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Lake George (New York)
Encyclopedia
Lake George, nicknamed the Queen of American Lakes, is a long, narrow oligotrophic lake draining northwards into Lake Champlain
and the St. Lawrence River Drainage basin
located at the southeast base of the Adirondack Mountains
in northern New York
, U.S.A.
. It lies within the upper region of the Great Appalachian Valley
. The lake is situated along the historical natural (Amerindian) path between the valley of the Hudson River
and that of the St. Lawrence, so lies on the direct land route between Albany, New York
and Montreal
. The lake extends about 32.2 miles (51.8 km) on a north-south axis, is quite deep, and varies from 1 to 3 miles (1.7 to 5 km) in width, so presents a significant barrier to east-west travel. Although the year-round population of the Lake George region is relatively small, the summertime population can swell to over 50,000 residents, especially in the Lake George village region on the south end of the lake.
Lake George drains into Lake Champlain
to its north through a short stream, the La Chute River
, with many falls and rapids, dropping about 230 feet (70 m) in its 3½-mile (6 km) coursevirtually all of which is within the lands of Ticonderoga, New York
and near the site of the famous Fort Ticonderoga
. Ultimately the waters flowing via the 106 miles (170.6 km) long Richelieu River
empty into the St. Lawrence River downstream and northeast of Montreal and then into the North Atlantic Ocean above Nova Scotia
.
. Some of the more famous bays are Silver Bay
, Kattskill Bay, Northwest Bay, Basin Bay, and Oneida Bay.
The lake is distinguished by "The Narrows," an island-filled narrow section (approximately five miles long) that is bordered on the west by Tongue Mountain and the east by Black Mountain. In all, Lake George is home to 165 islands and 230 satellite islands (exactly 395 total), most of them state-owned. They range from the car-sized Skipper's Jib to larger Vicar's and Long Island. Camping permits are attainable for the larger portion of islands. The lake's deepest point is 200 feet (61 m), found between Dome Island and Buck Mountain in the northern part of the southern quarter of the lake and all of its attractions.
The lake was originally named the Andia-ta-roc-te, by local Native Americans. James Fenimore Cooper
in his narrative
Last of the Mohicans called it the Horican, after a tribe which may have lived there, because he felt the original name was too hard to pronounce.
The first European visitor to the area, Samuel de Champlain
, noted the lake in his journal on July 3, 1609, but did not name it. In 1646, the French
Jesuit missionary Isaac Jogues
, the first European to view the lake, named it Lac du Saint-Sacrement, and its exit stream, La Chute (the fall).
On August 28, 1755, William Johnson
led British colonial forces to occupy the area in the French and Indian War
. He renamed the lake as Lake George for King George II
and built a protecting fortification at its southern end. The fort was named Fort William Henry
after the King's grandson Prince William Henry
, a younger brother of the later King George III
. On September 8, 1755 the Battle of Lake George
was fought between the forces of Britain and France.
In September, the French responded by beginning construction of Fort Carillon, later called Fort Ticonderoga
, on a point where La Chute enters Lake Champlain. These fortifications controlled the easy water route between Canada
and colonial New York
.
On March 13, 1758, an attempted attack
on that fort by irregular forces led by Robert Rogers
was one of the most daring raids of that war. The unorthodox (to Europeans) tactics of Rogers' Rangers
are seen as the inspiring the later creation of similar special forces
in later conflicts — including the United States Army Rangers
.
Lake George’s key position on the Montreal
-New York
water route made possession of the forts at either end — particularly Ticonderoga — strategically crucial during the American Revolution
.
Later in the war, British General John Burgoyne
’s decision to bypass the easy water route to the Hudson River
that Lake George offered and, instead, attempt to reach the Hudson though the marshes and forests at the southern end of Lake Champlain
, led to the British defeat at Saratoga
.
On May 31, 1791, Thomas Jefferson
wrote in a letter to his daughter, "Lake George is without comparison, the most beautiful water I ever saw; formed by a contour of mountains into a basin... finely interspersed with islands, its water limpid as crystal, and the mountain sides covered with rich groves... down to the water-edge: here and there precipices of rock to checker the scene and save it from monotony."
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Lake George was a common spot sought out by well known artists, including Martin Johnson Heade
, John F. Kensett, E. Charlton Fortune
and Frank Vincent DuMond.
