The paved road had yet to come to this area. Indeed, it was a novelty to most of the United States. Wilbur and Orville Wright had only recently proven with their 59-second flight that man could fly. The “Age of Invention” was only beginning to establish the technological foundation on which our present-day society depends (the light bulb, the automobile, the telephone, etc.).
The year was 1910 and Louis Oshier, one of this community’s early settlers, stood at the south end of Tupper Lake, about 10 miles from the village and very near where he no doubt had landed his guide boat after rowing the length of the lake. Mr. Oshier was near the tri-county corner of Franklin, St. Lawrence and Hamilton counties and the historic line of the Totten and Crossfield Purchase, and this was at the time a remote and isolated place. Consider: It would be another eight years (1918) before voters would approve Route 30 from Tupper Lake to Long Lake.
A log bridge built in 1894 crossed the Racquette River at Moody, but the road crossing the Moody Flow was a rough, corduroy (log) route covered with earth and was under water for a part of every year. Until Edward Litchfield extended the road for five and one half miles, linking his park with the hamlet of Moody, the road ended approximately where Charland Road begins today.
The Tupper Lake House at the head of the lake was no longer, having been destroyed by fire 16 years earlier in 1898. Camp Welcome sat on the rocky ledge overlooking Bog River Falls and for a time provided lodging and food to river drivers running logs from the Little Tupper area until it was abandoned by Raphael Cameron’s (Hinkson) family two years earlier in 1908.
I would like to imagine that on that day Mr. Oshier was fishing Cold Brook, which empties into South Bay, stealthily wading that fine stream, careful of vibration and shadow as he attempted to lure a fat, speckled beauty from its hiding place beneath an overhanging bank. No matter what he was doing, he made a monumental discovery that day when he happened upon a wonderful spring, which today we know as Lumberjack Spring that still runs clear, cold and pure. That spring, which continues to bubble up through a sparkling sand bottom at a temperature hovering around 48 degrees, has been welcomed by countless travelers and lumberjacks since Mr. Oshier discovered it 91 years ago.
Note: A recent and reliable testing of seven north-country roadside springs, conducted by staff of Adirondack Life, noted, “The Lumberjack Spring Waters were unassailable when tests came back.” The springhouse located at this site is supported by a concrete wall sunken into the ground with a height three feet above water level. This structure was built by three local residents and their employer, Mr. Charles Goodman, former owner of the Sheltered Cove Camp on Tupper Lake. Some background on its construction and the philosophy that prompted it may be of historical interest.
Mr. Goodman headed the Grow Construction Company, one of the most prominent engineering firms in New York City, his firm having built many of New York’s subway tubes and arterials as well as sewer tunnels in Queens and Manhattan. Other major projects included construction and engineering work on the New Jersey and Connecticut turnpikes, the New York State Thruway and the George Washington Bridge. He and Mrs. Goodman were frequent visitors to Tupper Lake during the late 1920s, attracted by the area’s scenic splendor, its lovely lakes, the beneficial fresh air and its friendly people. Mrs. Goodman had become seriously ill and always found that her health improved on the Tupper Lake visits. As a result, Mr. Goodman decided to build a seasonal home that would provide longer and more comfortable visits. After much deliberation, he chose a location on the spine of the Esker, a ridge that rises abruptly from Tupper Lake’s south bay, where Cold Brook enters the lake on one side and where Bog River runs parallel to the Esker on the other equally abrupt side. He then situated Shelter Cove Camp, as it came to be called, where it commanded a wonderful view of the lake and surrounding hills. At the same time, in the early 1930s, there was construction on the road to Long Lake and Mr. Goodman was able to obtain fractured cyclopean blocks of Adirondack anorthosite, a highly durable, erosion-resistant rock, greatly valued for construction. Near the top of the magnificent chimney that faces the entrance, a skillful stonemason chiseled out the numerals “1933,” the date the house was completed.
On a recent day, I stood on the massive stone deck overlooking the lake, and with the sun at just the right angle, the crystals of feldspar, the main mineral in anorthosite, reflected the light as though ignited by some internal fire. The “camp” remains today a tribute to the local artisans who built it and to Mr. Goodman who envisioned it – as enduring and impressive as the true “rock of ages” from which it was built.
Mr. Goodman, of course, knew of Mr. Oshier’s spring. Impressed with the beauty of the spring’s natural setting and the quality of its waters, he undertook to protect it permanently at his own expense. After some discussion with Earnest Reandeau of the State Highway Department, he put his men to work building a concrete wall about the spring and a sturdy springhouse to protect it (see photo). A one and one-half inch pipe set in the well wall carried a flow of six and one-half gallons per minute from the spring. The 10-inch thick concrete sidewalls support an inverted “V” roof, also of concrete. Embedded in the roof is a steel framing of 28 angles supported on four corner steel posts set in the sidewalls. Steel plates touch steel framing and project three feet above the roof and, acting as lightning rods, hold the sign “Lumberjack Spring.” A bronze tablet on the side of the springhouse, its inscription still clearly legible, reads, “Lumberjack Spring: Cool Drinking Water; 1582 Feet Above Sea Level; Discovered by Louis Oshier in 1910; Structure Erected in 1937 by Sheltered Cove Lumberjacks, Ed Sabourin, Emil Sabourin and Pat Arsenault.”
In addition to protecting the integrity of this wonderful spring, Mr. Goodman had in mind that his project would “provide a lasting memento to the lumbering industry, so famous in this region, and to the hardy French Canadian lumberjacks of the Tupper Lake community.”
The Scorecard
Source Location Nitrates Total
Coliform E-Coli
McConley Moriah 0.84 absent --
Lumberjack Tupper
Lake 0.46 absent --
Watering Tub Brant
Lake 0.38 present absent
Cold Spring Piercefield 0.20 absent --
Mystery Spot Ausable
River 0.18 present absent
Page Street Speculator 0.10 present absent
Giant Mountain Keene 0.10 present absent
King Phillips North
Hudson 0.10 present absent
Admittedly an inexact science, the above test results for potability conducted by Alchemy Laboratories in Plattsburgh for Adirondack Life Magazine are considered reliable, and both local springs scored high.