The Horror

     Another Halloween has come and gone. We've had our dose of 'fun horror' for the year. Axe wielding, blood dripping fiends greet us on porches while ghosts, ghouls and skeletons haunt many lawns. All good for a brief "Yikes!" and then a good laugh. Not to spoil the party but I've put together a brief chronology of real horror that has occurred in and around Washington County.  Read on, if you dare.

     Let's start with a little bloodbath from up around Ticonderoga, just to the north. While the native Algonquin and Iroquois peoples had been fighting each other for years, it wasn't until Samuel de Champlain's Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain, published in 1613, that we have a written record. In it he describes a July 1609 battle where, armed with an arquebus, he and his native allies routed an Iroquois war party. Champlain legendarily dropped several of the enemy with a single shot. 

                                                                     

     Shaken by this novel display of firepower, the Iroquois fled the conflict but not before several unfortunate warriors were captured. Champlain describes in detail the horrors inflicted upon one poor individual: "...they tore out his nails and applied fire to the ends of his fingers and to his membrum virile." They scalped him and dripped hot gum on his head before piercing his arms and pulling out his sinews. After he was dead they dismembered and disemboweled him, finally cutting out his heart and making his fellow captives eat it. I trust nothing like that occurred in your neighborhood this past Halloween.

     The next story isn't exactly a walk in the park even though it happened where Hudson Fall's lovely Juckett Park is today. In the time of the French and Indian Wars the trip from Fort Edward to William Henry at Lake George was a dangerous undertaking through dark pine woods. A young man named John Quackenboss had been recruited as a teamster to deliver a load of supplies to the northern outpost. Shortly after entering the dismal forest he and his guard of sixteen soldiers  were ambushed and taken prisoner by a large band of hostile Indians. They were tightly bound, seated on a log and one by one dispatched with a tomahawk to the head. Quackenboss, who happened to be the last in line, closed his eyes waiting for the fatal blow when a squaw ran forward to stop the slaughter and claim him as her personal slave. He was then marched to Canada and forced to run the gauntlet, once again barely escaping with his life. After three years of captivity he was purchased from the Indians, eventually returning to this area to marry and live out his life in Cambridge. I guess you'd call his a horror story with a happy ending (at least for him, if not the others).

Juckett Park

(web image)

       As late as 1780 the Town of Kingsbury was hardly a safe place. That is when 'Carlton's Raiders', a large force of British, Indians and Tories, came down from Canada burning and pillaging every patriot home and business. A local boy named Oliver Graham was shot and wounded with the notorious Tory, Gil Harris shouting "Yes! Damn 'em! Kill them all!" Fortunately, little Oliver was able to run into the underbrush and make a miraculous escape.

     Earlier, during the Colonial Wars, Schuylerville (then known as Saratoga) had seen its share of horrors. An historical marker just south of the village tells of several raids with grim outcomes. In November of 1745 the French commander Marin attacked the settlement burning the fort and all of the buildings while destroying cattle and provisions. Twelve villagers were killed and 109 taken prisoner. Among those killed was Philip Schuyler with reports that "barbarous savages...inhumanely rip(p)'d open his body and pul'd out his heart, and cut off his head." 

This sign is currently being refurbished

and is half painted making it hard to read

That is why I used this older web image

(web image)

     Fort Saratoga was the scene of even more suffering than the sign alludes to. An outbreak of smallpox had left it undermanned and on February 22, 1747 12 soldiers were ambushed by 30 Indians killing four, capturing four and wounding several more. A short time later the French and Indians killed 8 English and wounded several more with a musket volley. Then in late June the French officer Luc de La Corne lead an ambush that left 15 killed and 48 captured. This is apparently the same raid the sign refers to with some discrepancy in the facts between various sources.

