History Day gathers stories of Lower Saranac Lake

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Staff Photo/Kim Smith Dedam
Staff Photo/Kim Smith Dedam

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September 8, 2008

By KIM SMITH DEDAM The Press Republican Mon Sep 08, 2008, 12:00 AM EDT

LOWER SARANAC LAKE -- A hand-caned folding chair leaned inconspicuously closed against the porch window.

Faded gray letters "S. L. Clemens" were barely legible on the top rail.

The chair was brought over from the Mark Twain Camp, not far from Guggenheim's camp where a hundred guests gathered Saturday for History Day.

Neighbors still call it the Mark Twain Camp, even though he leased it one summer 107 years ago.

In the Adirondacks, where time slips slowly, the chair and its busted arm look simply lived in.

And nobody ever took down two rustic-framed signs "Miss Saranac" from the boathouse after Edmond A. Guggenheim left his Rockledge Camp to the Catholic Church 44 years ago.

Maroon lettering still distinguishes the racing runabout's bow-pointed slip.

Other pieces of history were seen for the first time by many eyes.

Don Duso's oversized map of platform-tent sites was laid open at the back of the Guggenheim great room.

The map, drawn in 1961 by Francis Pelon, a conservation department worker, marked now-defunct lots in rows of tiny numbers.

It was Duso's father, Harry, who built Crescent Bay Marina where canvas for over 350 platform-tent "camps" was packed and unpacked from storage every year.

"We cleaned the platforms right off, canvas, belongings, everything. We spent the months of May and September putting them up and taking them down," Duso said.

The summer camps lined state shores and islands of Lower and Middle Saranac lakes for generations.

The lots were guaranteed with a registration number until they were banned from the Adirondack Park in 1975.

"The state "¦ declared them illegal," Duso said, "I guess they were afraid of squatter's rights and that sort of stuff."

HISTORY LOST AND FOUND

It was the lost history of platform tents that created History Day, said Mary Hotaling, executive director of Historic Saranac Lake, who is still researching the unique summer-camp tradition.

"We don't really know when the platform-tent system started," Hotaling offered in a midday presentation.

"Anybody know?"

They were smaller pieces of a grand recreational development that began in 1849 when the Saranac Lake House was built.

A procession of Great Camps and famous Adirondack resorts were constructed between then and the early twentieth century.

Historic Saranac Lake put together more than a dozen displays telling stories of the Algonquin Hotel; Pinehurst Great Camp; the Ampersand Hotel; the six Great Camps at Knollwood; Guggenheim's Rockledge; Mark Twain's camp; and the legend of Miss Saranac, the racing runabout.

And stories from life-long residents cast warm reflections on the artifacts.

SAVING EINSTEIN

Standing beside the platform-tent display, Duso told about navigating the ruddy waters of Lower Saranac Lake at an early age.

At 10, he was motoring across the lake when Albert Einstein overturned a sailboat on Lonesome Bay.

He pointed to the exact spot using Piron's map.

"It was in 1941. I was coming down the lake from visiting a friend, Alex Dreyfoos, up on Burnt Island. It wasn't very windy at all, there was just a moderate breeze. I was 500 to 600 feet from him when I saw the sailboat capsize. I recognized the boat, and I knew who it was."

Motoring over to help, Duso found Einstein, then 62, struggling to keep his head above water.

"Both of his feet were tangled in the rigging; he was having trouble staying above water. I grabbed him by the head of the hair and held him up enough so he could breath."

Meantime, Jimmy Holloway came with his brother-in-law in a larger boat to assist, Duso said.

"They helped him out of the water and then brought him over to Salzberger's camp at Knollwood. Albert Einstein stayed at Knollwood quite a few summers."

It was 20 years since the famous scientist won the Nobel Prize in physics.

And 40 years since Mark Twain watched rain pock the lake below his porch.

"I am on the front porch (lower one -- main deck) of our little bijou of a dwelling-house," Twain wrote to Joe Twitchell, July 28, 1901.

"The lake-edge (Lower Saranac) is so nearly under me that I can't see the shore, but only the water, small-pored with rain splashes -- for there is a heavy down-pour.

"The heavy forest shuts us solidly in on three sides there are no neighbors. There are beautiful little tan-colored impudent squirrels about. They take tea, 5 p.m., (not invited) at the table in the woods where Jean does my typewriting. They all have the one name -- Blennerhasset, from Burrs friend -- and none of them answers to it except when hungry.

"We have been here since June 21st. We have the daily lake-swim; and all the tribe, servants included (but not I) do a good deal of boating; If we live another year, I hope we shall spend its summer in this house. We all send you and the Harmonies lots and gobs of love. MARK"

S. L. Clemens spent the following summers elsewhere.

At least he left his chair here.

History Day will likely become a recurring event.

E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at:

kdedam@pressrepublican.com