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In the last several columns we discussed the first railroad lines into this community. Prior to that time, which would have been before 1890, travel and obtaining supplies here was largely limited to primitive woods roads and waterways.

If you lived in Boston or Albany, as an example, and wished to come to Tupper you would need to travel first by train to Whitehall, then by steamboat up Lake Champlain to Plattsburgh, where a train would take you to Ausable Forks or Keeseville. From either one of these communities you would need to board a stage coach hauled, as a rule, by six horses. Your route would be over the shoulder of Whiteface Mountain to Bloomingdale by way of Franklin Falls to Saranac Lake. A jolting, often crowded, uncomfortable, tiring ride of some eight hours. The stage coach would take you directly to Martins Landing located on Ampersand Bay at the N/E end of Lower Saranac Lake. You could now obtain a boat, a guide, and provisions, for the lakes, streams and rivers would now become your highway. Rowing up the length of the Lower Lake usually in a Saranac, as the guide boats of that region were called, you would then enter the Saranac River, then cross the Middle Lake or Round Pond, as it is sometimes called, and arrive at Bartletts Carry. Here, where Verge Bartlett had built a hotel (now Bartlett Carry Club), the Saranac breaks through a ledge of anorthosite in a narrow gorge, and a short carry is necessary. Your guide will now wish his boat as on of Will Allen Martin’s “eggshells,” the name given to the extra-light guide boat innovated and built by Martin, who together with Ed Krumholz (first owner of Wawbeek Hotel), had a boat-building business on Saranac Lake. It may be worth noting that originally the local guides greeted Willie Allen's boat with skepticism, considering it too fragile. They underestimated the superb craftsmanship that allowed the reduction in weight (70 pounds compared to the typical 80-120 pounds for other guide boats of the time). It soon became the most sought-after boat in the area. Having completed the quarter-mile carry (now one-half mile due to recent re-routing), your guide will row you from the outlet of Upper Saranac Lake directly across that lake to where in 1830 Jesse Corey had a home, now the Wawbeek Hotel location, at a place called Sweeneys Carry. It is now necessary to “carry” overland three miles to the Raquette River, where you will find Tromblee's (Trombley) Landing. Tupper lake is now only 9.89 miles down river to the first hotel, which will be Uncle Mart Moody’s Mt. Morris house, where it is possible you might run into President Grover Cleaveland or President Chester Arthur (who commissioned Uncle Mart, our first postmaster). Both presidents were fond of Uncle Mart and Aunt Minerva and the wonderful trout fishing then available in Tupper Lake. The Mt. Morris House, later the Prince Albert Hotel, was located on the present Peter Day property, where the turn to the Country Club leaves Route 30 at Moody. A further word about the famous Sweeney Carry may be of interest: First, it should be pointed out that in later years you could rent a horse and a wagon designed to carry multiple boats that could expedite that carry.

Before that time, some of the guides would let their passengers off at the head of the carry and row alone two miles down the lake.

Here they would use the original and shorter Indian Carry at Coreys to Stony Ponds and access the Raquette at the Stony Creek outlet. After 1870, when the Setting Pole Dam flooded the river almost as far as Raquette Falls, today’s twisting Stony Creek would be a straight shot from the last Stony Pond to the river. The solo guide would now row 6.35 miles downstream and rejoin his party at Tromblee’s. Extra rowing, to be sure, but probably easier, especially to a guide accustomed to daily 40-mile rowing trips. Permit me to digress a bit further concerning Sweeneys Carry. In 1878 a famous fight for possession took place at that historic spot. Captain James H. Pierce of Bloomingdale claimed the land and so did C.F. Norton, the lumber king. In those days and in this case, possession was nine points of the law. Norton hired O.A. Coville, a well-known guide, to settle on the lake end of the carry and Tupper Lake’s Oliver Tromblee to settle on the other. This decisive move ended the fight. Coville and wife saw there was a good chance for business on the carry and decided to stay there. They bought 40 acres from Norton and built a halfway house that became very popular with summer visitors. It is, of course, even more so today under the astute managership of Norm and Nancy Howard as the renowned hotel called the Wawbeek. Tromblee also took a fancy to his end of the carry and stayed on. Mr. and Mrs. Trombley raised their family there, and if you walk down a portion of the “old carry” from the “Y” (Route3/Route 30) you can still find foundation remains of their homestead between the two lean-tos now located there. The maps still show that location as Tromblee’s. With the lake’s icebound and many times too treacherous for travel, the settlers here were often isolated for weeks at a time in the winter months. How did these early settlers get their winter supplies? We will attempt to answer that question in the next Transitions.

Copyright William C. Frenette Collection