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    Boats and Boating on Cranberry Lake
    Boats and Boating on Cranberry Lake
    Boats and Boating on Cranberry Lake
    Ebook183 pages1 hour

    Boats and Boating on Cranberry Lake

    By Allen P. Splete and Cranberry Lake Boat Club

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    About this ebook

    Boats and Boating on Cranberry Lake portrays the evolution of boating life on a lake that was barely known until the late 19th century. Illustrated here are some of the lake's earliest guide boats and canoes, workboats and steamers, and early motor launches that brought visitors from the dock at Wanakena to hotels around the lake. In the summer of 1909, a few men who regularly spent the season on Cranberry Lake organized a motorboat club to promote the sport of power boating, improve boating conditions on the lake, and have some fun. Today the Cranberry Lake Boat Club, with 400 memberships, is thought to be the oldest such continuously active club in the western Adirondacks. The club will celebrate its centennial in 2009 with a summer of activities related to boats and boating on the lake.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439622155
    Boats and Boating on Cranberry Lake
    Author

    Allen P. Splete

    Allen P. Splete is chair of the centennial celebration committee and former president of the St. Lawrence County Historical Association. His interest in the Adirondacks was shaped by his experiences at St. Lawrence University, where he initiated a series of summer conferences in the 1970s dealing with the Adirondack Park Agency. In 2000, he became a seasonal resident of Cranberry Lake.

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      Book preview

      Boats and Boating on Cranberry Lake - Allen P. Splete

      Association

      INTRODUCTION

      The Cranberry Lake Motor Boat Club was founded in 1909 and is believed to be the longest continually operating boat club in the western Adirondacks. This book is part of the 2009 centennial celebration. In July 2007, the centennial committee of the boat club asked club members and friends to search their attics, basements, and garages for anything old that related to boats on the lake in general and the boat club in particular. By the summer of 2008, old postcards, family photographs, local histories, trophies, and even a boat propeller were appearing. This book is the culmination of that effort.

      The Oswegatchie River flows from the Adirondack Mountains past Wanakena. It widens into Cranberry Lake, pushing back into a number of creeks and flows. The South Bay region is called the head of the lake. Where the river narrows again at Cranberry Lake village is called the foot of the lake.

      Cranberry Lake has a longer and richer history than can be recounted here. This book focuses on specific events that occurred in and around the lake that are part of the story of its boats, the people who paddled, rowed, sailed, and piloted them, and those who made their living with boats.

      In 1854, the New York State legislature laid the groundwork for creating a reservoir at Cranberry Lake by declaring the Oswegatchie River a public highway and asserting its right to regulate the passage of logs and improve the river. In 1867, the first dam was built at the foot of the lake, forever changing the shape of the lake and leaving a stand of dead and decaying trees and stumps along the shoreline. In 1873, Verplanck Colvin surveyed the Cranberry Lake region for New York State. It was one of the last regions identified in the Adirondacks. By 1900, the sights and sounds of a thriving lumbering industry were part of the Cranberry Lake scene. The wood-burning Howlett carried cargo; the Ironclad towed log booms that stretched across the lake. There were many others.

      Beginning in the late 1800s, local guides who knew the woods and water would take hunters and fishermen to camps around the lake in Rushton canoes, Adirondack guide boats, and motorboats.

      Along with the sportsmen came the tourists. Many were prominent names. Frederic Remington, artist, illustrator, and sculptor, was a frequent visitor to Cranberry Lake between 1889 and 1900. He visited with Canton friends at Tramps Retreat and Witch Bay. Occasionally an illustration or an Adirondack tale would make its way into print. A Good Day’s Hunting in the Adirondacks and Spring Trout Fishing in the Adirondacks appeared in Harper’s Weekly in 1890 and 1892, respectively. J. Henry Rushton of Canton, builder of the famous Rushton canoes and guide boats, spent time on the lake to renew his health and paddle about. Reuben Wood, whose name is familiar to fly fishermen who still use the fly he invented, first came in 1878. He used to clamber up on a large boulder at the mouth of Sucker Brook and tell fishing stories to friends who gathered around. A memorial inscription on the boulder reads, In memory of Reuben Wood, a genial gentleman and great fisherman who was fond of these solitudes. Marc Chagall, the acclaimed Russian-born artist who lived in France, spent the summer of 1944 at Cranberry Lake and did a painting named Cranberry Lake at that time. Ralph Brown, credited as the inventor of the inboard/outboard motor and a national figure in the early days of aviation, had a cabin at Wanakena.

      Over the years, the Cranberry Lake Boat Club has accommodated and encouraged the coexistence of those seeking peace with those looking for the excitement of a fast ride. Paddlers and kayakers roam the lake alone or in groups. People on water skis and Jet Skis and in Zodiacs zoom along. Fishermen put trolling motors on their boats and idle along the shoreline. Toddlers, grandparents, and all ages between enjoy the pace of an afternoon on a pontoon boat. The classic inboard and outboard motorboats parade next to the new ones. Sailboats seek the breeziest spots.

      Boats and Boating on Cranberry Lake traces the evolution of boating on Cranberry Lake. It spans the years from the late 1800s to 2008. Chapters describe and illustrate the mundane and the extraordinary in the saga of paddlers, sailors, workboats, pleasure boats, regattas, races, and docks. Each chapter covers the topic beginning with early examples and ending with newer ones.

      The following unsigned and undated statement surfaced in the files of Clifton town historian Jeanne Reynolds:

      One of the first requirements of camp ownership is a boat of some sort. Since we are some distance from any source of supplies, a motor boat [sic] is a great convenience, but a canoe is all that’s really necessary. Someone, somewhere has observed that sensitiveness to noise is the first sign of intelligence. Nevertheless outboard motors are increasing in numbers and noise to an alarming degree. Kids love them, the fisherman of the itinerant type find them a great convenience. It is noticeable also that every outboard fan is a potential in-board [sic] engine owner. On many lakes near urban centers kicker-boats have already been banned. Perhaps someday, some manufacturer will take the hint and build outboard motors with mufflers attached. As they are today, they are a boon to thousands but a curse to many who remember the mystic beauty of an Adirondack silence undisturbed by anything louder than the cry of a loon.

      One

      PADDLERS AND SAILORS

      In the beginning, New York’s backwoods country around Cranberry Lake was hard to get to. Once one arrived there, one felt a long way from the outside world. One could stay awhile for the fishing, to hunt, or perhaps just for the solitude and quiet. To get around, one would walk or use a boat: the canoe, the guide boat, then the rowboat, skiff, and sailboat. There

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