Hughes and the Adirondacks — Angling guide to the governor

The latest in an occasional series of posts

New York Gov. Charles Evans Hughes in 1909 hoped to fit in a little fishing at “the summer capital” in the Adirondacks before embarking on a busy travel schedule.

“He is anxious to try his hand at fishing, and if the business before him will admit, he may undertake a trip some day next week,” the New York Tribune reported on June 26, 1909. “He will do his angling under the guidance of James O’Malley, an experienced local woodsman who has been designated as his guide.”

Normally golf and mountain climbing were his preferred recreational activities.

The governor and his family had arrived the previous day at Rustic Cabin, later known as Lady Tree, at Saranac Inn in Franklin County, where the family would stay through late September, making it the “summer capital” for the second consecutive year.

Hughes was set to attend the opening ceremony of Roscoe Conkling Park in Utica on July 3, and the week-long Champlain Tercentenary celebration beginning July 5.

Later in July he was to travel to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition world’s fair at Seattle, Wash.

Click here to read the most recent previous post in the series.