The Cold River Hermit’s Countdown to Christmas

December 15, 2020September 27, 2022 Lucinda

1943 Countdown to Christmas: December 14 Quite cold, gloomy and lots of snow. December 15, At Cold River Beauty Parlor.

Hermit’s 1943 Countdown to Christmas

December 14: Quite cold, gloomy and lots of snow.

December 15: At Cold River Beauty Parlor.

From Noah’s Diary: December 14, 1943. Quite cold, gloomy and lots of snow. Hall of Records. 144 years ago today Geo. Washington croaked 1799. He’s been dead ever since. No more killing (murdering) non-combatant for you George. I call at Quark’s fox pills. Fisher track 100 [feet] from camp. I do much reading and writing.

December 15, 1943: Last Night . Today Sunshine. [Cold like a what? –dg] At Cold River Beauty Parlor. I call at Quack’s Fox Pills and Bellyache Swamp. 4 PM I see a Deer in Buck Slough. Hail Hitler.

Noah had “Wartime Frustration.”

Richard Smith (AKA QUACK) was 21 and working part time in Lake Placid when the United States officially entered World War II. He found himself helping Rondeau in many ways. This is Smith’s explanation for Noah’s frequent “Hail Hitler” quip found throughout the hermit’s wartime diaries.

Noah had begun closing his day-after-day notes with an unusual saying. Actually, it was a shout or protest against rationing.

During the fall of ’42 Noah left the hermitage to lay in his winter supplies at Saranac Lake, but he hadn’t heard rationing was in full swing, so after walking miles out [from the river] he was informed by Oxford Market he had to have ration stamps to get most of the things on his meager grocery list and that he must wait three weeks to get them. Of course he was furious and cursed the American government for this great inconvenience.

Earlier on, when we had gotten together, we had talked about the deepening war and the effects on the American public. I had explained then if it wasn’t for Hitler there wouldn’t be rationing. I suppose he forgot about rationing after that until he came out. Anyway, I was at the store with him, and after a tirade of cussing he simmered down. I explained I knew the people who ran the [War Pricing and Rationing] board…He just needed to give me some time…I would speak to them and try to get his ration stamps. After I made a few phone calls to Albany, they sent the stamps to Noah in care of me. I picked Noah up and we drove back to the market. His order was all ready. The owner even promised he would have it all transported to Long Lake for free, and the ranger who worked at Shattuck [Clearing] would bring it in by wagon.

Noah more or less forgave the government, but not before he made quite a spiel, saying if he had to live in a country that made a hermit go through so much he would blow his displeasure’s horn at Hitler at every opportunity he had. Later on, when he cooled off, he made a big joke of it. He cut a mustache from a bear skin and he would pull a lock of bear hair over one eye, and shout ‘Hail Hitler!’ each time we met. As far as Noah leaning toward Nazism, that wasn’t the case. It was more an expression of his disappointment in something he didn’t understand. As I told him, he wasn’t singled out. Everyone was on rations during the war years.

William “Jay” O’Hern has written extensively about the life of Joah John Rodeau, the hermit of the north country.

See O’Hern’s Books about “The Hermit”

The Cold River Hermit’s Countdown to Christmas

December 9, 2020September 18, 2022 Lucinda

Hermit’s Countdown to Christmas: December 10, 1943. Cool and quite somber. At Beauty Parlor. I Read.

The Cold River hermit’s Christmas Countdown Continues:

December 10, 1943.

Cool and quite somber.

At Beauty Parlor. I Read.

Noah never felt time was heavy on his shoulders. He kept himself busy throughout long stretches of isolation tucked back in Cold River valley. His daily post for today indicates he was recording from the Beauty Parlor.

Anyone who knows a little about Noah is aware he named his tepee fashioned woodpile. The interiors served a real purpose. The Beauty Parlor was where trail-worn ladies sat while the hermit freshened their make-up. In this picture Mrs. Rogers Jones sit while Noah applies what will help her emerge with a fresh makeover following her thirteen-mile hike.

