| Activity | From 1896 to 1898, William C. Whitney and his business partner Patrick Moynehan, an experienced lumberman, purchased a number of parcels totaling 68,000 acres of virgin forest land in northern Hamilton County, New York. An ardent conservationist, Mr. Whitney invited forester Henry Graves, a protégé of Gifford Pinchot (later the first chief of the US Forest Service) to prepare a forest management plan for the property. Early timber harvesting was therefore conducted through one of the first applications of scientific forestry in the country.
The first logging operation began in 1898 and was completed by 1912. Only spruce ten inches or larger and pine were harvested. After the logging was done, the partners went their separate ways, and Mr. Whitney became the sole owner of the estate he then named Whitney Park. In the second logging operation, begun in 1934, balsam fir, hemlock and over-mature hardwoods left from the first cut were harvested. At this time the extensive road system was started to facilitate horse logging operations.
In both logging operations, spruce and pine logs were cut, skidded by horse, then dragged by sled to waterways for driving down to Tupper Lake. Hardwoods and hemlocks, because they were too dense to float, had to be transported by truck or by a branch line of the New York Central Railroad. The four mile section of railroad built into Whitney Park in 1936 was only used for three years but traces of the old railroad grade may still be seen today in the vicinity of Hardigan and Rock ponds.
Timber harvesting has not been the only agent of change in the forest. In the first decade of this century, a combination of intense drought and an abundance of logging debris set the stage for major forest fires across the Adirondacks. A great fire in 1908 burned much of the northwest quarter of the William C. Whitney Area. Plantations of white pine were established in the open areas created by the burn. The "Great Blowdown" of 1950 damaged trees in the vicinity of Antediluvian and Doctors ponds and a few areas south of Little Tupper Lake. The most powerful windstorm since that time was the microburst of July 15, 1995. Winds of over 100 miles per hour flattened much of the western part of the property. Salvage operations harvested some of the damaged trees along the heavily impacted western shore of Little Tupper Lake and in the vicinity of Hardigan and Bum ponds.
The many buildings at the Little Tupper Lake entrance have long been known as Whitney Headquarters. The large main building was constructed in 1923 to house lumberjacks and was later converted into an office for Whitney Industries. In 1946, several residences were built for employees. Other structures were built that served the management of the property including an electrical generation facility, boathouse, pumphouse, storage sheds, and a maintenance shop/garage.
Forest land purchased originally by William C Whitney and co-owned by 1930 by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney and Dorothy Whitney Straight.
Source: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dlf/publands/adk/whitney.htm |