     Israel Putnam is a name that appears often in tales of the French and English conflicts. He was a Ranger associated with Robert Rogers and often stationed at Fort Edward. In a 1758 battle with the French near Fort Ann Putnam was captured and tied to a tree while the fighting was going on all around him. Bullets tore into the tree and thru his clothing. An Indian threw a tomahawk at him and a Frenchman tried to shoot him point blank but his gun misfired. Eventually the French retreated with Putnam as prisoner. When they made camp near Crown Point the Indians tried to burn him alive but even that failed and he lived to fight another day. Talk about your horrible, no good days...

     For some sense of the times consider this story regarding Robert Rogers: after raiding a native village he grabbed an Indian baby by the feet and swung his head against a tree trunk. When his own soldiers reacted in horror to the action he said, "I'm killing a nit so it won't become a louse. If I let him live, he may grow up to kill me."

 

Robert Rogers statue

Rogers Island, Fort Edward

     Almost 20 years later, as Burgoyne's army advanced thru the the region during the Revolution, Fort Ann was once again the scene of bloodshed. On July 7, 1777 squatters living near present day South Bay Village rained bullets down upon the advancing British from the cliffs of Dog Heaven. As Red Coat reinforcements arrived on the Military Road most of the settlers were killed and their cabins burned.

The Diameter cliff where squatters ambushed British soldiers

at the Battle of Dog Heaven

     The next day the Americans and Burgoyne's troops engaged in a fierce battle just north of the present day Village of Fort Ann. There were many casualties on both sides. American Colonel Van Rensselaer was wounded early and lay behind a log as the fighting raged around him, exhorting his men "Don't mind me , charge the enemy. Charge, I say Charge!" A Major Beach was shot at by an Indian with the bullet taking off one of his fingers and killing a man beside him. Beach then shot the Indian dead. Several weeks later, as the British marched south past the scene of the battle, Lieutenant William Digby wrote in his journal, "We saw many of their dead unburied since the action of the 9th, which caused a violent stench. One of (our) officers was then unburied and, from the smell, we could only cover him with leaves."

Battle Hill plaque

Beside Rt. 4 north of Fort Ann Village

     As Burgoyne's army advanced south towards Fort Edward two horrific events were unfolding. Near South Argyle a band of Indians lead by the fierce Le Loup massacred nine members of the Allen family including women and children as they gathered for their midday meal. The bloody scene of scalped bodies and bullet riddled cabin terrorized all in the sparsely settled area and the subsequent murder of Jane McCrea in Fort Edward only heightened fears. The fact that even noncombatants were at risk ignited a hatred of the British and their Indian allies that would lead to their undoing a few months later in the battles at Saratoga.

Historical sign and burial site of Allen family in Argyle and 

Jane McCrea memorial in Fort Edward

     This grim litany of death and dismemberment could go on and on. I haven't even mentioned the many thousands who met violent ends at battles near Lake George, Ticonderoga, Hubbardton and Bennington. The suffering endured at these sites can become almost numbing when you consider that this was an era before anesthesia or antibiotics. Still, the personal Hell that some experienced in these places is what created the world we live in today. And we should never forget that there are fellow Americans enduring the horrors of war right now (while their Commander-in-Chief plays golf, builds ballrooms and naps).

     To wrap things up let me tell you about an event that may seem insignificant compared to some of the previous tales but was the apocalypse for its victims. The year was 1801 and the location was the Kingsbury Swamp. This was roughly where Rt. 196 goes today, just east of Hudson Falls. Before the canal was built and surrounding land drained it was a much larger wet wilderness. It was also the home of a den of wolves whose depredations were a problem for area farmers. Their solution was a circle hunt where all the men of the community arranged themselves in a giant ring around the swamp and, heavily armed, began walking towards its center making a raucous din to drive all the animals ahead of them. As the circle closed tighter and tighter the wildlife had no place to go, no place to hide. Soon every rifle was firing in a thunderous cacophony until there was nothing left standing. After it was over they counted eleven dead wolves as well as hundreds of other animals. There is no record of how many hunters the mayhem claimed...   

Wood Creek flows out of the Kingsbury Swamp

Scene of the circle wolf hunt 225 years ago

        After all of that I'm wishing everyone a peaceful, serene Thanksgiving. At least everyone who isn't a turkey.