Noah had a wide-range of subjects he was interested in. Astronomy, mathematics, political history, biology, the classics, religion to name a few. Some of Noah’s relatives still owner a few of his well-worn books with notes he jotted in the margins. Noah was a self-education man who could- and did, hold his own in on almost any topic.

It wasn’t what Noah called local “paloticks” or his own self-defeating behavior or problems with a game warden that prompted Noah give up his barbering profession ate age 33 and walk out of Coreys, NY and into the mountains permanently. It was the loss of Schoenheel’s camp and of everything in the building that he owned.

Archibald Petty, then a high school student in 1929, wrote this note in the Petty “Corey’s News” home journal.

“A small cottage which was occupied by N.J. Rondeau was burned to the ground Monday afternoon about 4 o’clock. Sparks from a small stove caused the blaze. Rondeau lost all his belongings among which was a valuable camera and typewriter.”

Peggy Byrne reported that when she asked Noah about the fire that razed the Rustic Lodge, it was obvious from the sound of his voice that he was sorry his earliest diaries had been destroyed. “My diaries are like my poems, poor scribble… Early in 1929 I lost diaries of 11 years and they were well written in Cold River style {code}.”

Craftsmen and professionals used to hang out shingles symbolic of their particular trades; cobblers would hang out an oversize boot; barbers, a painted pole with swirls of red and blue paint; and a medical doctors office a black bag with a stethoscope and some bottles of medicine. Up in the mountains around Cold River, Noah erected a variety of banners heralding the entrance and exit to Cold River Hill. He even created a new footpath by blocking off the Northville-Placid trail where it curved around the base of the hill below the Big Dam lumber camp, redirecting foot traffic onto the spur trail that led travelers smack dab into the middle of camp. It was the equivalent of standing by the road and flagging down passersby.

But all that happened over time. By October 1929, the month the stock market crashed, Noah had relocated back at Cold River, going Outside infrequently only for supplies and his hunting and fishing licenses and during the Christmas holidays to spend time with Albert and Ester Hathaway at Pine Point Camp on Upper Saranac Lake. Theirs was a permanent invitation he accepted faithfully from the winter of ’29 until the winter of 1943-’44. At the age of 55 and for no reason other than that he wanted to, Richard Smith supposed, Noah gave up this routine long-standing retreat from living outside Cold River from Christmas to March or early April.

Throughout December, letters Noah wrote suggest some reading time was spent looking back at his earlier diary entries. His year-end 1942 entries and New Year preamble contain remarks about the weather, some hermit humor, childhood memories and his usual political jibes, but nothing about his decision to stay back at the hermitage throughout 1943.

See O’Hern’s Books about “The Hermit”

William “Jay” O’Hern has written extensively about the life of Joah John Rodeau, the hermit of the north country.

See O’Hern’s Books about “The Hermit”

The Hermit’s Countdown to Christmas

December 8, 2020September 26, 2022 Lucinda

December 8, 1943: Clouds and Sun and Cool. I tend fox pills

The Cold River hermit’s Christmas Countdown Continues:

December 8, 1943: Clouds and Sun and Cool. I tend fox pills.

Noah recorded very little activity today. While he didn’t explain why he decided to stay holed up in his hermitage for the entire year – never once leaving to go Outside, the answer might be two reasons. Dr. Latimer Sr. and attorney Jay Gregory’s Camp Seward log book tells the men brought a great deal of supplies in with horse and wagon. Between the members who were in Camp Seward and Noah, many a day was spent carrying the food provision upriver to Noah’s diggings. Then second speculative answer might be Noah’s attitude. The hermit had been the center of some ridicule this year. It centered around his living all cozy back in the mountains and not doing his fair share for the war effort — criticism so strong that it prompted the hermit to fire off rebuttals that appeared on Letters to the Editor columns.

See O’Hern’s Books about “The Hermit”

William “Jay” O’Hern has written extensively about the life of Joah John Rodeau, the hermit of the north country.

The Hermit’s Countdown to Christmas

December 7, 2020September 17, 2022 Lucinda

The Hermits Countdown to Christmas tells of the unusual life of one man who proved that with determination he could live in his own individualistic way.

