In 1933, this village was made the
headquarters for a biological survey of the Racquette River Watershed
conducted by the State Conservation Dept,.(today’s D.E.C.) Offices and
laboratory facilities were made available at the Tupper Lake High School.
A staff of 34 scientists and fish experts had been recruited, mainly
from the educational institutions of the state. Many were professors from
Cornell, Syracuse, Buffalo and St Lawrence Universities. Specialist in the
field of fisheries science from R.P.I., Wesleyan, and John Hopkins
Universities were also drawn upon. Following a three month investigation and
study of the entire watershed, a detailed report which I have in my files,
was published which included maps of the entire stream system and other maps
which carried the boundaries of privately owned and posted properties plus
other useful data. Included also were a group of 12 colored plates of
fishes native to New York State and inventories and recommendations of the
study area. Originally it was feared that if access were denied to lakes
under private ownership, the study would suffer from not securing a
satisfactory picture of the system as a whole. However, this did not occur
and the team of scientists found only the best of co-operation from private
owners as the caliber of the scientists involved manifested itself. In many
instances access to several of the private properties afforded means of
studying waters typifying primitive fish associations with authentic records
carrying back to a period before the introduction of non-native species to
the Adirondack waters!! One of those private lakes was Ampersand, near
Coreys. It had never been stocked, never intensively fished thus had not
been disturbed by introductions and represented a natural Adirondack
association and both lake trout and brook trout were present in considerable
numbers.
Another of those private waters was Follensby Pond near this community
and perhaps the fishery report of that pond may be of some interest to
readers of this column. At the time of this biological survey in 1933,
Follensby Park was owned by J.E. Barbour, the nephew of Col. Wm. Barbour,
prominent Tupper Lake land owner. Mr. Barbour had acquired Follensby Pond
and 4000 surrounding acres in 1916 for $75,000. He later increased his
holdings to over 15,000 acres paying $450,000 for 11,805 acres to the Santa
Clara Lumber Co. Note: The Santa Clara Lumber Co. had purchased the land
from Dr. Thomas Durant and his son W.W. Durant for $1.50 an acre in 1890.
Dr. Durant, a principal of the Union Pacific Railroad, had hoped to extend
the Adirondack Railroad Company’s line from Saratoga which ended at North
Creek, to Canada following in part the Racquette River Corridor, a dream
that did not materialize.
Other owners of the Follensby Tract, which space doesn’t allow det
ailing, included ,over the years, the Brooklyn Cooperage, which wanted to
put in a railroad and was discouraged by Ferris Meigs of Santa Clara; the
O.W.D., which harvested its hardwood before being re-purchased by Santa
Clara and Elliot Hardwood. Today, the
Follensby Tract is owned by John McCormick of Manchester Depot, Vermont, who
purchased it in 1952. The pond itself and its buffer zone remains
protected and beautiful and is in the careful and loving stewardship of its
owner. At least four hunting clubs lease land on the property.[River Ridge,
Adirondack Hunting Club, Gatehouse Club, and the Inlet Club(?)] Hopefully,
if any transfer of title should take place in the future, these clubs can be
allowed to retain privileges at least during big game season. Such
arrangements are more and more being crafted into purchase agreements to
ensure a long standing tradition is not lost.
The tract has been extensively lumbered and is laced with miles of
roads, some of which are “all season roads” as they are called. Many of the
roads were constructed by local lumberman, Paul Mitchell, whose skill at
road building is considered without equal by his peers. Unfortunately, one
road crosses an unsightly huge metal culvert, placed to provide a crossing
over the famed outlet spitting the ponds pristine waters in a profane manner
into the outlet stream which follows a circuitous but navigable course
through a magical marsh and enters forest preserve land before joining the
Racquette River. In his poem “The Adirondacks”, Emerson describes it much
the way it is today:
“ ... a small torturous pass
Winding through grassy shallows in and
out
Two creeping miles of rushes, pads and
sponge”
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