Born: January 15, 1878
Died: July 28, 1952
Married: Mary Clark
Children: Walter Wardner
Charles Atkinson Wardner was the son of James M. Wardner. He wrote Footprints on Adirondack Trails and Sunset on Adirondack Trails, memoirs of his father's life growing up in Keeseville and founding the Rainbow Inn on Rainbow Lake; the manuscripts went unpublished until 2010 when his grand daughter, Joan Wardner Allen, working with the Adirondack Museum, had it published.
Plattsburgh Press-Republican, JULY 29, 1952
CHARLES A.WARDNER, 73, DIES AT SARANAC LAKE
Funeral services were held Monday at Saranac Lake for Charles Atkinson Wardner, a lifelong resident of Rainbow Lake, who died unexpectedly on Friday at the Saranac Lake General Hospital. Interment took place in the family plot in Brushton cemetery.
Mr. Wardner was born at Rainbow Lake on January 15, 1878. He and his wife, the former Mary Clark, operated the Clark-Wardner camps there for 51 years and prior to Mr. Wardner's retirement in 1929, they had built the resort campsite to 16 cottages and a main lodge.
For 45 years Mr. Wardner was a vocational training teacher in the Solvay School. At one time he was principal of the vocational school in Jackson, Mich. He was author of a book, still in manuscript form, entitled "Footprints on Adirondack Trails." He was a member of a Masonic order at Brandon, Fla., where he and Mrs. Wardner spent their Winters, returning North each Summer to Rainbow Lake.
Besides his widow, Mr. Wardner is survived by one son, Walter, of New Haven, Conn., and two grandchildren. He was a near relative of Wayne Wardner of Plattsburgh and a large number of residents in the Bloomingdale area.
Malone Farmer, April 27, 1910
Saranac Lake has a versatile correspondent. His latest is a panther story in which he declares that the people of Rainbow have become so alarmed by reports of one of these fierce animals prowling around that only men go out at night, and they do not go unarmed. Tracks have been seen and screams heard in the woods, and swamps. One man followed the screaming till it kept receding further into the woods and he became convinced that there was no woman in distress down the road. To cap the climax, the story says that Charles Wardner, who is not at Rainbow now, was followed by the beast one night and had to drop package of meat from his pack basket to satiate the animal's thirst for blood and make his escape whole. He reached camp exhausted and there was an organized hunt the next day. No, the panther was not found; they never are—not nowadays in the Adirondacks. The only panther killed in the Adirondacks that we ever saw was brought down from the Blue Mountain country to Moira probably 40 years ago by a returning party of hunters or berry-pickers. That was long before the New York & Ottawa railroad was constructed or there was such a village as St. Regis Falls. There was a tannery there then and the place was called "The Tannery" and a regular line of teams hauled leather and hides between the settlement and the Moira station. Dickinson Center was then called Thomasville. The panther days of the Adirondacks were the pioneer days of settlement among these mountains.
Comments
2012-09-18 22:34:34 I have been searching for info on my grandmother married name( Florence Dixon) who worked in the Clark-Wardner camps as a cook way before I was born in 1951. I was just curious about her. She was a great lady and I wanted to learn a little more about her. contact me at [email protected] date of this entry 9?18/2012. She passed on while I was in the navy in 1969. any info would be great! —67.189.230.26
- Responded by email, 2012-09-18 — MWanner
