There is a walk rich in scenery and historical significance that readers might enjoy. Drive down Underwood Road, go past the Usher’s Farm Greenhouses and nursery yard (great prices and hardy plant material developed especially for this climate — long, harsh winters and short, cool summers).

Park your car at the end of this road near Doug and Sarah Bencze Big Boulder Deer Farm, home of free-range, organic-raised fallow deer. Hey! The trip is already worthwhile and you haven’t started your walk.

You will find a foot path here that in a quarter mile will take you to the Adirondack railroad tracks of the New York Central. Before you start (south) up the tracks, notice the fine stand of white birch trees. A spur of the railroad went out from here to a peninsula on the Raquette Pond. Raquette Pond at one time was a receiving and sorting pool for upriver log drives, and a jackworks (escalator) was located at the end of the peninsula, which would load the logs from the pond onto rail cars for shipment. The spur destroyed much of the soil’s organic matter, and light seeded catastrophic species such as these paper birch were blown in on the wind to fill the opening.

One individual who used this jackworks was John McDonald, one of the most successful lumbermen in the Adirondacks. In 1934 he was contracted to lumber Whitney Park, and a way had to be found to get the lumber out. McDonald solved that problem by building a large dam (still there) on Round Pond.This enabled him to boom softwood pulp across the flooded pond, down its outlet (Round Pond Stream), past the Luther Owen camp on Bear Brook (now Kavanaugh), into the Bog River, into Big Tupper Lake and thence to the jackworks, where it was loaded on rail for shipment to the St. Regis Co. at Deferiet.

When the O.W.D. wanted the first-growth hardwood on that property, the resourceful McDonald built a railroad spur (1935) and brought railroad equipment from his Bay Pond (Rockefeller) operation. The spur ran from Rock Pond on Whitney to Brandeth station on the New York Central. Nine miles of this 13-mile spur was on Brandeth land, and the owners were paid a use fee (10 cents per cord of wood transported).

Today, 62 years later, another successful lumberman, Jeannel Lizotte of this village, has utilized some of this original route for a main haul road, only now 18-wheel trucks do the hauling.

Continue down the tracks for another quarter mile to the bridge that opens the Raquette Pond for its 90-mile course to the confluence with the St. Lawrence River on Indian reservation lands. Surprised at the carpeting laid across the railroad ties as you walk elegantly across the bridge? These were place here by enterprising snowmobilers to facilitate the bridge crossing.

Look right (downstream) and you will see Captain Peter’s rock. Look to the right across Raquette Pond to the village. Author Paul Jamieson in his canoe guide North Flow describes this view as “one of the most splendid mountain panoramas in the Adirondack Park that opens across a broad expanse of water. Most prominent are Stony Creek and Ampersand Mountains and the Seward, Sawteeth and Santanoni ranges.”

At the far side of the bridge to your left you’ll notice the brick walls of a crumbling building choked and almost hidden by alders and other scrub undergrowth. This was a pulp crossing mill (1889-1899) owned by Champlain Realty, a subsidiary of International Paper Co. It may be hard to believe, but a thriving community known as Underwood existed there. It was named after George F. Underwood, vice president of the International Paper Co. The village contained homes for the mill workers’ families, a large boarding house, post office and a school, whose first teacher was Etta Eldred (wife of Frank Eldred, at one time the timekeeper for the Santa Clara Co., who lived for many years as my neighbor on Lake Simond Road, now Doreen Sutliffe residence).

Like Derrick, Brandon and others, this little settlement only lasted about 10 years before the mill closed and Underwood became another “ghost town.”

Usher Farms on Underwood Road derived its name from the original Usher Farm, which was located on what is now known as the Nomis Hunting Club lands (Conifer/Massawepi area).

In 1951 the soil on the farm began to lose its fertility and the fields were planted with Scotch pine. Today, the old farm is a sizable plantation of growing timber.

Formerly part of the Emporium Forestry Company holdings, this tract is now owned by the John Hancock Insurance Co. The massive logs that make up the main house of the Underwood Usher Farm were cut, peeled and transported from the original farm by the owner of the Underwood Farm, who was employed as caretaker for a time at the Nomis Club. He also single-handedly built from native stone the impressive fireplace that dominates the main room of the house.

It may be of further interest that the lands surrounding the original farm now enjoy partial public recreational rights due to a conservation easement with New York State (closed to the public from the “opening of the big game season until Jan. 1 and all public use and access will be suspended annually during that time”).

This easement will expire in the year 2004 after which full public recreational use will accrue.