Situated on the rail line halfway between New York City and Montreal, Lake George attracted the era's rich and famous by the late 19th and early 20th century. Tourists from across North America
and Europe
flocked to Lake George and the surrounding majestic Adirondack Mountains
. By the turn of the 19th century, Lake George was equaled only by Newport
, Bar Harbor, Maine
, Saratoga and the Hamptons as a summer enclave for America's aristocracy. Members of the Roosevelt
, van Rensselaer, Vanderbilt
, Rockefeller
and Whitney
families visited its shores. The Fort William Henry Hotel, in what is now Lake George Village, and The Sagamore
in Bolton Landing
, were popular spots for those who could afford a "vacation", something that was only then becoming available to a privileged few. The wealthiest of the period were more likely to stay with their peers at their private country estates.
Created as part of several other leadership training facilities located throughout the nation, the Silver Bay YMCA on Lake George was constructed in 1900. It has since evolved into a summer family camp, serving several hundred organizations and tourists every summer.
Lake George is accessible by car via Interstate 87 and by air from Albany International Airport
, which is about 45 miles (72.4 km) away.
Today, Lake George remains a popular tourist destination for all people. The area is a well-known resort center and summer colony
.
In the summer Lake George Village, located at the southern tip of the 32 miles (51.5 km) lake, is teeming with tourists and residents enjoying the weekly firework shows, musicians, boardwalk style treats, special events, boating, and several public beaches.
, a 40 feet (12.2 m) glass-enclosed tourist boat carrying 47 passengers and operated by Shoreline Cruises, capsized on the lake. According to reports from a local newspaper, 20 people (mostly senior citizens) died when the boat capsized during calm weather.
Initial reports indicated that the tour group was from Canada, but these reports were later found to be incorrect. It was later determined that the group was from the Trenton
, Michigan
, area on a weeklong fall trip along the East Coast by bus and rail, organized by Trenton's parks and recreation department and arranged through a Canadian company. Police said they have never seen a disaster of this magnitude on the lake. The captain survived and cooperated with police.
The National Transportation Safety Board
investigation of the incident revealed that, although the boat was rated to carry 50 people when it was manufactured in 1966, subsequent alterations to the boat's design had greatly reduced its stability. At the time of the accident, the boat should have been rated to carry no more than 14 passengers. On February 5, 2007, the captain, Richard Paris, and the company that owned the boat, Shoreline Cruises, were indicted for having only one crew member aboard the boat. More serious charges were not filed because neither the captain nor the owners were aware they were violating safety standards.
, the famous Wall Street financier, and Robert Pitcairn
, friend of Andrew Carnegie
(and one of the world's richest men). The palatial homes of Millionaire's Row typically had dozens of bedrooms and were sometimes in excess of 20000 square feet (1,858.1 m²). Ironically, they were coyly called "cottages" by their owners in a vain attempt at being unpretentious. These grand houses, with every modern comfort and convenience, were in marked contrast to the more rustic summer "camps" built by other wealthy Adirondack summer residents such as William Durant
and John D. Rockefeller
. Instead of log and timber construction such as Durant's famous Camp Uncas near Raquette Lake
, the houses of Millionaire's Row were huge stone and masonry structures in the Tudor Revival, Georgian Revival
and Italianate styles
. In the 1920s, Pitcairn's estate, which is now a condominium
and marina
, even had a landing pad for an "auto gyro
", predecessor of the modern helicopter
. Unlike their contemporaries in Newport and The Hamptons, which were built on tiny pieces of land, the cottages of Millionaire's row were mansions in the true sense of the word. They were often built on hundreds of acres of pristine lakeside wilderness.
With the changing economic climate and the introduction of income tax, the mansions of Millionaire's Row had begun to become unaffordable by the 1930s. By the 1950s, with the advent of affordable auto and air travel, Lake George became more attractive to the growing middle class and less so to the "jet set". Most of the mansions of Millionaire's Row were torn down or turned into hotels and restaurants. Among the surviving remnants are The Sagamore
, as well as three Millionaire's Row "cottages": Melody Manor, Sun Castle (Erlowest) and Green Harbor Mansion.
Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain is a natural, freshwater lake in North America, located mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada—United States border in the Canadian province of Quebec.The New York portion of the Champlain Valley includes the eastern portions of...
and the St. Lawrence River Drainage basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
located at the southeast base of the Adirondack Mountains
Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
in northern New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, U.S.A.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It lies within the upper region of the Great Appalachian Valley
Great Appalachian Valley
The Great Valley, also called the Great Appalachian Valley or Great Valley Region, is one of the major landform features of eastern North America. It is a gigantic trough — a chain of valley lowlands — and the central feature of the Appalachian Mountain system...
. The lake is situated along the historical natural (Amerindian) path between the valley of the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
and that of the St. Lawrence, so lies on the direct land route between Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
and Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. The lake extends about 32.2 miles (51.8 km) on a north-south axis, is quite deep, and varies from 1 to 3 miles (1.7 to 5 km) in width, so presents a significant barrier to east-west travel. Although the year-round population of the Lake George region is relatively small, the summertime population can swell to over 50,000 residents, especially in the Lake George village region on the south end of the lake.
Lake George drains into Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain is a natural, freshwater lake in North America, located mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada—United States border in the Canadian province of Quebec.The New York portion of the Champlain Valley includes the eastern portions of...
to its north through a short stream, the La Chute River
La Chute River
The La Chute River is a short, fast-moving river, near the Vermont-New York State border, now almost wholly contained within the municipality of Ticonderoga, New York, connecting the northern end and outlet of the long Lake George and the southern end of Lake Champlain through many falls and...
, with many falls and rapids, dropping about 230 feet (70 m) in its 3½-mile (6 km) coursevirtually all of which is within the lands of Ticonderoga, New York
Ticonderoga, New York
Ticonderoga is a town in Essex County, New York, USA. The population was 5,167 at the 2000 census. The name comes from the Mohawk tekontaró:ken, meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways"....
and near the site of the famous Fort Ticonderoga
Fort Ticonderoga
Fort Ticonderoga, formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century fort built by the Canadians and the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain in upstate New York in the United States...
. Ultimately the waters flowing via the 106 miles (170.6 km) long Richelieu River
Richelieu River
The Richelieu River is a river in Quebec, Canada. It flows from the north end of Lake Champlain about north, ending at the confluence with the St. Lawrence River at Sorel-Tracy, Quebec downstream and northeast of Montreal...
empty into the St. Lawrence River downstream and northeast of Montreal and then into the North Atlantic Ocean above Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
.
Geography
Lake George is located in the southeastern Adirondack State Park. It is part of the St. Lawrence watershed. Notable landforms include Anthony's Nose, Deer's Leap, Roger's Rock, the Indian Kettles, Diver's Rock (a 15 ft (4.6 m) jump into the lake), and Double-Diver's (a 30 ft (9.1 m) jump). Some of the mountains include Tongue Mountain, Sugarloaf Mountain, Prospect Mountain, Shelving Rock, Pilot Knob, and Black MountainBlack Mountain (Washington County, New York)
Black Mountain is a mountain located in Washington County, New York, of which its peak is the highest point.Isolated from the rest of the Adirondack Mountains by Lake George, Black Mtn...
. Some of the more famous bays are Silver Bay
Silver Bay, New York
Silver Bay is a hamlet in the town of Hague in Warren County, New York, United States. It lies on a small bay on Lake George and is the site of a YMCA conference center. The conference center is one of only a few of its type in the United States and is host to many large groups throughout the year....
, Kattskill Bay, Northwest Bay, Basin Bay, and Oneida Bay.
The lake is distinguished by "The Narrows," an island-filled narrow section (approximately five miles long) that is bordered on the west by Tongue Mountain and the east by Black Mountain. In all, Lake George is home to 165 islands and 230 satellite islands (exactly 395 total), most of them state-owned. They range from the car-sized Skipper's Jib to larger Vicar's and Long Island. Camping permits are attainable for the larger portion of islands. The lake's deepest point is 200 feet (61 m), found between Dome Island and Buck Mountain in the northern part of the southern quarter of the lake and all of its attractions.
History
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
in his narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
Last of the Mohicans called it the Horican, after a tribe which may have lived there, because he felt the original name was too hard to pronounce.
The first European visitor to the area, Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain , "The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He founded New France and Quebec City on July 3, 1608....