Highway 61 Revealed

      I have a 'music device'. Ok, it's actually just an old iPhone whose ringing days have rung for the last time. But it's still capable (barely) of playing songs. You can transfer the songs from records or CDs if you're technologically savvy or by buying them from Apple or Amazon if you've got a fat credit card. My tech savvy and my credit worth could both stand a transfusion. Nevertheless, I have been able to cobble together a playlist of sorts on the old iPhone. Everything from Buddy Holly and Peggy Lee to Wet Leg and Sabrina Carpenter. But more than any other artist, there is Bob Dylan. I've got a bunch of songs spanning his long career and reflecting my ongoing fascination with his music.

     When I'm in my truck I put the iPhone on 'Shuffle' and it plays songs in random order. Call it 'Surprise me' mode. Serendipity suggests that someday soon it will play my favorite song while I'm driving on my favorite road. The song would be Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited and the road, of course, would be Washington County 61. The song comes from the 1965 album of the same name and it probably refers to the federal road that runs from northern Minnesota to New Orleans, sometimes called the 'Blues Highway'. I say 'probably' because Dylan is nothing else if not inscrutable.

Lyrics

Listen here

     Co 61 is easier to pin down. It starts in Battenville and winds east through the Towns of Jackson and Salem before terminating at Rt. 313 just shy of Vermont. It crosses the Battenkill River three times in its wandering course amongst the Taconic hills of southern Washington County and every mile of it is a scenic delight. Don't expect to see God and Abraham having a little tiff nor Mack the Finger selling "...a thousand telephones that don't ring" (like mine!). But if you see them putting "bleachers out in the sun" be concerned because it means our "rovin' gambler" is still "tryin' to create the next world war". Still, even without any of these Dylanesque scenarios, our local Highway 61 is a fun drive. Hope you enjoy this little travelogue I've put together. 

Co 61 from left to right across center of map

      Co 61 begins at a T intersection with Rt. 29 in 'downtown' Battenville. This is Susan B. Anthony country and New York State has been working for several years restoring the famous suffragette's family home here. Who knows? they may actually finish it in our lifetime. Another public project that many hope never happens is the replacement of the one lane bridge over the Battenkill River. They say it has charm and historical interest. Highway engineers feel otherwise and want to replace it with a generic concrete structure. In the meantime, watch for oncoming traffic and be courteous. It's part of the '61' experience.

     If you walk to the middle of the bridge and look upstream you'll see derelick buildings on the left bank. These are part of the former BioTech paper mill which was shut down many years ago for pollution violations. The contentious proceeding drew media attention and Marvin Ferris, the mill's feisty owner, supposedly threatened to throw a TV cameraman off the bridge at this very spot. How's that for historical interest? The mill site could host several homes and offer public access to a lovely stretch of the river. Instead, it has been an empty eyesore for many years now. 

Looking upriver from Battenville bridge

BioTech ruins amongst trees to left

       Just beyond the bridge you cross abandoned railroad tracks that represent another unrealized opportunity. They could be a beautiful rail trail connecting Greenwich and Salem, contributing to the areas quality of life and economy.  Instead they grow weeds.

     A little further on you'll see a stately white house on a knoll above the road. This place has enough history to fill a book. In fact it does play a big role in Solange Batsell Herter's memoir No More Tiaras.  From '60's restaurant to art gallery to country retreat of the rich and famous, the house has seen it all (including Jackie Kennedy).

     Further up the hill Skellie Road joins 61 on the left. At one time there was a Dutch Reformed church here although nothing remains now. District School #3 has been turned into an attractive private residence and across the road is the Weir-Collins house where there used to be a blacksmith shop. Also located here is the Battenville Cemetery with its weathered stones.

      

     As you drive Co 61 keep in mind that Amish families live in the area and you will be sharing the road with their horse drawn buggies. Think of them as an interesting part of the local scenery and another reason to slow down an enjoy.

