History is in Abundance…Here is just a Sampling of Interesting Facts

  • Cooper’s Cave in Glens Falls is a major site in James Fenimore Cooper’s novel, The Last of the Mohicans, also an award winning film.
  • Glens Falls is a historic hub for the lumber industry and today, Finch Pruyn & Company remains one of the leading paper manufacturers in the area.
  • The Hyde Collection, founded by Charlotte Pruyn Hyde in 1952 in Glens Falls, is a world renowned museum of art and architecture with works of Botticelli, daVinci, El Greco, Rubens, Rembrandt, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, van Gogh, and Picasso housed in Hyde’s historical home of Italian Renaissance architecture.
  • The naming of Lake George is first traced back to a French Jesuit missionary by the name of Father Isaac Jogues who, in 1646, named the water Lac du St. Sacrement (translates to Lake of the Blessed Sacrament as it was said to have happened on the eve of the Feast of Corpus Christi). The name stayed for over 100 years and is currently used as the name of the lake’s grandest steamboat. The lake was then renamed Lake George in 1755 during the French and Indian War by British Commander, Sir William Johnson as a tribute to the King.
  • In the mid-1800’s Lake George boomed during the grand era of lavish and stately hotels, but as this Great and Gracious Era dwindled with hotels burning down or being destroyed, lodging was replaced by smaller, quainter, and more nostalgic lakeside cabins and roadside inns, making the area more affordable for working Americans looking for a vacation getaway. In recent years, the trend of refurbishing and renovating old mansions has been popular in the area which now proudly offers an eclectic variety of all types of accommodations — there is something for everyone!
  • The resort town of Bolton extends over half of Lake George’s shoreline and 106 of the lake’s 172 islands are located within the town of Bolton.
  • The famed “Lake George Monster,” appropriately named Georgie, was created and used in Lake George in Hague as a practical joke in 1904 by artist Harry Watrous. The original monster is on display at the Hague Historical Museum and a replica can be found at the Lake George Historical Museum.
  • One of the world’s largest concentrations and formations of January’s birthstone, garnet, was discovered in the 1870’s in North River. Barton Mines, the “longest running family-owned industry” was established in 1878, and tours of the mine have been offered since 1933. In 1969 Garnet was named New York State’s Gemstone.
  • Gore Mountain in North Creek has been home to ski enthusiasts for over 70 years; it is where the term “ski patrol” was first coined in 1935.
  • Bloody Pond in Caldwell received its dim title following the “Battle of Lake George” in 1755, where French and Indian soldiers’ bodies were reputedly thrown into the pond.
  • Rogers’ Rock in Hague, otherwise known as Rogers’ Slide, is named after Major Robert Rogers, who is said to have escaped pursuing Indians in 1758 by climbing down the precipice and fleeing over the frozen lake.
  • The marble cave found at Natural Stone Bridge and Caves in Pottersville is the largest marble cave in the Northeast.