, noted the lake in his journal on July 3, 1609, but did not name it. In 1646, the French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
Jesuit missionary Isaac Jogues
Isaac Jogues
Isaac Jogues was a Jesuit priest, missionary, and martyr who traveled and worked among the native populations in North America. He gave the original European name to Lake George, calling it Lac du Saint Sacrement, Lake of the Blessed Sacrament. In 1646, Jogues was martyred by the Mohawks near ...
, the first European to view the lake, named it Lac du Saint-Sacrement, and its exit stream, La Chute (the fall).
On August 28, 1755, William Johnson
Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet
Sir William Johnson, 1st Baronet was an Anglo-Irish official of the British Empire. As a young man, Johnson came to the Province of New York to manage an estate purchased by his uncle, Admiral Peter Warren, which was located amidst the Mohawk, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League...
led British colonial forces to occupy the area in the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
. He renamed the lake as Lake George for King George II
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
and built a protecting fortification at its southern end. The fort was named Fort William Henry
Fort William Henry
Fort William Henry was a British fort at the southern end of Lake George in the province of New York. It is best known as the site of notorious atrocities committed by Indians against the surrendered British and provincial troops following a successful French siege in 1757, an event which is the...
after the King's grandson Prince William Henry
Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh
Prince William, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh was a member of the British Royal Family, a grandson of George II and a younger brother of George III.-Early life:...
, a younger brother of the later King George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
. On September 8, 1755 the Battle of Lake George
Battle of Lake George
The Battle of Lake George was fought on 8 September 1755, in the north of the Province of New York. The battle was part of a campaign by the British to expel the French from North America in the French and Indian War....
was fought between the forces of Britain and France.
In September, the French responded by beginning construction of Fort Carillon, later called Fort Ticonderoga
Fort Ticonderoga
Fort Ticonderoga, formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century fort built by the Canadians and the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain in upstate New York in the United States...
, on a point where La Chute enters Lake Champlain. These fortifications controlled the easy water route between Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and colonial New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
On March 13, 1758, an attempted attack
Battle on Snowshoes
The 1758 Battle on Snowshoes occurred on March 13, 1758, during the French and Indian War. It was fought by members of British Ranger companies led by Robert Rogers against French troops and Indians allied to France...
on that fort by irregular forces led by Robert Rogers
Robert Rogers (soldier)
Robert Rogers was an American colonial frontiersman. Rogers served in the British army during both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution...
was one of the most daring raids of that war. The unorthodox (to Europeans) tactics of Rogers' Rangers
Rogers' Rangers
Rogers' Rangers was an independent company of colonial militia, attached to the British Army during the Seven Years War . The unit was informally trained by Major Robert Rogers as a rapidly deployable light infantry force tasked with reconnaissance and conducting special operations against distant...
are seen as the inspiring the later creation of similar special forces
Special forces
Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
in later conflicts — including the United States Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers are elite members of the United States Army. Rangers have served in recognized U.S. Army Ranger units or have graduated from the U.S. Army's Ranger School...
.
Lake George’s key position on the Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
-New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
water route made possession of the forts at either end — particularly Ticonderoga — strategically crucial during the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
.
Later in the war, British General John Burgoyne
John Burgoyne
General John Burgoyne was a British army officer, politician and dramatist. He first saw action during the Seven Years' War when he participated in several battles, mostly notably during the Portugal Campaign of 1762....
’s decision to bypass the easy water route to the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
that Lake George offered and, instead, attempt to reach the Hudson though the marshes and forests at the southern end of Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain is a natural, freshwater lake in North America, located mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada—United States border in the Canadian province of Quebec.The New York portion of the Champlain Valley includes the eastern portions of...
, led to the British defeat at Saratoga
Saratoga campaign
The Saratoga Campaign was an attempt by Great Britain to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War...
.
On May 31, 1791, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
wrote in a letter to his daughter, "Lake George is without comparison, the most beautiful water I ever saw; formed by a contour of mountains into a basin... finely interspersed with islands, its water limpid as crystal, and the mountain sides covered with rich groves... down to the water-edge: here and there precipices of rock to checker the scene and save it from monotony."
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Lake George was a common spot sought out by well known artists, including Martin Johnson Heade
Martin Johnson Heade
Martin Johnson Heade was a prolific American painter known for his salt marsh landscapes, seascapes, portraits of tropical birds, and still lifes...
