North Country At Work

Workers at a coal plant. The plant was located in the back of the railroad station off of Bridge Street. 1940s or ’50s. Plattsburgh, NY. Photo courtesy of Jane & Gary Desotelle.

Men use a horse-drawn saw to cut ice on an unidentified lake in the Adirondacks. Note large icehouses in background with conveyors for lifting ice blocks. Circa 1900.

Pliny Miller’s sawmill and grist mill, built in 1827, was in many ways the genesis of Saranac Lake. To run the mill, the first dam on the lake was built, creating a large mill pond. The sawmill provided the lumber for many of the hotels and great camps in Saranac Lake. Date unknown. Saranac Lake, […]

Ice harvesting on Moody Pond. The raft of ice shown will be cut into between 60 and 100 cakes of ice. The ice house is in the background at left. February 1940. Saranac Lake, NY. Courtesy of Historic Saranac Lake.

Harvesting ice. The initial raft of ice has been cut into strips that are then reduced to 300-pound cakes,  which are lifted by a conveyor belt into the ice house. February 1940. Saranac Lake, NY. Courtesy of Historic Saranac Lake.

Workers use a horse-drawn wagon to haul away waste at the Rogers Garnet mine. Circa 1920. North River, NY. Photo courtesy of the Johnsburg Historical Society Archives

The Johnsburg Graphite Mill. Circa 1920.  Johnsburg, NY. Photo courtesy of Joan Reynolds.

Heavy equipment operator Leo Reynolds stands next to a crane at Trout Lake. 1963. Trout Lake, NY, Photo courtesy of Joan Reynolds.

Workers on a break pose for a photograph at Hoopers Mines. Just a few days later, one of the workers pictured would be killed in a mining accident. Circa 1910. North River, NY. Photo courtesy of Joan Reynolds.

Ted, who lives in North River, learned the dowsing trade from an elderly neighbor named Edith Lincoln. Now, Kaufman says that it’s easier for him “to sense water moving underground than it was to smell cookies baking in the kitchen from an upstairs room.” Kaufman is a local legend, and has been asked to find […]