Adirondack Hermit Noah John Rondeau’s December 1943 Daily Countdown to Christmas and the New Year

See O’Hern’s Books about “The Hermit”

This month-long daily posting I’m calling “Adirondack Hermit Noah John Rondeau’s December 1943 Daily Countdown to Christmas and the New Year” tells of the unusual life of one man who distanced himself from civilization and proved that with determination he could go into the mountains to trap, hunt, and fish, and live in his own individualistic way on a parcel of private property he had been given permission to occupy. Not only did he do that off and on for thirty-seven years, but he also demonstrated something else that is very significant.

Noah John Rondeau demonstrated in his unorthodox journey that the spirit of personal adventure outside the conventional walls of home and employment was not yet dead, that opportunities for adventurous living on one’s own terms could still be found.

It’s refreshing to think of the rare individuals who have followed such unconventional paths. Just knowing Rondeau chose to live by and follow a very simple, basic, and honest code is doubly refreshing and encouraging to throngs of men and women who have a touch of wilderness within them. The hermit of Cold River’s story is the story of the Adirondacks themselves. Although he abandoned his hermitage in 1950, the site continues to draw the curious as they themselves seek to experience a bit of Rondeau’s world. And why? Backpackers say the trip by foot over miles of rough trail blends the feeling of the utterly wild, uninhabited setting of an earlier era with their modern-day adventures. Some hikers say their trek is nostalgic, knowing they are following in the beloved hermit’s footsteps.

Noah John Rondeau’s daily story demonstrates that the frontier boundaries of courage and romance still exist within those souls who are willing to venture forth. One has only to choose asetting for the drama. Rondeau chose his in an isolated, backwoods setting in 1913. People like him no longer exist any more than do Jim Bridger and Sarah Bayliss Royce. Your “frontier wilderness” may be in your home’s immediate surroundings, in a state or national park or curled up in an easy chair with a book, but if your mind is an imaginative one, if your heart seeks the unexplored, the setting does not matter. Your life will be an adventure.

The Secret Code

How often have folks wondered what Noah did from day to day? And how many of us wondered what he recorded in his cryptic code one person described as the “scratchings of an inebriated hen?’ I for one have. Look at the example of how he documented each day throughout 1943 in code. Why did he invent and write in this manner? Were there things to hide? Well, his cryptic code was deciphered in the early 1990s by David Green. Since the breaking of the code many of the hermit’s yearly diaries have been converted to English.

See O’Hern’s Books about “The Hermit”

William “Jay” O’Hern has written extensively about the life of Joah John Rodeau, the hermit of the north country.

The four books shown tell stories about Rondeau. Each different and all enriched with rare photos. And YES there is that much different information about the man. In fact, a fifth and sixth book have been written and graphically designed, but remain unprinted.

One has to do with attorney Jay Gregory and doctor’s C.V. Latimer Sr. and Jr. It is to their credit Rondeau was able to get along in the wilds as long as he did. The second story covers his life from the year (1950) he left the woods to the day he passed in 1967.

The Gregory – Latimer book is based on a selection of snapshots from the hundreds of pictures given to me by my dear older friend “CV” Latimer Jr., M.D. The sixth storybook covers Rondeau’s very interesting final seventeen years. It too includes remembrances of people he interacted with throughout that time. The lack of shekels prevents printing.

Noah’s activies up to today, December 7, 1943.

Tue. November 30,1943.

Written at Handsome View. Much Sunshine, Few Clouds. I shoot mustache off Coon. I eat Coon. Deer Season Close Tonight.I go for walk to Seward Pond outlet and bring in five mink traps. A weasel call at the TownHall.

Wed. December 1, 1943

Sun Shine at Pyramid of Giza and Beauty Parlor wigwam. I see a little Buck within 100 ft. from Town Hall and two Deer Big near Dam. I take a walk in the woods. I call at fox pills. And I read READER’S DIGEST and play violin.

Thur. December 2.

Mild and Somber. Big Dam. John Brown put to death 1858. I saw 2 Deer at river dam.

Fri. December 3.

Very gloomy and mild. Written At Hall of Records. I read and fiddle.I eat Coon.