, John F. Kensett, E. Charlton Fortune
E. Charlton Fortune
E. Charlton Fortune was a famous California artist within the style of American Impressionism. Taught by William Merritt Chase and Arthur Frank Mathews, she achieved international fame for her paintings. Later in life she turned to liturgical design, receiving further recognition in this second...
and Frank Vincent DuMond.
Tourist destination
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
flocked to Lake George and the surrounding majestic Adirondack Mountains
Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
. By the turn of the 19th century, Lake George was equaled only by Newport
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is a city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about south of Providence. Known as a New England summer resort and for the famous Newport Mansions, it is the home of Salve Regina University and Naval Station Newport which houses the United States Naval War...
, Bar Harbor, Maine
Bar Harbor, Maine
Bar Harbor is a town on Mount Desert Island in Hancock County, Maine, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population is 5,235. Bar Harbor is a famous summer colony in the Down East region of Maine. It is home to the College of the Atlantic, Jackson Laboratory and Mount Desert Island...
, Saratoga and the Hamptons as a summer enclave for America's aristocracy. Members of the Roosevelt
Roosevelt family
In heraldry, canting arms are a visual or pictorial play on a surname, and were and still are a popular practice. It would be common to find roses, then, in arms of many Roosevelt families, even unrelated ones...
, van Rensselaer, Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt family
The Vanderbilt family is an American family of Dutch origin prominent during the Gilded Age. It started off with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthropy...
, Rockefeller
Rockefeller family
The Rockefeller family , the Cleveland family of John D. Rockefeller and his brother William Rockefeller , is an American industrial, banking, and political family of German origin that made one of the world's largest private fortunes in the oil business during the late 19th and early 20th...
and Whitney
Whitney family
The Whitney family is an American family notable for their social prominence, wealth, business enterprises and philanthropy, founded by John Whitney who came from London, England to Watertown, Massachusetts in 1635.-Rise to prominence:...
families visited its shores. The Fort William Henry Hotel, in what is now Lake George Village, and The Sagamore
The Sagamore
The Sagamore is a Victorian era resort hotel located on Lake George in Bolton Landing, New York. The name Sagamore is taken from the title for the chief of a Native American tribe. The Sagamore of the Mohicans was a featured character in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, many...
in Bolton Landing
Bolton Landing, New York
Bolton Landing is a hamlet in the town of Bolton in Warren County, New York, United States. It is located on Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains. It is a common tourist destination and the closest town to the State Park lands and islands of the Lake George Narrows...
, were popular spots for those who could afford a "vacation", something that was only then becoming available to a privileged few. The wealthiest of the period were more likely to stay with their peers at their private country estates.
Created as part of several other leadership training facilities located throughout the nation, the Silver Bay YMCA on Lake George was constructed in 1900. It has since evolved into a summer family camp, serving several hundred organizations and tourists every summer.
Lake George is accessible by car via Interstate 87 and by air from Albany International Airport
Albany International Airport
Albany International Airport is a public use airport located six nautical miles northwest of the central business district of Albany, in Albany County, New York, United States. It is owned by the Albany County Airport Authority....
, which is about 45 miles (72.4 km) away.
Today, Lake George remains a popular tourist destination for all people. The area is a well-known resort center and summer colony
Summer colony
The term summer colony is often used, particularly in the United States and Canada, to describe well-known resorts and upper-class enclaves, typically located near the ocean or mountains of New England or the Great Lakes...
.
In the summer Lake George Village, located at the southern tip of the 32 miles (51.5 km) lake, is teeming with tourists and residents enjoying the weekly firework shows, musicians, boardwalk style treats, special events, boating, and several public beaches.
Ethan Allen accident
On October 2, 2005, at 2:55 p.m., the Ethan AllenEthan Allen boating accident
The Ethan Allen was a 40-foot, glass-enclosed tour boat operated by Shoreline Cruises on Lake George in upstate New York. On October 2, 2005, at 2:55 p.m., with 47 passengers–all from Michigan and Ohio and mostly seniors–aboard, the Ethan Allen capsized and sank just south of Cramer...
, a 40 feet (12.2 m) glass-enclosed tourist boat carrying 47 passengers and operated by Shoreline Cruises, capsized on the lake. According to reports from a local newspaper, 20 people (mostly senior citizens) died when the boat capsized during calm weather.
