The ranger cabin at Raquette Falls Raquette Falls Lodge was built in 1908 by Charles DeLancett and operated by him until 1919. It was built on or near the site of Mother Johnson's. It was operated by William McClelland from 1891 to 1894.
It burned in 1932, and was re-built in 1934 for George Morgan by Ross Freeman of Coreys; Morgan died in 1944. It occupied a one-time clearing that had previously been the site of Mother Johnson's hotel on the east side of the lower Raquette Falls. Later owned by Charles Bryan, Jr. of Chicago, a former president of the Pullman Standard Car Mfg. Company, it was destroyed in a spectacular night fire which broke out in the generator room of the two story log structure. After Bryan's death, his wife donated the land to the State of New York.
The Department of Environmental Conservation interior ranger residence, built in 1975, is near the footprint of the former lodge.
Tupper Lake Herald, October 27, 1911
Christie Matheson, [sic] the famous pitcher of the New York base ball team, and E. A. Sterling, chief forester of the Pennsylvania railroad, have booked for accommodations at the Raquette Falls Lodge for the balance of the season.
Lake Placid News, October 19, 1917
GREAT AWFUL BEAR
He Hitches Himself Up To Wagon And Runs Away
A few days ago there was some unusual excitement in the neighborhood of Raquette Falls Lodge at the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. Vandenburg, says the Potsdam/Courier and Freeman. Mrs. Vandenburgh had been picking berries when she saw a black form moving about in the bushes. She ran back to the house and announced that she had decided that she wouldn't pick berries any more, that is unless the bear wished to retire in her favor. Her husband scouted the idea that his wife had seen a bear. But seeing is believing and Mr. Vandenburgh was soon willing to admit that his wife was right. For he saw the bear a quarter of a mile from the house and only 100 feet from him at the time. The bear, a huge animal, raised itself on its hind legs. He ran back to the house to get his rifle, but when he returned the bear was gone.
It was unfortunate that he did not kill the bear, for it played havoc at his home a few days later, according to another story from that neighborhood. This time he bear got into the barn where the chickens were kept and in the course of his rummaging around became entangled in a harness that was hanging on the wall. With the harness fastened about him the bear dashed out of the barn. Outside was a boat wagon. The harness caught in the wagon and away went the outfit. The boat was found considerably damaged in the smash-up that eroded the wild dash.
Tupper Lake Free Press, December 22, 1982
free press flashbacks (From the files, Dec. 15-22, 1932)
[...]
Fire further added to the headaches of the holiday season 50 years ago. A spectacular early morning blaze on December 19th completely destroyed the Raquette Falls House. George E. Morgan, proprietor, and Mr. and Mrs. Albert Titcomb, could do little more than prevent fire from reaching a nearby log cabin and barn. It had been a popular resort and a welcome haven for sportsmen since before the Civil War.
Raquette Falls House, William Henry Jackson, 1902? (Library of Congress)Ausable Forks Record-Post, August 21, 1941
The Adirondacker
Mine Host of Raquette Falls
By BILLY BURGER
One of the most interesting people in the whole 5,000,000 acres of the Adirondack Park is George Morgan of Raquette Falls Lodge. I can imagine no more delightful way to spend a long summer evening than chatting with him at sunset on the open porch of the lodge. Then, as the cool air conies down the valley and the deepening shadows remind us of the approach of night, we adjourn to his own cabin up on the hillside for a night-cap at his table-bar on the porch. There "in the gloaming" you will hear tales of people whose names sprinkle the pages of "Who's Who" and some of whom are Morgan's friends. You may also, if you are a good listener, hear of sundry law suits especially one which our host lost and in losing laughed at himself.
Raquette Falls, along with Cold River Dam, is one of the last "frontiers of the Adirondacks," as George puts it. It's one of the few places you can't get to by road and where you can't hear the moaning hum of automobiles. The Falls are near the end of a mile-long cut in a low escarpment about seven miles below the foot of Long Lake and about six miles above the mouth of Stony Creek, near Corey's.
There has been a mile-long carry around the Falls for a long time, possibly back to Indian days. Ever since tourists and campers came into the woods, there has been some sort of a house in the clearing at the lower and north end of the carry. Mother Johnson dispensed her famous pancakes there in Adirondack Murray's days, and George can remember when there were a dozen boats waiting at the foot of the Falls to be carried around in a 4-boat carry wagon. That was before the motor car had invaded the woods. Now the wagon is rotting by the old barn, and the few parties who go across even in the height of the summer season carry their own.
Those people who glance over to their left as they trudge along with packs now see a fine low log building, which looks like a deluxe lumber camp. It is flanked by some cabins which are up against the woods. If they'll drop their packs and cross the clearing for closer inspection they'll note two pines, between which is suspended a neat sign painted on broken paddles, "Raquette Fall Lodge." There is a close-cut lawn a fine mass of roses and a neat pole with a fresh American flag flying from the top.
