Join us for our first event of the season. Inlet Town Historian and author Charles Herr (The Fulton Chain) presents the story of the Raquette Lake Railway based on the research for his recent book.
- Date: Wednesday, July 3rd
- Time: 6:30 P.M.
- Place: Raquette Lake Union School Building, 115 State Route 28
Envisioned by Dr. William Seward Webb after purchasing thousands of acres for his Adirondack & St. Lawrence Railroad, the Raquette Lake Railway’s initial route was determined by a Webb logging contractor forced to build a logging rail line to Lake Rondaxe instead of using river drives, then expanded through land easements Webb purchased from private and State landowners. The Railway successfully competed with Old Forge’s transportation companies and was financed by the richest capitalists in the country who happened to own Raquette Lake region great camps: Collis Huntington, J.P. Morgan, Alfred Vanderbilt, W. Seward Webb, William C. Whitney, Harry Payne Whitney, and Senator Chauncey Depew.
Using numerous images and maps, Herr provides the origins, the story of the land transactions, the building of the Raquette Lake Railway as well as describing the stations identified today by the Route 28 blue highway markers and the reasons for the railroad’s termination. Copies of his book “The Fulton Chain” which includes five chapters on this subject will be available.
This event is being co-sponsored by
- Raquette Lake Library
- Raquette Lake Navigation Co.
- St. William’s on Long Point
