Lake George offseason — December 1894

There was no love for muskrats from steamboat captains.

“Tuesday night muskrats got into the heavy lead closet pipe of the steamer Mohican, lying at the Fort William Henry Hotel dock, and chewed out enough lead to make a hole six inches long on the pipe,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on Dec. 8, 1894. “The boat sank in about ten feet of water. Yesterday it was raised, and the water pumped out.”

In other December 1894 Lake George offseason news collected from historic newspapers of the region:

• “The engineers who are engaged in making a topographical survey to the summit of Mount Ferguson have about completed that part of the work,” The Morning Star reported on Dec. 6.
• “An old-time ball will be held at the Central House, Lake George, on Thursday of this week. Music will be furnished by Professor Rubens’ Orchestra,” The Morning Star reported on Dec. 17.
• “Sidney B. West, a Caldwell farmer, has filed with the secretary of state a claim to a gold and silver mine discovery on his farm,” The Morning Star reported on Dec. 19. “He states that the outcroppings of the vein have been found in a stone quarry, and he wishes to claim the entire farm of 100 acres in every direction in order that it may be worked to advantage.”
• “A new road has been laid out between John Harris’ house, Victory Lodge, and the mine at the Calf Pen,” the East Lake George correspondent reported on Dec. 31, 1894. “George Knapp, owner of the Hundred Island House, will extend the road to the hotel in the spring.”
• “A new steamboat pier is in the course of construction at Assembly Point. and the channel at that point will be reinforced,” The Morning Star reported on Dec. 31.

Click here to read the most recent previous Lake George tourism history post.