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This past summer Jane and Mike Arsenault of Long Lake turned their dream of owning their own business, being their own boss, and being in charge of their own destiny into a reality. Yes, they bought a store just outside the Long Lake village. The store they purchased is what is known in the food industry as a “C” store. C stands for convenience as opposed to super market and other descriptive categories.

As “C” stores go, the Arsenault store is A+. It is modern, clean, well lighted, has excellent displays and a well-designed layout. An entire wall is devoted to floor-to-ceiling “visi” coolers containing an eclectic mix of beverages, some of which are not found other than in metro stores. The day I visited the store the staff were bright, friendly and knowledgeable. it was a pleasure to stop there and I left the store not only impressed, but with the certainty that Long Lake’s newest entrepreneurs knew what they were doing and would be successful in a very competitive endeavor.

Long Lake has a rich history which its residents are very aware of and cherish. The talented women’s war canoe team, for example, named their beautiful vintage wood-canvas canoe the IN CA PAH CO. This was the Indian name for the lake because of the predominance of basswood (linden or popple) along its shores. Roughly translated into English, the name becomes Lindermere and for a time Lindermere was an early and poetic name for the lake. At one time it was also called Wide River, describing a widened channel of the Racquette River over 14 miles long and nearly a mile wide at its broadest point. This broadening has created one of the most beautiful lakes in the region. Its many islands, long sandy beaches and wonderful views of the Seward and Santanoni Range as you approach where the splendid Cold River joins the Racquette, mark it as unforgettable.

The Arsenaults named their store the Kickerville Mobil, suggesting not only a sense of humor but of history. I couldn’t help wonder, however, how many people would related to this curious name. I quickly learned that people were interested in the whys and wherefores of the name and, if nothing else, it would certainly provide an interesting piece of historical lore.

Long Lake, you see, had grown up on both sides of a narrow of the lake (now spanned by the Route 30 bridge). An itinerant peddler visiting the west shore settlement, so the story goes, was not very well received and promptly named the place Kickerville. When he called the east shore settlement and found his reception was not any better, he gave that settlement the unflattering name of Gougeville! If the story were not largely anecdotal, that peddler certainly must have been a misfit, a real grouch or both. I have never met a more wonderful, caring, honest, down-to-earth group of people than the residents of the village of Long Lake.

Recently, while hiking into Dog Pond to take in the last weekend of the extended trout season, I ran into a bow hunter. He was a native Long Laker and I was able to test my question on how many people would relate to Kickerville. His response was that the present Walker Road is still referred to by some old-timers as the Kickerville Road, and yes, his parents had often talked about Kickerville but he never heard of Gougeville.

He also told me that the west shore and the east shore settlements were first connected by a cable-operated ferry which was replaced in 1870 by a floating bridge (his mother had pictures of this bridge). Later a suspension bridge was built which was reputed, he had heard, as the longest single span in the state. During the Depression and later in the early 1940s, fill was added to create a causeway which eliminated Pine Island’s status as a true island (today’s Island Snack Bar) and allowed the present day shorter steel bridge that accommodates Route 30.

Copyright William C. Frenette Collection