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OFF THE BEATEN TRAIL

Into The Wilderness ...

Sagamore Lodge - An Adirondack Great Camp

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James N.
Colonial Militia

USA

Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 24 2007

Status: offline

Posted - December 23 2012 : 2:09:56 PM

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The buildings that make up the complex known as Sagamore Lodge are visible among the trees lining Sagamore Lake as seen here from a canoe.

The Great Camps of the Adirondacks were developed in the late Ninteenth Century as places for the affluent to escape their opulent Gilded Age mansions and estates in more urban areas for an imaginary outdoors life in the wilds of relatively undeveloped Upstate New York. The pioneer developer of this concept was William Woods Durant, operating in the 1890's. Beginning in 1896 he constructed what is probably his best-known complex at Shedd Lake, which was soon renamed more poetically Sagamore Lake in honor of the works of James Fenimore Cooper. The complex likewise became known as Sagamore Lodge, though that is a somewhat misleading moniker for what eventually became a very large multi-structure institution.

Unfortunately for Durant, he only spent a short time here before circumstancess forced him to sell Sagamore to Alfred G. Vanderbilt, who continued to expand and develop the property. Now totally surrounded by land once part of Vanderbilt's sprawling 1500+ acre wooded estate and now part of Adirondack State Park, largest in the nation, the immediate Lodge complex is owned and operated by the private Sagamore Institute. In this thread I will describe the various natural attractions that drew Durant and Vanderbilt to this location.

I first read about Sagamore Lodge ( not to be confused with another famous and much more recent resort of the same name on Lake George near the town of that name and Fort William Henry ) in Historic Houses, a 1991 volume in the Time-Life American Country book series. In the back, a section called Museum Information tempted me with the description, "Nineteen-acre site includes conference center and OVERNIGHT LODGINGS. History programs, outdoor activities, Adirondack crafts demonstrations..." Some of their activities were scheduled programs or conferences, craft fairs and seminars, etc., but several weekends were mainly "free-form", allowing for individual activities; I made a reservation in the fall of 1995, for 3 nights that allowed me to stay in the main lodge building with meals included in the separate dining complex.

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Bridge over one of the creeks feeding into the lake, with lodge parking just over it; it was a beautiful weekend in early October with warm, sunny days and crisp, cool nights just right for a campfire.

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Maples amply demonstrating why they have been referred to as The Cool Fires of Autumn.

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Beaver dam in the gorge of the creek outlet.

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The stony outlet at its mouth at the lake.

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Of course, one attraction I enjoyed was the lake itself; canoes were provided for guests at a boathouse and dock near the camp buildings.

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On my last morning there I was foolhardy enough to take one such as this out on the wind-swept lake by myself; I almost didn't make it back due to the headwind blowing from the south. I was almost ready to beach it and hike back on the nature trail, but extreme tacking eventually brought me back exhausted to the lodge!

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For my own particular purposes, the most interesting "boating" was done one morning after breakfast when I joined two of the ladies of the staff in one of these reproduction Revolutionary-era flat-bottomed bateaux, made by members of a local high school's shop department! They were probably smaller than most period craft would have been, but handled well enough to provide an idea of what those were like. Notice in this picture especially, how unbelieveably clear the lake water is and how smooth-as-glass its surface!

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Another group activity I joined in was a three-mile nature hike around the small lake on a road built for recreation and also to supply the lodge complex with firewood.

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The season at Sagamore ends after Columbus Day; as you can see, I made it in time for the peak of fall color that year!

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Next time, the Sagamore Lodge complex itself!

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Fitzhugh Williams
Mohicanland Statesman

Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
July 17 2005

Status: offline

Posted - December 23 2012 : 5:00:03 PM

And another place I would like to visit!

When you said

quote:
( not to be confused with another famous and much more recent resort of the same name on Lake James near the town of that name and Fort William Henry )

you meant Lake George, right?

Or more properly, Lac Saint-Sacrement.

"Les deux pieds contre la muraille et la tete sous le robinet"

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James N.
Colonial Militia

USA

Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 24 2007

Status: offline

Posted - December 23 2012 : 7:43:29 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Fitzhugh Williams

And another place I would like to visit!

When you said
quote:
( not to be confused with another famous and much more recent resort of the same name on Lake James near the town of that name and Fort William Henry )
you meant Lake George, right?

Or more properly, Lac Saint-Sacrement.

Thank you Fitz! That was what CAPTAIN Dale Dye would've referred to as a "brain fart"; your correction enabled me to "fix" it before posting time expired. ( Of course for ME Lake James and Lake George are pretty much interchangeable anyway! )

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