Sat. December 4.

Gloomy and Mild. At Beauty Parlor. I eat Slam Bang. Moon 1st quarter 7:03 AM.

Sunday, December 5.

Sunshine and Cool Breeze. At Big Dam. I read Readers Digest.Mars is in Opposition.

Monday, December 6.

Gloomy and Cool. PM Blizzard. At Hall of Records, Cold River. I wash 3 Hand Kerchiefs and a few other pieces. I call at Quack (Richard Smith’s) Fox Pills. I cut my Hair and trim my Beard; getting ready for Santa Claus. I take a Random Scoot in the woods in afternoon Blizzard. I skin the Deer’s fore-quarters while they are relaxed from frost. I read and write.

December 7.

4 Inches Snow Last Night. Cool and Somber. At Metropolis Beauty Parlor. Beard Trim and 1 Haircut. All Ready Santa.

The Hermit and Us Acknowledgements

July 2, 2020September 17, 2022 Lucinda

My deepest thanks to everyone who assisted with [the book “The Hermit and Us, Our Adirondack Adventures with Noah John Rondeau”.

Acknowledgements

An excerpt from “The Hermit and Us”, Starting on page 328

See more about this book

My deepest thanks to everyone who assisted with this project. Many hours of conversation, writing and e-mailings, telephone conversations, searching family paper records and photographs came together as I researched the historical background portion of The Hermit and Us often with my wife, Bette driving on trips to make this book a special memoir.

This book would not have been written without the interest, support, and full cooperation of many willing contributors. In this respect, I feel especially fortunate for the generous response of the large number of persons listed below who have provided unmediated access to private papers and permission to use detailed information about their lives and early days in and about the Seward Range of the Adirondack High Peaks, and in many instances, have likewise loaned their cherished pictures, most of which were very old and consequently greatly prized by their owners.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to The Adirondack Museum for per-mission to reproduce from MS 61–7: ALS Noah John Rondeau to Robert Bruce Inverarity, July 20, 1961; Typed Letter Robert Bruce Inverarity to Noah John Rondeau, April 24, 1962; ALS Noah John Rondeau to Robert Bruce Inverarity, April 28, 1962; Typed Letter Robert Bruce Inverarity to Noah John Rondeau, May 7, 1962.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to Peggy Byrne for permission to print Noah John Rondeau’s April

28, 1962, letter to Robert Bruce Inverarity.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Richard Smith for the use of Noah John Rondeau’s 1943, 1944, 1949, and 1950 journals, now property of the Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, NY; and for permission to print material from Noah John Rondeau’s scrapbooks and photo albums, now property of the Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, NY;

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the North Elba-Lake Placid Historical Society for access to Noah John Rondeau’s diaries.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to Dan Lucca for permission to use his photograph of Noah and friends on the Dedication page.

I am indebted to my friend and editor, Mary L. Thomas for her invaluable support and constructive advice in making this book happen. She has been my invaluable second right hand from the onset of the manuscript’s development.

Neal Burdick edited portions of the final draft.

Courtesy of Richard J. Smith, from Noah’s photo album

Uncle Noah, former Cold River Hermit of Wigwam City, Population 1.

