The Massena Observer, Thursday September 5, 1929
Famous Sink Hole in Adirondacks Defies
For Years Men Have Tried to Fill It Up Only to Have All Their Materials Disappear
Nature's greatest mystery of the Adirondacks, the notorious "sink hole" between Vermontville and Loon Lake, which "all the king's horses and all the king's men" haven't been able to remedy, has dropped another 15 inches in the last few days. Workmen have thrown up hands in disgust at ever being capable of improving it.
A slice of the road went the same way hundreds of tons of rock and soil have gone in the 50 years men have labored to stretch a permanent highway across the gully. Parts of two mountains have been blasted away and used to fill in that period but to no avail. All of the rock taken from the age-old ranges overlooking the swamp have tumbled to unknown depths and still to all appearances a high-way over the area is years away from completion.
Only one solution seems plausible if a permanent road is to be laid across the hole. This centers on construction of a steel span. For the amount spent in an endless chain of years in trying to fill the hole, a bridge as strong as the Brooklyn span might have long ago been laid. There are no funds available for laying a span unless the state makes such provisions in future years.
Some persons believe there is a strain of quicksand extending through the area but more are inclined to believe it is only a strain of muckland caused possibly from the wash from mountains and hills nearby. At one time the sink hole may have been a part of a lake. Whatever may be responsible for the condition everything put into the hole has only sunken gradually from sight in the passing years.
Workers engaged in the road improvement are for changing the course but must follow the blueprints. The latest collapse halted temporarily further construction with an idea of changing the route and such a discussion is understood to be under way now between officials of the highway department. The sink hole is the only bad section along the main short line between Saranac Lake and Plattsburg.
Earlier this summer the sink hole took a drop of several feet, one whole side of the fill dropped from sight. The most recent drop which came as unexpectedly as the first took away more of the temporary road. For a half century the depression has defied the best efforts of man to improve it and whatever can be done to offset the condition is still a puzzle yet to be solved.
