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Long Lake Has a Rich History
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This past summer Jane and Mike Arsenault of Long Lake
turned their dream of owning their own business, being their own boss, and
being in charge of their own destiny into a reality. Yes, they bought a
store just outside the Long Lake village. The store they purchased is what
is known in the food industry as a “C” store. C stands for convenience as
opposed to super market and other descriptive categories.
As “C” stores go, the Arsenault store is A+. It is modern, clean, well
lighted, has excellent displays and a well-designed layout. An entire wall
is devoted to floor-to-ceiling “visi” coolers containing an eclectic mix of
beverages, some of which are not found other than in metro stores. The day I
visited the store the staff were bright, friendly and knowledgeable. it was
a pleasure to stop there and I left the store not only impressed, but with
the certainty that Long Lake’s newest entrepreneurs knew what they were
doing and would be successful in a very competitive endeavor.
Long Lake has a rich history which its residents are very aware of and
cherish. The talented women’s war canoe team, for example, named their
beautiful vintage wood-canvas canoe the IN CA PAH CO. This was the Indian
name for the lake because of the predominance of basswood (linden or popple)
along its shores. Roughly translated into English, the name becomes
Lindermere and for a time Lindermere was an early and poetic name for the
lake. At one time it was also called Wide River, describing a widened
channel of the Racquette River over 14 miles long and nearly a mile wide at
its broadest point. This broadening has created one of the most beautiful
lakes in the region. Its many islands, long sandy beaches and wonderful
views of the Seward and Santanoni Range as you approach where the splendid
Cold River joins the Racquette, mark it as unforgettable.
The Arsenaults named their store the Kickerville Mobil, suggesting not only
a sense of humor but of history. I couldn’t help wonder, however, how many
people would related to this curious name. I quickly learned that people
were interested in the whys and wherefores of the name and, if nothing else,
it would certainly provide an interesting piece of historical lore.
Long Lake, you see, had grown up on both sides of a narrow of the lake (now
spanned by the Route 30 bridge). An itinerant peddler visiting the west
shore settlement, so the story goes, was not very well received and promptly
named the place Kickerville. When he called the east shore settlement and
found his reception was not any better, he gave that settlement the
unflattering name of Gougeville! If the story were not largely anecdotal,
that peddler certainly must have been a misfit, a real grouch or both. I
have never met a more wonderful, caring, honest, down-to-earth group of
people than the residents of the village of Long Lake.
Recently, while hiking into Dog Pond to take in the last weekend of the
extended trout season, I ran into a bow hunter. He was a native Long Laker
and I was able to test my question on how many people would relate to
Kickerville. His response was that the present Walker Road is still referred
to by some old-timers as the Kickerville Road, and yes, his parents had
often talked about Kickerville but he never heard of Gougeville.
He also told me that the west shore and the east shore settlements were
first connected by a cable-operated ferry which was replaced in 1870 by a
floating bridge (his mother had pictures of this bridge). Later a suspension
bridge was built which was reputed, he had heard, as the longest single span
in the state. During the Depression and later in the early 1940s, fill was
added to create a causeway which eliminated Pine Island’s status as a true
island (today’s Island Snack Bar) and allowed the present day shorter steel
bridge that accommodates Route 30.
Next week: Long Lake continued. |
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