Last weekend was beautiful in the Adirondacks. On Friday we snowshoed from Route 3, west of Saranac, to Stoney Creek Pond. Talked to some ice fishermen. One was from Mineville and knew some of susan's relatives. The next day under a beautiful clear blue sky we skiied from the same parking pullout down the road to Upper Saranac Lake and out to Chapel Island. It's a nice little log style church where services are held in the summer.
This mile stretch of land, from SCP to USL was a very importrant Indian settlement and intersection. One of the Algonquin or Iroquois tribes lived there every summer. Think of the easy communication they had by waterways. They could go south by way of the racket r. through long lake and connecting through the fulton chain of lakes right down to the Mohawk valley then west on the mohawk towards the finger lakes and Niagara. They could go west and north along the racket through Tupper lake and beyond to the St Lawrence in the Alexandria Bay area. They could go east through the saranacs to lake champlain and then north to the St. Lawrence or south through champlain to the Hudson with access all the way to Manhatten. Travelling by water was the only easy mode of communication. Many indian artifacts have been found in this area near Corey's but we haven't found any despite looking.

I've just finished Drums along the Mohawk, from the 1930's, a book about the Mohawk Valley during the revolutionary war. I'd had some knowledge of the French and Indian War, and of course the major battles of the revolution including Saratoga, but I didn't realize that the revolutionary war in the Mohawk valley was such a struggle with the Indians.. I recommend it to all.