Tag: Boquet River
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Downriver Drifting
Sunday stream of consciousness riffling from birdsong to riverine rambling (and deftly sidestepping the complex concerns of Sarah McCartt-Jackson’s poem, “Borrow”.)
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Willsboro Paper Mill, circa 1900 and 1920
We return today to Willsboro’s industrial Boquet River shoreline a century and more ago. This follow-up to “Willsboro Mills Circa 1912: Grist Mill, Saw Mill, and Paper Mill” includes three intriguing glimpses of this once thriving site of which only a hint remains today. The aerial photograph on this vintage postcard above offers a birds-eye…
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Willsboro Mills Circa 1912: Grist Mill, Saw Mill, and Paper Mill
My October 19, 2023 look at the Phoenix Mills (through the lens of “preservation by neglect“) incited some interesting feedback. I’m planning a post to pass along some interesting new tidbits including the building’s name. (Think about the concept of “phoenix from ashes“, a myth that resonates with me personally and that surfaces frequently in…
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Preservation by Neglect: Phoenix Mills
Today I return to the topic of preservation by neglect with a personally poignant look at Phoenix Mills, an historic stone building located down river from the bridge (and former DEC fish ladder) in Willsboro, New York. As I understand it, Phoenix Mills was a grist mill originally built and operated by W.D. Ross in…
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Boquet Brown Trout
Summer’s in full swing, and our CSA (Full and By Farm) has been diversifying our weekly farm share as each spring-into-summer week whizzes past. One of our favorite farm treats is curly garlic scapes. Delicious and versatile, this uniquely aromatic vegetable is a secondary edible “byproduct” produced during the garlic growing cycle. Tony, a hardworking (and…
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Butternut Flats on the Boquet River
This vintage photograph of Butternut Flats was featured on a photograph that I discovered on eBay. Serene. Placid. Mysterious. Who is that boy? What are those wonderful rowboats? Dories? Skiffs? And — most intriguing by far — where along the meandering lengths of the Boquet River is this inviting bend referred to as “Butternut Flats”? Here’s…
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Homeport in Wadhams, NY
I’ve come across another historic photograph of Homeport in Wadhams, NY. This wonderful old house a short drive from Rosslyn was my home during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was a wreck when my parents purchased it and a handsome home when they sold it. Today it is the home of Matt Foley,…
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Essex Horse Nail Company and Wadhams Mills
I spied this intriguing artifact in an eBay auction. It’s a canceled envelope for a letter, invoice, something… sent from the Essex Horse Nail Co., Limited in Essex, New York on August 16, 1898 (year cited in eBay auction, though I’m unable to verify) to Mr. D. J. Payne in Wadhams Mills, New York. It’s a somewhat unremarkable artifact,…
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Dueling Banjos: An Adirondack Reflection
Sometimes the universe rhymes. Have you ever noticed that? As if there’s a poetry underneath our everyday lives, and sometimes — when we’re lucky — the poetry floats up to the surface. “Dueling Banjos” à la Adirondacks This morning I was lucky. My thanks go out to friend and North Country enthusiast Steve Malone who…
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Recovering from Irene
Much of the North Country is still recovering from the devastation wrought by Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene. Four weeks on, I return to the notes I jotted during and shortly after Irene passed through Essex, New York. A sheet of water cascades in front of the parlor windows. I’ve sunk into an armchair to watch the…
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Almost Logical
Within minutes we were tripping over each other, drunk with excitement, imagining one whimsical “What if…” scenario after another. No filter, no caution. Our reveries flitted from one idyllic snapshot to another. “What if I finally sat down and finished my novel?” After dawdling self indulgently for a dozen years – writing, rewriting, discarding, rewriting,…