The following businesses and people helped me in ways both great and small. To those who consented to be interviewed for this book, thanks for sharing your memories: Adirondack Life magazine; Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake; Donald “Jack” Anderson; Bob Bates; Robert E. Brindle, vice-president of programming at WGY; Neal S. Burdick; Oscar Burguiere; Harvey Carr; Maitland C. De Sormo; Adolph Dittmar; Mary Colyer Dittmer; Madeline Dodge; H. P. Donlon; Dr. Roger D. Freeman; John Hasenjager; John Hickey; Rob Igoe, president of North Country Books, Inc.; Bertha N. Irwin; Nancy and Frank Johnson; Miriam Kondroski; Chris E. Latimer; Dr. C.V. Latimer, Jr.; Donald Latimer; Helen Colyer Menz; Edward Miller; Erwin H. Miller; Bette M. O’Hern; Tony Okie; Pete and Alice Pelkey; Jerry Pepper; Jeff Pescia; Adam Piersall; Ruth Prince; Fredric C. Reeves; Edwin A. Reid; Shelby Payro Richardson; Chester Rock; Steve Rock, Burton Rondeau, Charlie Russ; Earle Russell; Dorian St. George; Jenny Rondeau Kelton Scully; Richard J. Smith; Judy Sorrell; Peter Reeves Sperry Fred R. Studer; WGY Schenectady Radio; Syracuse University Press; Mary L. Thomas; Eleanor and Monty Webb; Clarence and Stacia White-man; Cynthia and Holly C. Wolff, and Paul Wollner. Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to use Philip G. Wolff’s “Knowing Noah John Rondeau: A Young Man’s Tale of a Hermit’s Hospitality.” Original material that appeared in Adirondack Life, May/June2010. The story, “Noah John Rondeau, Hermit of Cold River,” was written by Adolph G. “Ditt” Dittmar and taken with permission from the Forty-Sixers book, The Adirondack High Peaks and The Forty-Sixers (The Adirondack Forty-Sixers, 1970).I have made every effort to acknowledge the assistance of everyone who helped; any omission is an unintentional oversight

Uncle Noah’s Yearbooks

June 30, 2020September 24, 2022 Lucinda

A glance at Uncle Noah’s yearbooks gave teenage Chester a new out-look on his out-of-the ordinary uncle.

The Hermit and Us – Our Adirondack Adventures with Noah John Rondeau

Uncle Noah’s Yearbooks

An excerpt from “The Hermit and Us”, Starting on page 311

See more about this book

A glance at Uncle Noah’s yearbooks gave teenage Chester a new out-look on his out-of-the ordinary uncle.

Chester probably laughed if he read Noah’s July 11, 1952, comment about his younger cousins.

A hot summer day after rain At Hill Top. I work on Poultry yard. Hoe beans…An American hawk got one of my prize white leghorns…Give Potato Bugs drink of Paris Green. My first spinach from garden. Evening I go to Cadyville with Payro [Sic. Parrow] Family* and Sister Priscilla. The Trip was spoiled by 3 fool kids raising Hell in the back seat.

[*The “Parrow” family Noah refers to in this entry, according to Shelby Payro Richardson, “must be my sister Mariam and the two foster boys Grandma Priscilla took in. My mother would occasionally bring the boys home. My brothers, Francis, and Lauren and I, were quiet kinds of kids; Uncle Noah must have been referring to those three.” Shelby was emphatic: “My brothers and I did not get into trouble.” She laughed, thinking how long ago the event took place, and yet she did not want any guilt by association.]

The two foster boys Shelby referred to were Kenneth and Clayton Burnah. Judy Sorrell, Kenneth Burnah’s widow, credits Priscilla McCasland with al-ways being there for Kenneth and Clayton. It was her hand-up that helped the brothers become survivors in an otherwise hard childhood situation.

“Over the years Ken had related a few stories about Uncle Noah coming down out of the mountains to visit Aunt Ceil, as Ken and Clayton called Priscilla. Ken never forgot Uncle Noah referring to him and Clayton as two brats who were fighting in the back seat of Priscilla’s car on a trip back from Plattsburgh to Au Sable Forks. He recalled thinking they felt they could get away with being bad because Aunt Ceil was busy talking with Uncle Noah, whom she didn’t get to see very often. Ken was very impressed with Uncle Noah and would mention that he might like to live that life himself, but he remained in society and just thought about being a hermit.

“Unfortunately, Clayton has also passed away. I wish I had snapped some pictures of Uncle Noah, but at the time I was very young and was mostly interested in Ken. Life goes by so fast and now I seem to have time to think back about so much. We have four children who are very interested in the outdoors and reading about Uncle Noah.”

Recalling the code Noah used in his diaries, Chester said, “All my brothers and sisters were just as curious about Uncle Noah’s secret writing as I was. There wasn’t ever much time to snoop in the journals, because if mother caught us there would be trouble! I did think, however, that I would like to have been able to take my time thumbing through all the pages.”

