The Adirondacks’ Moose River Plains

Vol. 1: Life Around the Indian Clearing

Table of Contents

Epigraph: The Adirondacks, the Oldest Mountains Await

Dedication: Winfred C. “Slim” Murdock

Preface: Memories of Those Who Experienced Life in the Moose River Plains

Introduction: The Big Plains, the Indian Clearing

Author’s Note: Gordy and Inez Rudd’s Red & White Grocery Stores includes recipes Rudd’s Red & White Steak, Fulton Chain Beef ‘n’ Herb Dumplings and Herb Dumplings

Part One. Early Adirondack Camping.

Woodsloafer Poem by Elsie Wilkins

Chapter 1 Squatting and Camping on State Land
Chapter 2 Pine Tree Camp, Moose River Plains in 1873
Chapter 3 Wandering Through the Past

Part Two. The Pioneering Kenwells

Chapter 4 Kenwell’s Primitive Adirondack Hostelry
Chapter 5 Problems with New York’s Forest, Fish and Game Commission
Chapter 6 A Tutor Arrives on The Plains
Chapter 7 Wilderness and Governor Black
Chapter 8 Sleeping in the Woods at Kenwell’s Camp, 1899
Chapter 9 September 1899 in the Woods at Kenwell’s Camp
Chapter 10 W.W. Hastings’ October 1897 Quest for Adirondack Deer
Chapter 11 Wellington Kenwell’s Guide Business
Chapter 12 Did Eliza Kenwell’s Kitchen Magic Help the Chapins to Buy Beaver Lake? Includes recipes: South Branch Summer Vegetables, Adirondack Lumberjack Meat Pie, Standby Cornmeal Pancakes, Valentine Ridge Nut Bread and Indian Clearing Blackberry Jam

Kenwell’s Sportsman’s Home

Kenwell’s Trail into The Plains

Fording the south branch of the Moose River

Part Three: Early Camps On and Around the Indian Clearing

Chapter 13 Elijah Camp and Little Moose Lake Camp
Chapter 14 Lt. Gov. Woodruff’s Kamp Kill Kare
Chapter 15 Dr. Gerster’s Memories of Sumner Lake Before the Woodruffs
Chapter 16 The Governor’s Camp
Chapter 17 Lew Porter’s Camp Strategy
Chapter 18 The Goffs of Seventh Lake
Chapter 19 Lew Porter’s Heroic Deed
Chapter 20 The Millers’ Camps
Chapter 21 Louise Payne’s Mountain Echoes includes recipes: Lou’s Perfect Baking Powder Biscuits, Louise’s Apple Sauce Cake, Moose River Ginger Bread and homemade Ranch Dressing
Chapter 22 A Sportsman’s Memory of Adirondack Deer Hunting in 1921
Chapter 23 Summer Camp at Gamawakoosh

Otter Brook Camp

Early camp on the Plains

Part Four. The Mystique of Otter Brook Camp

Chapter 24 Gerald Kenwell’s Opinion to Alter the Forest Preserve
Chapter 25 Kenwell’s Hunting and Fishing Camp
Chapter 26 Olive Wertz’s Moss Lake Girls Camp’s Adventure
Chapter 27 The Lions of West Canada ‘Crick:’ An Adirondack Capture
Chapter 28 A Voice for The Plains
Chapter 29 A Modern-day Visit to Otter Brook Camp

Kamp Kill Kare, gondola Venice

Part Five: Camp Nit, Beaver Lake

Chapter 30 Legalities Surrounded Camp Nit
Chapter 31 Charles T. Chapin, a Devotee of Out-of-Door Sports
Chapter 32 Chapin ‘Roughed It’ in the Mountains
Chapter 33 The Story of Beaver Lake
Chapter 34 Margaret Wilcox’s Remembrances of Beaver Lake
Chapter 35 Beaver Lake Hunting Club
Chapter 36 Bert Brown For Who No Dog Will Bark includes recipes: Beaver Lake Spider Corn Cakes, Hunter’s Venison Barbecue, Bert’s Fancy Trout Recipe, Camp Nit Meat Patties and Marinade for Venison Chapter 37 Beaver Lake’s Caretakers: Frank “Pop” Baker, Billy “Buckshot” Saunders, and Bert “Warneke” Brown
Chapter 38 Slim Murdock on His Beaver Lake Caretaker Appointment and Other Wanderings
Chapter 39 Pop Baker’s Guardian Snake
Chapter 40 Caroline Nelson and Emily Chapin’s Beaver Lake Visit
Chapter 41 What Happened to Old “Pop” Baker
Chapter 42 Gripped in Remote Moose River Bushwhacks

Epilogue Moose River Plains Echoes

Appendix A Adirondack Beaver

Appendix B King of the Land at Kamp Kill Kare

Appendix C Beaver Lake Crash

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Endnotes

Index

Three ladies on a winter trip to Camp Nit, Beaver Lake

Blueberry pickers on the Indian Clearing