Initial reports indicated that the tour group was from Canada, but these reports were later found to be incorrect. It was later determined that the group was from the Trenton
Trenton, Michigan
Trenton is a small city in Wayne County in the southeast portion of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 18,853...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, area on a weeklong fall trip along the East Coast by bus and rail, organized by Trenton's parks and recreation department and arranged through a Canadian company. Police said they have never seen a disaster of this magnitude on the lake. The captain survived and cooperated with police.
The National Transportation Safety Board
National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incidents, certain types of highway crashes, ship and marine...
investigation of the incident revealed that, although the boat was rated to carry 50 people when it was manufactured in 1966, subsequent alterations to the boat's design had greatly reduced its stability. At the time of the accident, the boat should have been rated to carry no more than 14 passengers. On February 5, 2007, the captain, Richard Paris, and the company that owned the boat, Shoreline Cruises, were indicted for having only one crew member aboard the boat. More serious charges were not filed because neither the captain nor the owners were aware they were violating safety standards.
Millionaire's Row
Millionaire's Row was the haunt of Lake George's richest summer residents. A stretch of Bolton Road (now Lake Shore Drive) on the west side of the lake was where the aristocrats built their large and elegant mansions. Millionaire's Row was inhabited in the summer months by such notables as Spencer TraskSpencer Trask
Spencer Trask was an American financier, philanthropist, and venture capitalist. Beginning in the 1870s, Trask began investing and supporting entrepreneurs, including Thomas Edison's invention of the electric light bulb and his electricity network...
, the famous Wall Street financier, and Robert Pitcairn
Robert Pitcairn
Robert Pitcairn was a Scottish-American railroad executive who headed the Pittsburgh Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the late 19th century. He was the brother of the Pennsylvania Plate Glass Company founder, John Pitcairn, Jr.Pitcairn was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland...
, friend of Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
(and one of the world's richest men). The palatial homes of Millionaire's Row typically had dozens of bedrooms and were sometimes in excess of 20000 square feet (1,858.1 m²). Ironically, they were coyly called "cottages" by their owners in a vain attempt at being unpretentious. These grand houses, with every modern comfort and convenience, were in marked contrast to the more rustic summer "camps" built by other wealthy Adirondack summer residents such as William Durant
William Durant
William Durant is the name of:* Will Durant , historian and philosopher* William C. Durant , industrialist and founder of General Motors Corporation...
and John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...
. Instead of log and timber construction such as Durant's famous Camp Uncas near Raquette Lake
Raquette Lake
Raquette Lake is the source of the Raquette River in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, USA. It is near the community of Raquette Lake, New York. The lake has 99 miles of shoreline with pines and mountains bordering the lake. It is located in the towns of Long Lake and Arietta,...
, the houses of Millionaire's Row were huge stone and masonry structures in the Tudor Revival, Georgian Revival
Colonial Revival architecture
The Colonial Revival was a nationalistic architectural style, garden design, and interior design movement in the United States which sought to revive elements of Georgian architecture, part of a broader Colonial Revival Movement in the arts. In the early 1890s Americans began to value their own...
and Italianate styles
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
. In the 1920s, Pitcairn's estate, which is now a condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
and marina
Marina
A marina is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats.A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo from freighters....
, even had a landing pad for an "auto gyro
Autogyro
An autogyro , also known as gyroplane, gyrocopter, or rotaplane, is a type of rotorcraft which uses an unpowered rotor in autorotation to develop lift, and an engine-powered propeller, similar to that of a fixed-wing aircraft, to provide thrust...
", predecessor of the modern helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
. Unlike their contemporaries in Newport and The Hamptons, which were built on tiny pieces of land, the cottages of Millionaire's row were mansions in the true sense of the word. They were often built on hundreds of acres of pristine lakeside wilderness.
With the changing economic climate and the introduction of income tax, the mansions of Millionaire's Row had begun to become unaffordable by the 1930s. By the 1950s, with the advent of affordable auto and air travel, Lake George became more attractive to the growing middle class and less so to the "jet set". Most of the mansions of Millionaire's Row were torn down or turned into hotels and restaurants. Among the surviving remnants are The Sagamore
The Sagamore
The Sagamore is a Victorian era resort hotel located on Lake George in Bolton Landing, New York. The name Sagamore is taken from the title for the chief of a Native American tribe. The Sagamore of the Mohicans was a featured character in James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, many...
, as well as three Millionaire's Row "cottages": Melody Manor, Sun Castle (Erlowest) and Green Harbor Mansion.