Smith’s Hermit Stories

June 15, 2020September 18, 2022 Lucinda

The following are two of Smith’s hermit stories based on events from … experiences in the Cold River country … and his life with Noah John Rondeau.

The Hermit and Us – Our Adirondack Adventures with Noah John Rondeau

Smith’s Hermit Stories

An excerpt from “The Hermit and Us”, Starting on page 274

See more about this book

“Noah sure was a magnet,” Richard Smith underscored.

He attracted people from all walks of life to Cold River. I often thought, when he was feeling a mite lonesome following months of having no human contact, that he would step up the power [of the “magnet”] and before long someone would show up, whether it be a hunter, a fisherman or just a hiker or mountain climber stopping by to say hello.

I know how often I would get an overpowering urge to visit him, and as I neared the City my often dragging feet would have more spring the last few miles, anticipating the joy I would soon feel in the presence of my most unforgettable character. Wishes were fulfilled here.

The following are two of Smith’s stories based on events from Smith’s real-life experiences in the Cold River country, his memories—individual and outdoorsy—and his life with Noah John Rondeau. These stories paint a vivid picture of just what it was that made Cold River life an amazing experience.

Courtesy of Richard J. Smith from Noah’s photo album

By living a hermit’s life, “Old Whiskers” realized a degree of freedom many of us only dream about.

Smith related that to mark special occasions, Noah would bestow a dol-lop of scotch from his Trophy Bottle upon any deer hunter companion who bagged a buck, then record the event in his hieroglyphic code on a piece of white adhesive tape affixed to the side of the long-necked whiskey bottle

Smith’s stories started when he graduated from high school in 1939 and put down roots in the mountains, first in a cobbled-together camp in the headwaters of the Chubb River and later in a cabin near Duck Hole, headwaters of Cold River. From it, Smith had almost constant access to his mentor, Noah Rondeau. The diverse tales are sometimes related in high spirits, sometimes in a matter-of-fact tone, and occasionally in a reflective way. The real life stories explore Smith’s life with Noah in the days of the old-time woodsmen.

A particular fond memory Smith always carried was of a special bottle of spirits the hermit kept at the Hermitage. Smith’s remembrance of the booze jug and its hidden location at the Mammoth Graveyard—Rondeau’s secret place where he stashed valuables in Ouluska Pass—set me on several unsuccessful bushwhack to find the hidden collection of galvanized garbage cans. Noah collected them from former Cold River side camps when the CCC pulled out, and found them perfect for storage of many items.

When I hear of men holding a banquet to speed “Wild Life Welfare,” I conclude for myself, “If a Cold River Deer could attend, and hear and comprehend the keynoter and spell binders, he would kill himself laughing before he’d starve on Hemlock boughs. —NJR in reply to Ranger Toomey telling Noah about efforts of sportsmen’s clubs feeding deer.

A Nephew’s Remembrances of the Hermit

June 15, 2020September 9, 2022 Lucinda

Remembrances of the Hermit : he laughs as much now as he did when Uncle Noah first told it… As kids we were always plugging him to tell us stories and he liked that.”

The Hermit and Us – Our Adirondack Adventures with Noah John Rondeau

A Nephew’s Remembrances of the Hermit

An excerpt from “The Hermit and Us”, Starting on page 305

See more about this book

Burton [Rondeau] continued, “He did enjoy people. Those that he met back in the woods or outside. He’d send gifts to family members for special occasions and press coins into little children’s hands. Quarters!

That was a big deal back then. I remember him sitting in the living room playing the violin. There was no doubt he liked the attention. It didn’t take much encouragement to get him to play or tell stories. I clearly remember him sitting at the dining room table. He was never a large eater even when there was a large amount of food on the table. He ate just about anything. He never complained about anything.

Courtesy of Richard J. Smith from Noah’s Photo album

Noah embraced the advertising blitz made of his hermit image. The front cover of the Hotel Belmont Plaza weekly guide read: “Noah Rondeau considers giving up his life as a hermit after this reception of the National Sportsmen’s Show, at the Grand Central Place…” February 17–25, 1951.