A broad open log porch banked with young spruce gives entrance to the main lodge. One enters a large living room, with dining room to one side, bedrooms and bath, to the other, all in the rough but in fine taste. It is a place to delight the eye and rest the soul. The logs are chinked with cement so that the building winter-proof.
If you are invited, by all means see the personal living quarters of the owner. The log cabin, on the rise behind the lodge contains a library of at least two thousand volumes which must make it one of the largest personal collections in the Adirondacks. There are some beautiful sets of books and with them others "just off the press." All about are periodicals and newspapers. George Morgan says he brought his parents to Paul Smith's in 1872 when he was two years old. They came until they died and he's been coming for sixty-nine of his seventy-one years. So it isn't surprising that Raquette Falls appealed to him or that he bought three hundred and some acres on the east side of the river when he had a chance.
He practiced law with his firm in New York for thirty-five years. Then in '29, when the depression changed the mode of life of so many people, he came home to Raquette Falls and has been living there ever since. During spring, summer and fall he "keeps house," with the aid of a cook and caretaker, for his friends and the few people who pass by or come to fish and hunt. In winter he "holes in" alone in his cabin with his books, his cat Dingle, his radio, and his At seventy-one, he doesn't seem to mind. In fact, I think he enjoys it.
During the summer he makes the long trek to Tupper Lake by boat to Corey's and car to Tupper Lake, twice a week. Should you encounter on the street a ruddy-faced, white-haired, keen-eyed, and quick-moving man with courtly manners and quick smile, that's George Morgan, a fine old-school gentleman and an Adirondacker indeed.
His cat Dingle is also a character. He is an unspoiled tom who chases foxes, kills weasels, and brings mice and an occasional rat to Morgan's bed for approval. As he goes out regularly at 3 a. m. George suspects he's a bit dissipated. But catlike, he never shows the effects.
Tupper Lake Free Press and Herald, September 12, 1973
Fire Sweeps Raquette Falls Lodge Saturday On Site Which Afforded Food and Shelter To Wilderness Travelers for Over Century
Raquette Falls lodge, built nearly 40 years ago on the site of the original log hostelry in which "Mother" Johnson of early Adirondack fame dispensed her pancakes to hungry travelers more than a century ago, was destroyed in a spectacular fire Saturday night.
The fire broke out about 8:15 p. m. in the generator room of the two-story log structure. Francis Mayville of Moody Road, Tupper Lake, caretaker, was working in the room, but so rapid was the spread of flames that he barely had time to escape from the room. Before he had covered the approximately 500 feet to the Raquette River half the building was engulfed in flames, and when he returned after the eight-mile run down river to Coreys to round up a crew of forest rangers under Douglas Fletcher of Lake Clear, little could be done beyond keep watch through the night to prevent the spread of fire to adjoining buildings or the forest.
The building was erected for the late George Morgan in 1934 after fire destroyed the old Raquette Falls lodge which Charles DeLancett of Tupper Lake had built there in 1910. A New York City attorney, Mr. Morgan first glimpsed Raquette Falls on a canoe trip in, the 1890s and described the experience as "a case of love at first sight" which continued the rest of his life. He organized the Raquette Falls Club and spent the last twenty years of his life as the "total population" of the area. Ross Freeman of Coreys built the log lodge, where a long procession of hikers and canoe parties enjoyed the hospitality of George Morgan over the years.
Still standing on the knoll behind the lodge is the log library which housed more than 2,000 books, including many rare old Adirondack items, during Mr. Morgan's day. In the lodge which burned Saturday night, Mr. Morgan died on Sept. 20, 1944. Billy Burger, author of "The Adirondacker" column in the Adirondack Record, published at Ausable Forks, found his body on the lodge floor the next day when he paddled down from Long Lake, and Mr." Morgan was buried in front of his cabin, behind the lodge. In his column Burger recorded that "the last act of George Morgan's life was completely characteristic. A young couple had paddled in, and he invited them to spend the night with him and help him eat a steak he'd just bought in Tupper Lake. He was broke and lonesome, and as graciously generous as ever. During that night, he died, alone".
The 89.6-acre parcel known as the George Morgan Estate, in Township 26, Great Tract 1, Macomb's Purchase, site of Raquette Falls lodge, is on a carrying place used by travelers since aboriginal times to bypass the falls. All the "greats" among early Adirondack travelers, among them the Rev. W. H. H. "Adirondack" Murray, Governor Horatio Seymour, the Hon. Amelia M. Murray, maid of honor to Queen Victoria "Seneca Ray" Stoddard, Lowell, Agassiz and the other notables of the famed "Philosophers' Club", camped there before Philander Johnson and his wife, Lucy A. Johnson, came in from Newcomb shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War and built a crude log house in a clearing off the river, below the falls. There they catered to the needs of the passing sportsmen, trappers and loggers for food and shelter and there, on January 27, 1875, "Mother" Johnson died. To get boards for a coffin it was necessary for Harney, a hired hand who had driven the oxen to haul boats around the carry for the Johnsons, to hike down river to Indian Carry and on out to Bartlett's, between Upper and Middle Saranac Lake. "Mother" Johnson was buried on the knoll behind the original log cabin, where a bronze, plaque, set in a rock now marks her resting place.
