Walking Directions: You can stand near West Side Grill as you read the last two QR codes/stops for the Irish section. As you turn the corner on the right Grand St. turns into Congress and the Black heritage section begins at Stop 13.
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Photo Credit: North Creek Depot Museum
The Story
While the railroads exponentially increased tourism to Saratoga Springs, it also increased accessibility to the inner mountains and lakes of the region. There were several routes to reach LakeGeorge and the interior lakes of the Adirondacks.
1882, D&H completed the tracks that linked Lake George to its New York to Montreal line at Fort Edward, allowing passengers to travel from New York City to the lake. A passenger boarding a northbound train in New York at 1 pm could be in Lake George by dinner time where they could board the Lake George Steamboat for a scenic trip on the lake or visit one of the resorts on the northern shore like the famous Sagamore Hotel.
The Adirondack Branch from Saratoga was completed in 1864 and was later acquired by D&H railroad. It was an astonishing engineering feat that connected Saratoga Springs to the North Creek Depot which was 62 miles into the Adirondack wilderness.
“Lake George is now an established winter resort, and any day one may see in Grand Central station tourists enveloped in furs, with skates, snowshoes or skis slung over their shoulders, looking for all the world as though they were about to start on an expedition for the North Pole. Though in reality they are only going to board the train to for a little ride upstate to Lake George,” the New York Tribune wrote in January, 1914. (Source: New York Almanac)
And the tourism was not limited to summer travel.From North Creek, tourists could take a stagecoach to Blue Mountain Lake. In the winter, the ADK Branch carried winter tourists to the first ski resort in New York: Gore Mountain. “Lake George is now an established winter resort, and any day one may see in Grand Central station tourists enveloped in furs, with skates, snowshoes or skis slung over their shoulders, looking for all the world as though they were about to start on an expedition for the North Pole. Though in reality they are only going to board the train to for a little ride upstate to Lake George,” the New York Tribune wrote in January, 1914. (Source: New York Almanac)
Below is a short clip of Jennie Lambert recalling the sight of these winter tourists in the early part of the 20th century.
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