“When I was young, I used to think he was Santa Claus. He was an attraction. I just didn’t get a chance to see him that much. He paid a lot of attention to children. He didn’t shove us aside. I remember him telling how he killed a bear with his bow and arrows. Shot it several times until it bled out. He’d say, ‘I was a little leery because I only had five arrows with me.’

“Well, lucky thing you have a hermit here to teach you how to catch a fox,’ he’d tell me with a chuckle.” And, like other storytellers, Noah often had a twist to a telling, Burton revealed when he attempted to recreate his uncle’s instructions in a voice that is more rustic than Noah’s generally more sophisticated one: “You get yourself some boards and nails and a hammer and saw and build a box, a cage you see. Then you attach a door and a trip peg and tie a rope to the door. Lift it into the open position, hold on to the rope and get behind the box. Then you make a noise like a dead hen.”

Although Burton has told that story many times, he laughs as much now as he did when Uncle Noah first told it. “That’s the kind of thing that went on. Stories like that. As kids we were always plugging him to tell us stories and he liked that.”

“When I was young, I used to think he was Santa Claus. He was an attraction. I just didn’t get a chance to see him that much.

Smith’s Hermit Stories

June 15, 2020September 28, 2022 Lucinda

The following are two of Smith’s hermit stories based on events from … experiences in the Cold River country … and his life with Noah John Rondeau.

The Hermit and Us – Our Adirondack Adventures with Noah John Rondeau

Smith’s Hermit Stories

An excerpt from “The Hermit and Us”, Starting on page 274

See more about this book

“Noah sure was a magnet,” Richard Smith underscored.

Courtesy of Richard J. Smith from Noah’s photo album

By living a hermit’s life, “Old Whiskers” realized a degree of freedom many of us only dream about.

Memoirs of the hermit Noah John Rondeau

May 28, 2020September 19, 2022 Lucinda

Hermit Noah John Rondeau’s cooking at Cold River and at Singing Pines was … about stretching a sparse amount of food over several meals involved making chowder.

The Hermit and Us – Our Adirondack Adventures with Noah John Rondeau

Memoirs of the hermit Noah John Rondeau

An excerpt from “The Hermit and Us”, Starting on page 258

See more about this book

I then noticed a very frail-looking elderly gentleman with a long grayish beard. He wore wire-rimmed glasses. He was of thin build and stood about five feet six inches. I estimated his age to be in his late seventies or early eighties. His shoulders stooped forward slightly.

I thought for his age he appeared to have most of his hair. I also thought to myself when I saw Noah that there was a strong physical resemblance to Chet. His clothing consisted of a bluish shirt and I think old baggy jeans with suspenders to hold them up. Upon Chet introducing us, I recall in shaking his hand that it was a weak grip and I, of course, attributed that to his age. I had further observed outside in front of his cabin a cooking area with a frying pan in the middle of it. Noah John spoke very softly and sometimes his terminology was a little different than ours.

Also, I had noticed a homemade rocking chair in the front of his cabin. Noah had invited us inside his bungalow, or cabin; I noticed what appeared to be a bench wide enough to be his bed with blankets at the end and a small table with cans on top. I should mention that this day was bright, sunny and warm. There was a small box-type stove inside. I remember Noah saying “perfect sunshine.” I remember that because I never heard that expression before or after.

Noah and I talked about fishing. He stated that he caught mainly trout in the brooks, some Rainbow and Brown, stating they were good eating. We talked about deer and bear hunting. He stated that he killed many and lived off the land and “never wasted anything.” He made use of all that he killed for clothing and eating and heat. Also I recall him saying that he had to get to the berries before the animals did. He said he kept a good amount of his canned food in the river where it was cool, and non-perishables in caches of discarded galvanized CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] cans which prompted the remark, ‘If a mountain climber ever got low on their own food, I’d tell them to stop by the Town Hall and Rondeau and he’ll give you something good to eat out of the garbage can.’

Courtesy of Bill Frenette

Noah’s cooking at Cold River and at Singing Pines was very undistinguished in character. His idea about stretching a sparse amount of food over several meals involved making chowder. Whether it was deer or bear meat, muskrat or beaver, fish or vegetables he’d say “I’ll make nice chowder.”