park.

In February 1897, Dr. Webb’s Nehasane manager, Edward Burns, built a highway from Big Moose to Eagle Bay.

Two years later, the highway from Old Forge to Eagle Bay was completed. By 1899, the Carry Trail had become a choice excursion route for Fourth Lake visitors.

The Carry Trail was close to disruption in November 1898 when, in a letter to Burns by George Clinton Ward concerning the route of the planned Raquette Lake Railway, Ward compared the costs of two routes.

One route would have had the railroad crossing at Bubb Lake, then intersecting the new highway at Eagle Creek but “would do very little business on Fulton Chain”.

Consequently, Ward recommended the more costly “Carry Pond Route” because the line would reach Fourth Lake farther west, “passing close to all the camps on the North Shore, Continue reading →