08-09 Adirondack Museum

We traveled about an hour and 15 minutes from Lake George to the Adirondack Museum in Blue Lake, NY, which is near the center of the Adirondack Park. It is a wonderful museum with many buildings and excellent displays related to life in the Adirondacks.

We spent about a half a day but did not nearly cover the whole museum. The first stop was an exhibit about life in the woods hunting, camping or living in cabins. There were displays of old time camping and hunting tools. I enjoyed a display of old rifles and shotguns, especially the old Winchester rifles I saw in boyhood cowboy movies. I liked this skillful life-size carving of a famous hermit, Noah John Rondeau, who lived alone in the nearby mountains for many years.

Next door was a special exhibit of quilts from local quilt makers. We always love looking at quilts.

Another favorite was the building with displays of antique wagons, snow sleds, automobiles and a luxury train car. Here are a few:

A peddler’s wagon:

A stage coach:

I had always heard of buckboard wagons, but never thought about exactly what they were. There were several on display. We learned that the name came from early log wagons that had a board at the front to keep logs from sliding forward to “buck” the team of horses. A local preacher named Comstock noticed that the drivers appeared to have a smooth ride in an empty log wagon that essentially was just long boards connecting the two axles. So he made a wagon with a board between the axles with the seat on top of the board and kept the name used on the log wagons. The natural spring of the board gave a much smoother ride over rough roads. The design was quickly adopted and over time modified with helper springs. Here is what it looked like:

This building also had a neat collection of toys and miniature furniture carved by a local craftsman. They were amazing:

These tiny baby high chairs look like one I used as a child and is now in one of my niece’s kitchen.

Another building had a excellent display of regional boats including Adirondack guide boats. These are a bit larger than a canoe and are rowed with oars. Note the yoke in the middle of the center boat. That fit over the shoulder of the guide as he carried it across portages between lakes and rivers when he took his clients hunting or fishing.

Here is a reproduction being built in the museum’s workshop. I wish I had the skills, tools and patience to do something like this.

There were beautiful flowers outside and around the buildings. Here are some along a balcony overlook to Blue Lake:

Some close-ups of other flowers:

One of the outside displays showed the steps required to wash clothes in the old days. You had to soak them then agitate or pound them:

Wash them with the scrub board:

Rinse them using this manual agitator:

Wring them to remove as much water as possible:

Hang them to dry:

Husbands were told to expect a cold supper on wash days.

We really enjoyed this museum and wish it had not been such a long drive. Otherwise we would have gone back for another visit.