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The curtain rang down with a thud of finality and to no ovation this week on a significant piece of Tupper Lake history. The last remaining buildings (over ten in all) of the A.A. Low Horseshoe Forestry Co. are no longer.

Vandalized, neglected, in total disrepair, their removal this week by an operations crew of the D.E.C. was long overdue. Not only had the buildings in their deteriorating condition become an eyesore, their presence in the vocabulary of officialdom was considered “non-conforming.”

Still, as one stands in the midst of the remaining stone walls left as a historical footprint by the wrecking crew, echoes from the past resonate throughout this beautiful spot. The fired-scarred cliffs of Hitchins Mtn. still loom above as a giant protective rampart, and the Bog River continues to tumble by on its way to refresh and replenish the waters of Tupper Lake. Thousands of recreationists now and in the future will pass through those former “headquarters” grounds, many insensitive to or not aware of the remarkable activities that took place here. To a great many Tupper Lake residents, however, there are very strong connections, and those memories, even as ghostly echoes, will remain loud and clear. So let me say on behalf of all those with such memories: “Welcome canoeists and hikers to this special place, but please try to understand that our local connections may make us somewhat possessive. This is part of our community’s historic past, so treat it wisely and lightly.” Sadly because there is no proper place to store or display memorabilia, many of the important artifacts concerning the A.A. Low operations have been lost to this community. A small collection (mailbags, photos, letters, labels, etc.) can be found in the annex of the St. Lawrence Historical Society in Canton. The Adk. Museum in Blue Mtn. has an especially fine collection that is displayed from time to time, and Piercefield museum is the recent recipient of the Jim Peck collection.

For those readers not familiar with the Horseshoe Forestry Co. or the Bog River Power Co. or Hitchins Corp., as it was also known, the following is an all-too brief summary of that enterprise, with thanks to Paul Jamieson, Ricky Vaillancourt, Howard Reandeau and especially Alvin Cote of this village. A.A. Low became wealthy as a partner in his father’s shipping and importing business. He fell in love with the area around this town and built a summer home near Robinwood on Bog Lake (many residents now have camps on this property under lease from the I.P. Co.). He continued to buy more land (40,000 acres) and built a permanent home on Silver Lake, which he renamed Lake Marion after his wife and daughter (Doug Crary is the present caretaker of this property called Otterbrook, which is owned by Bishop Moore of New York City).
Mr. Low was an entrepreneur with great energy and talent and held many patents on his numerous inventions. He built a handsome railroad station at Horseshoe, floated logs down the Bog to his sawmill at Hitchins Pond, and later built his own railroad line. He built a three-story boarding house at Hitchins for his employees. Still visible marble today are the catchments over the springs, where he obtained and then bottled quantities of “Virgin Forest Spring” water for city markets. One year he produced more maple syrup than the entire production total of Vermont state.

A Chicago exposition blue ribbon for maple syrup quality hung for many years in the employees’ building. He used the berries and other fruit from his cutover land to market preserves. he built a dam on the Bog to generate electricity, and when he needed more power, he built a second one. The lights were never turned off at Headquarters with the excess of electricity thus generated at a time when much of New York was still using generators.

In 1908 a devastating forest fire left his lands in ruins. At the same time the state won a lawsuit charging him with flooding state lands. That combination of events so burdened and depressed Mr. Low that he closed the operations of his empire and four years later he died. (Years later the lawsuit was reversed on appeal and his heirs were repaid the substantial fine plus accumulated interest!)

Somewhere around 1910 the Emporium Lumber Co. bought the sawmill equipment from the Horseshoe Mill and added it to its Conifer operation. The railroad line consisting of three spurs to the New York Central Main Line at Horseshoe ceased operating in 1911 (that rail bed now is a fine hiking and ski-touring access to Hitchins Headquarters, or Upper Dam as it is also known). The property was subsequently split up among other private owners (John Knox at Long Pond, Bishop Moore at Otterbrook, Robert Lehman at Robinwood, and the Hiawatha and Suffolk counties’ Boy Scouts of America, etc.). The carry around the upper dam remained in private hands, and access by and large remained as it had been for almost a century, closed to the public. Then in 1985 the state purchased (in celebration of the Forest Preserve Centennial) 9,248 acres of Bog River Flow, which included the carry and the former headquarters (as it is known locally) and opened up most of the headwaters for the public to enjoy. It has become a widely acclaimed and popular canoe route and destination. Granted, its popularity may be troublesome at times, but on balance it has added to the ever-increasing reputation of Tupper Lake being the canoeing center of the Adirondacks. It also remains an important, colorful, and fascinating part of our local history. It is important, I think you will agree, and that this is an aspect not to be neglected or forgotten.

To its credit, region six of D.E.C. has shown understanding and wisdom in allowing some of the exceptional stone work to remain. Much of that masterful masonry was done by A. Duffy of Saranac Lake. Another mason was Jim Trombley of this village. In one of the cabins located at the north end of the Hitchins Pond Esker he constructed a foundation wall, a fireplace, and a chimney.

Mr. Trombley employed hundreds upon hundreds of river stones. Each stone is the same baseball size and are of a beautiful hue and smoothness caused by millions of years of abrasive action by the Bog River’s sand and flowing water.

Like a piece of fine sculpture or other great work of art, shame on us if we allow it to disappear.
“Human history” and “natural history” do not need to be in conflict as the future stewardship for this area goes under scrutiny before receiving its bureaucratic statutory imprimatures (i.e. wilderness, primitive, or wild forest?)

Copyright William C. Frenette Collection