Locust trees along the road

     The road climbs gradually to a sharp right past an impressive row of locust trees that front an attractive homestead before turning left and getting serious about going uphill. This is the Mount Colfax ridge which tops out at almost 1400'. Like the Taconics in general, it trends northeast and consists of dark mudstone with some slate and phyllite. It has a firetower that was formerly open but is now fenced off. A trail from the Lake Lauderdale Park to a tower you could climb would be a nice attraction but don't hold your breath. 

     Co61 passes O'Donnell Hill Farm which looks like it came straight out of a Grandma Moses painting. Then there is a sharp dog leg to the right and more ascent. If you went straight onto Shields Road at the dog leg you'd be rewarded with views of the High Taconic ridgeline, a thrilling roller coasted descent and a panorama of Hedges Lake. 

     Sticking with 61 will take you over the ridge and down to a junction with Rt. 22. This is the center of a low key summer resort area built around the Jackson Ponds. They are kettle lakes formed when outwash gravels settled around detached blocks of ice during the melting of the last glacier. The road marks a divide between the Hoosic River system via the Owl Kill to the south and the Battenkill via Flaxmill Brook to the north. To the left of the intersection Dead Pond sits right on the divide with no visible inlet or outlet. It is stocked and a favorite with roadside fishermen. To the right is the site of the notorious Oasis bar whose bands and beer made it a local 'hotspot'. It always reminded me of Greasy Lake, the destination in Bruce Springsteen's song 'Spirit in the Night'. Gone but not forgotten.

     Backing up a bit you'll see Nesbitt Road on the right. This leads into Hedges Lake which is surrounded by private camps with no public access. I can just barely remember Nesbitt's pavilion in here with its dancing and roller skating. Another 'gone and almost forgotten' place.

     Back out at the Rt22/Co61 intersection there's a log building (formerly a restaurant) and cabins across the road with Schoolhouse Pond behind them. If you went south on 22 there's The Burger Den and then Lake Lauderdale with its public park, beach and picnic area. Of historical interest, this area hosted the beginnings of the Washington County Fair many years ago.

Schoolhouse Pond and its namesake schoolhouse

     After crossing Rt 22 our road zig zags a bit before climbing uphill past a large RV resort that's probably the most densely populated place on the whole route during summer. Further up the hill Shunpike Road comes in from the right. Across 61 was the Camp Meeting Woods where in years gone by people came in the thousands for outdoor church service. Continuing east you'll see the sign for Christopher Pierce Fine Art before dropping down to another crossing of the Battenkill.

     Now you've entered the hamlet of Shushan, a hidden gem in the hills. Yushak's Market is the anchor of 'downtown' known for its excellent deli and large selection of housemade sausage. The railroad tracks are still active here and just beyond them look for a Veterans Memorial on an interesting boulder that appears to be conglomerate.

Anyone think Shushan needs a ballroom, an arch, a forever war and high priced gas and groceries to be great?

So does Co 61

     A side lane leads back to the Georgi with its beautiful house and grounds. This is a favorite place for a quiet stroll and swim. It's a gift from a remarkable family to the local area. Also worth visiting is the Covered Bridge Museum usually open on weekends during the warmer months. Frightening to think that at one time there was a proposal to build a dam on the Battenkill and flood this area.

     From Shushan the road climbs steeply up to mixed farmland/woods where there's a sugar shack on the left, views of Snake Ridge on the right and a barely noticeable crossing of Steele Brook. At a four way intersection a right will bring you over the crest of a hill and down to the quaint hamlet of Eagleville with its covered bridge. Continuing straight on 61 look for an outcrop on the left showing in its contorted beds the forces that bent and broke the rock of the Taconics.

Snake Ridge beyond the corn field

     There's a sharp bend and a final Battenkill crossing at Buffum's bridge. On the corner is a charming camp that was once Roy Brown's Tacklebox, a landmark for fly fishermen. Beyond the bridge is the Buffum farmstead on the left and then it's just one short hill up to the intersection with Rt 313 and the end of Co 61. While we didn't come across anyone selling "forty red white and blue shoe strings" I trust there was more than enough of interest to make the drive memorable.