Philander Johnson gave up his lonely wilderness hostelry soon after his wife's death, leaving the area in 1876. Successive owners of the property have included George W. Walton (1886-1890); William McClelland (1891-1894); Martin Talbot (1894-1900); Talbot was operating the place in 1898 when Martin Van Buren Ives brought in a party of New York State legislators, on a fact-finding survey of the Adirondack wilderness, and subsequently recorded his impressions of the place in his book "Through the Adirondacks in 18 days".
Charles DeLancett of Tupper Lake took over the property after Talbot and ran it until 1915. His daughter, Mrs. Gladys LaQuay of Tupper Lake, recalled in 1967 that "all that remained of the original buildings was a one-story shack and a blacksmith shop. Dad set up a large dining tent and twelve or more tents on good, solid platforms, for guests. Mr. DeLancett erected a comfortable frame lodge on the site of the original log hostelry about 1910."
Failing health forced him to give up the place, which was taken over by George Morgan in 1919. Charles W. Bryan of Chicago, former president of the Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing Co. and a distinguished engineer owned Raquette Falls lodge and tract during its closing years of private tenancy. His love for the region was given practical expression in 1964 when he wrote and published the first definitive study of the Raquette River from its source to the St. Lawrence, entitled "The Raquette, —River of the Forest". Mr. Bryan died March 15, 1966 in Chicago. After his death Mrs. Bryan continued to summer at Raquette Falls until she disposed of the tract, which was incorporated into the Adirondack Forest Preserve on April 2, 1970.
Adirondack Daily Enterprise, July 23, 1975
New state 'luxury camp' rising on Raquette River
SARANAC LAKE-In December of 1974 enough curiosity had surfaced about so-called 'luxury camps" maintained by the Department of Environmental Conservation that the president of the Franklin County Federation of Fish and Game Clubs had been asked to look into the matter.
Among the camps and installations specifically catalogued were the Raquette Falls Interior Headquarters, the Duck Hole Interior Headquarters; the Lake Colby Conference Center and the Santanoni Property.
Bob Brown, as president of the federation, and in the interests of his organization had requested some clarification from the Region 8 offices of the Conservation Department about the camps which were most often mentioned as being luxury camps.
The Enterprise has bean trying to ascertain who the people are who generally can be found in these camps and if the buildings are servings the purposes for which they were and are being built.
The Adirondack Park Agency is currently legislating rules and mandates concerning the park and attempting to restore its acreage to the condition it was in when Samuel de Champlain first sighted its lush greenery from the lower Saranac River where it enters the lake that bears the explorers name.
Among the original aims of the Adirondack Park Agency was the removal of the fire towers, the elimination of the state platform camps, and the restoration of wilderness shoreline to its natural beauty.
Each camp or installation has its own unique place in the pattern of protection, though so far no answers have been forthcoming to questions raised about the status-quo of the state properties now in the spotlight.
Raquette Falls Headquarters
About an hour's ride up the Raquette river from Axton by motor boat is a timbered structure whose cost has been variously estimated between $70,000 and $27,000 (the state's figure). The building which is unfinished as yet will house the caretaker, Steven Cooke, and his family. It is approximately 60 feet long and 30 feet wide, made of heavy 6x8 timbers. It could contain as many as eight rooms, depending on the floor plan.
It will feature a slate fireplace and a wide front veranda. It sits in a clearing of several acres on which are located an older log caretaker's cabin about half the size of the new one, six small cabins, 2 lean-tos, a barn and a garden.
A family is living in the old caretaker's cabin, but it is not clear whether they are rangers or working on the new structure.
The Region 5 information on the Raquette Falls headquarters says, "It houses the caretaker who maintains the lean-tos and camping sites along the Raquette River for canoe parties and the general care and custody of an area where canoe traffic is extremely heavy."
Whether it is to be manned during the winter is not mentioned though it appears to be somewhat on the luxury year-round side to the casual observer. Some of the campers on the other side of the rapids call it "the dance hall".
The property was formerly a privately owned tourist mecca dating back to 1914 and though extremely isolated by most standards it is on a main water route between Long Lake and Tupper Lake used by recreational minded outdoorsmen and parties.
Experts in the building field claim that it is impossible to erect a cabin this size for $27,000 and to finish it in the rustic style that is advocated by the department in its backwoods headquarters which has a showplace appeal to the canoe parties passing by.
