In May of 1776, Sir John Johnson, a Loyalist to the British Monarchy during the Revolutionary War, camped with his family and warriors of the Mohawk Nation who supported him on the shores of Raquette Lake while fleeing arrest. The lake was later named for the snowshoes Johnson and his supporters left behind in the harsh wilderness on their flight from the Mohawk Valley to Montreal, Canada. With remote woodlands at its core, the isolated lands of Raquette Lake and neighboring Fulton Chain Lakes were occupied only in part by nomadic Oneida and Mohawk indigenous peoples for centuries leading up to the 1800s. The first white settler, by name of Josiah Wood, bravely chose the area as his residence in 1846. It seems that white Europeans were not so fond of the unforgiving environment. Yet this region of the Adirondack Park has its rewards.
Flash forward to the 1970s, my grandparents sent my father to Camp Gorham in Eagle Bay (about 22 miles northwest of Raquette Lake), where he spent three summers during his junior high years hiking and paddling the once infamous wilderness. The camp has long been an affiliate of the Rochester Regional YMCA, which was where he and his family lived. A few of his classmates had attended the camp and their parents told my grandparents about it. My father cites memories of Raquette Lake’s isolated beauty, but also recalls miles upon miles of backwoods canoe hauling to the lake while under constant besiege from the black flies.
Camp Gorham is the sole reason why I insisted my father and I visit the west-central Adirondacks the autumn of 2020. The Fulton Chain Lakes are considered part of a river system called the Black River watershed, which eventually empties into Lake Ontario’s Black River Bay. We met a number of Western New Yorkers during our civilized stay at an Inlet, New York, motel. Old Forge, which is just 12 miles west of Inlet, is a popular Adirondack vacation town for Western New Yorkers as well. But it was the wilderness I had personally set out to explore. People are my father’s fascination. I made it a goal on this special weekend to revisit Camp Gorham as well as rise with the sun and picture hunt for foggy morning photos on the Fulton Chain Lakes and Raquette Lake. Below are my choice images from the trip.
