Town of Webb Historian Peg Masters, will present a program titled, Civil War Veterans of Brown’s Tract, on Wednesday, July 25, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Big Moose Property Owners Association Center at 135 Higby Point Road.

The slide show presentation will feature the military and biographical stories of local guides, hotel proprietors, and Brown’s Tract Property owners who served in the civil war.

A partial list of the men that will be covered in the program includes: Samuel Dunakin, Dr. Samuel Niccolls, Gen. Benjamin Harrison, Charles Jennette, John Commerford, John W. Barker, and Albert Vander Veer.

The program is sponsored by the Town of Webb Historical Association and there is a suggested donation of $2. For more information call (315) 369-3838 or visit www.webbhistory.org.

Following are the “chip” times, which proceed for each runner as they cross the actual start line.

15K Results

Old Forge:

Paul Rivet…………….. 1:12:39

Anne Payne…………….. 1:21:46

Hilary George…………….. 1:23:36

Kimberly Court*…………….. 1:25:42

Patrick Perkins…………….. 1:26:51

Jason Perkins…………….. 1:29:33

Danielle Beckingham …………….. 1:31:53

Kathleen Rivet…………….. 1:31:54

Joanna Cloherty…………….. 1:34:11

Nick Bankert …………….. 1:35:52

George Oswald…………….. 1:38:50

Justin Dibble…………….. 1:41:32

Christine Morgan…………….. 1:44:24

Fred Roth…………….. 1:53:09

Marion Oswald…………….. 1:53:17

*Formerly of Old Forge

Eagle Bay: Continue reading →

Participants in the Second Annual Fishing Program that was held at the Old Forge lakefront by Russell Ritzell of the DEC, Region 6, and Holly Armendola of the Town of Webb Youth Program. Photo by Carol Hansen

The Second Annual Town of Webb Youth Recreation Fishing Program, conducted by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation was held at the Old Forge lakefront on Monday, July 15th.

Junior Deputy Cards were given out to all of the kids by Russell Ritzel, DEC Conservation Officer of  Region 6, who talked to all of the kids about wildlife conservation and learning to fish.

Following his talk the boys and girls were split into two groups.

The first group fished off the Navigation dock while the second group worked on their entries in a Fishing Coloring Contest until they all changed places. Continue reading →

The Otter Lake Association will host a Meet n’ Greet Your Neighbor fundraiser at Kowalik’s Hotel on Route 28 in Otter Lake on Saturday, July 28 beginning at 4 p.m.

The event will feature a dinner buffet and special gift raffles. The cost of the buffet is $15 for adults, half-price for children under the age of eight. A percentage of the proceeds will support the Otter Lake Association’s spring Bti application program which combats blackflies.

The per-season Bti application cost is $6,500, an expense that is borne primarily by the association’s membership. The event offers an opportunity for others in the community, who also benefit from the spraying, to help support it and insure it’s continuance.

The Big Moose Community Chapel at 1544 Big Moose Road has been listed on the New York State Register of Historic Places.

The Chapel started the application process three years ago and was notified that the state panel approved in a meeting on June 14, 2012.

Now, the application will go to the Department of the Interior where it is expected that the Department will approve a listing on the National Register of Historic Places within 45 days.

The Chapel, built by Earl Covey, was dedicated August 2, 1931 after a fire a year earlier had done extensive damage.

Covey was a prominent builder, mason, and woodsman who also built Covewood Lodge, Twitchell Lake Inn, and many other camps on Big Moose and Twitchell lakes.

The Big Moose Community Chapel has begun its 81st year with Rev. Dr. Richard McCaughey preaching the 9:30 and 11a.m. Sunday services from July through September 2nd. All are welcome.

Burying treasure in obscure places, never to be found

When I was nine years old the woods around my Limekiln Lake home were a wild and quiet space that I explored daily.

In my explorations I sought out places that I imagined to be magical, as if they were located in far-off lands.

Rocky out crops resembled castles or large ships. Huge pinched together boulders created cave-like dwellings.

Streams became the Amazon or Nile Rivers, and the lake itself was filled with pirate ships or canoes carrying war-painted Indians.

As an avid reader, my vivid imagination was stoked by my passion for adventure books.

It was quite common for me to make a sword and lance from stripped maple sticks and hoist an old garbage can lid on my arm and enter the woods as a conquistador.

Or sometimes I would make a bow and arrow and prowl the woods looking for Indians.

One hot and muggy morning in mid-July while sorting through my tackle box filled with cool stuff, I decided to make a treasure map and bury some of the collected booty. Continue reading →

The short life of Inlet’s first theater, opened in 1923

Downtown Inlet in 1925

In 1902, Inlet was a new governmental entity. At that time, Inlet consisted of a few notable hotels supplemented by private housekeeping cottages run by the Town’s first settlers, a lumber mill struggling with financial difficulties and a stage/steamer transportation system (begun in 1896 by Fred Kirch and others made obsolete by the 1900 opening of the Raquette Lake Railroad) to Raquette Lake.

But the Town’s permanence was established also by a brand new church dedicated the previous year, the Chapel of the Lakes.

While the Inlet Common School would be soon established, the growth of the town beyond Fourth Lake’s shores would start a few years later in 1906 with Albert C. Boshart’s subdividing the rear of his 12 acre Arrowhead property into town lots along the “highway” to Sixth Lake Dam.

Shortly after witnessing the arrest of Chester Gillette for Grace Brown’s murder in his Arrowhead lobby, Boshart sold the hotel property to Charles O’Hara.

O’Hara was already a local merchant selling goods to locals from his Inlet Inn property.

But Boshart retained the highway subdivision lots to sell to prospective property owners and merchants for a new town. Continue reading →