Otterbrook
Ten miles south of this village on Route 3 is the intersection of Route 421.
Take this road west along Horseshoe Lake, cross the NY Central Railroad tracks
and, at the track, 6.2 miles from Route 3, you’ll note a gated, private road
on your left. This road leads in three miles to an isolated preserve known
as Otterbrook, also sometimes called Lake Marion, or simply Bishop Moore’s.
It is a special place in the cultural and architectural legacies of our area.
Over the years, I have been extended courtesies from various caretakers who have allowed me to pursue raptor studies on the property. Many other Tupper Lake residents as well have come to know Otterbrook as caretakers (Vailancourt, Zande, Crary, etc.), employees or guests. They care deeply about this place. The owners have been salutary neighbors whose loving stewardship has maintained what is truly a precious heritage, even as other such preserves, one after the other, are being lost in the war of increasing costs and hungry developers.
History tells us, sadly over the years, another reason for the loss of some of these historical gems has been destruction by fire. Many such isolated camps have burnt to the ground, sometimes through carelessness, more often through natural catastrophic events. The fact was not lost on the owners and staff at Otterbrook, and routine fire drills and every possible precaution has been put into place and strictly adhered to. Despite such careful diligence, that fear, after 116 years, came to reality at Otterbrook this past Thursday, Oct. 12, when four original cottages situated in a cluster of other buildings burned to the ground.
The Beast is Tamed
In what can only be described as providence, caretaker Doug Crary, making
an unscheduled visit to the camp, discovered the buildings already
fully engulfed in flames. After a quick call to the Tupper Lake Volunteer
Fire Department, Doug managed to start up a water pump and lay hose
that enabled him to successfully save the enjoining building that housed
the library, even as the flames were consuming the walls.
The TLFD, in an immediate response, covered the 20 miles in less than 40 minutes across very rough roads. This prompt action helped prevent the fire from spreading, and the fiery beast that is so feared was tamed.
The Lake Marion property, consisting of some 16,000 acres, was purchased in 1918 from the Low estate by Paul Moore Sr. Mr. Moore always called his purchase Otterbrook.
The main camp, built in the late 1800s and still standing, was the summer home of A.A. Low. It was sited on mile-long Lake Marian, which Mr. Low named after his wife. It is one of nine lakes on the property, and at the time of Mr. Moore’s purchase, the surrounding forest was a mess of burnt-over land from the disastrous 1903 fire that destroyed thousands of acres in the near vicinity.
Mountains surrounding Lake Marian, like Mt. Rampart and Mt. Graves, still today have bare rock summits from the intense heat that destroyed ground cover and vegetation. Somehow, the original Lake Marian buildings, escaped destruction, probably because they were in a clearing and some, now 116 years old, have remained essentially as they were when Mr. Moore made his purchase.
Otterbrook is now owned by the third generation of the Moore family – a dozen descendants of the original owner. The Adirondack Nature Conservancy has protected 4,756 acres from development under conservation easement (no public access).