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Now for Some History – 1925
I came across this brochure from the 1920’s when I was researching my book. Unfortuately, I found it after I had submitted the manuscript and it missed the deadline. It’s interesting to note that it specifically says; “No Dull Days At Huletts, Not Even On Rainy Days”. It’s easy to forget that this was from a time when there wasn’t any TV or Internet and one of the “selling points” was that there was always something to do in Huletts.
Now for Some History -1969
With yesterday’s plane crash into the Hudson River, I was reminded of this sad story, which I had heard about long ago.
The plane crash described here is known as the Crash of Mohawk Airlines Flight 411. It happened in the Lake George basin on November 19, 1969 and is the worst plane crash in Adirondack history.
A twin prop-jet commuter plane (a Fairchild-Hiller 227B) flying from Albany to Glens Falls crashed into Pilot Knob Mountain killing all 14 onboard. The accident is blamed on severe mountain downdrafts and pilot error.
Here is a picture of the airplane a year before the crash.
Now for Some History – 1919
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Sounds innocent by todays standards.
Delaware and Hudson Detective Investigation |
“Delaware and Hudson railroad detectives arrived in Ticonderoga around May 8, 1919 to investigate the local branch railroad. The railroad received reports that the local branch railroad coach that rested on an isolated (side) east of the station in the Ticonderoga yard was a favorite spot for men playing cards. The news accounts stated that the dectives sharply questioned the men.”
Saturday Quote
“It is a good thing to read books of quotations. The quotations, when engraved upon the memory, give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.”
Winston Churchill
Doing it Mountain Dew – Huletts 1980’s
During the early to mid-1980’s, Mountain Dew received permission and filmed a commercial on the Paulist Islands off of Huletts. The camera crew took their equipment out to the islands from Huletts. I remember speaking to the crew and it was quite a production. They had numerous cameras and a lot of equipment.
The commercial wasn’t on TV that long and many people never saw it or even knew about it.
However, after a lot of searching, we found a copy. You’ll definitely recognize the background. Doing it Mountain Dew – Huletts 1980’s. Those were the days!
Now for Some History – c. 1900
Saturday Quote
“Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.”
Thomas Jefferson
The Lost Radio Ad
This is truly a piece of history. It is an actual radio ad for the Huletts Hotel from approximately 1956 to 1958. Be sure to listen to it before reading the rest of the post below.
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Only read below after listening.
The “gag” of the joke revolves around the fact that the keys for the hotel’s rooms would open more than one door. Our serious guest finds this out unexpectedly but during the last years of the Hotel’s existence this was a known fact. This harkens back to a more innocent time where the “gag” is on the guest who has never stayed in Huletts before. It speaks for itself that this was actually advertised. So we wanted to share a little history and a little fun. What a truly special place Huletts Landing is, where all the doors open with one key and you find friends in every room.
The Lost Radio Ad – Now Coming Christmas Eve
We’ve gotten so many comments about the lost radio ad for the Hotel that we will be publishing it on Christmas Eve, a day earlier than we had originally told you. So, we’re getting close, but you’ll be able to make it. So plan on pulling up a chair with the whole family on Christmas Eve for some Huletts history and some Huletts fun. Only here on the Huletts Current.
A Great Gift Idea
Here is a book which would make a great Christmas gift. While I was researching my book, I was fortunate enough to meet one of the co-writers of this book doing research at the same time. In Stoddard’s Footstep: The Adirondacks Then and Now, photographer, Mark Bowie, faithfully returned to many of the exact locations where Seneca Ray Stoddard shot his historic Adirondack photographs in the 1880’s and took pictures of how the locations look today. It is an interesting photographic time capsule and album, looking at the same exact spots then and now.
Update: December 16, 2008
We got our first look at this book and in addition to a large section on Lake George, it has two great historical photographs of Huletts.
What the heck is a Stromatolite?
Do you know what a Stromatolite is? I didn’t until I read chapter 19 in Bill Bryson’s book “A Short History of Nearly Everything” – which I found highly interesting.
Well a Stromatolite is one of the first complex living organisms that arrived on the scene about 3.5 billion years ago; which is quite a long time ago considering the earth is only 4.5 billion years old.
The interesting thing is that I found a press release from the NY State Museum which tells us that the Adirondacks a few billion years ago were teaming with them. Some of the more complex ones have been found in present day Washington County.
“New York has the oldest animal fossils in the eastern United States – dating to a time that takes eight zeros to express. The (museum had an) exhibition … of these, a star-like trail discovered in Washington County. (NY has) fossils that are even older, stromatolites made by blue-green bacteria living more than a billion years ago in the seas of what are now the Adirondacks.”
Next time you’re out for a walk, you’ll know what to look for.
“Mohawk warriors attack the party of Father Jogues, 1646”
Saturday Quote
“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
Abraham Lincoln