A lean-to on Weller Pond at the campsite where Martha Reben spent six summers with guide Fred Rice.
Martha Reben (born Rebentisch, 1906-1964) [1] was a writer. She who wrote The Healing Woods (1952), The Way of the Wilderness (1954), and A Sharing of Joy (1963) memoirs of her experiences camping on the shore of Weller Pond eight miles from Saranac Lake, New York in the Adirondacks in 1931 in an attempt to cure herself of tuberculosis.
Reben grew up in New York City; when she was six her mother died of tuberculosis. When she, too, became ill she was sent to cure in Pennsylvania, the Catskills and finally, in 1927, to Saranac Lake, New York where Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau was having considerable success treating the disease. However, after three operations failed to cure her, she decided to follow her own desires, and hired a guide to take her camping in the wilderness. She spent six years living from the spring through the fall in a tent on Weller Pond, and with her guide, Fred Rice, during the winter. She later moved to a small cottage in Saranac Lake. Her disease slowly improved, and she lived to age 58, cured of tuberculosis. Her memoirs, written from her detailed daily journals, gained a considerable following.
St. Armand is a town in Essex County, New York, United States. The population was 1,548 at the 2010 census. The town was named by an early settler for Saint-Armand, Quebec, in Canada.
Brighton is a town in Franklin County, New York, United States. The population was 1,435 at the 2010 census. It was named after Brighton, England, by early surveyors in the region.
Saranac Lake is a village in the state of New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 5,406, making it the largest community by population in the Adirondack Park. The village is named after Upper, Middle and Lower Saranac lakes, which are nearby.
The Adirondack Park is a part of New York's Forest Preserve in northeastern New York, United States. The park was established in 1892 for “the free use of all the people for their health and pleasure”, and for watershed protection. The park's boundary roughly corresponds with the Adirondack Mountains. Unlike most state parks, about 52 percent of the land is privately owned inholdings. State lands within the park are known as Forest Preserve. Land use on public and private lands in the park is regulated by the Adirondack Park Agency. This area contains 102 towns and villages, as well as numerous farms, businesses and an active timber-harvesting industry. The year-round population is 132,000, with 200,000 seasonal residents. The inclusion of human communities makes the park one of the great experiments in conservation in the industrialized world. The Forest Preserve was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963.
The Saint Regis Canoe Area in Adirondack Park is the largest wilderness canoe area in the Northeastern United States and the only designated canoe area in New York state. It is closed to motorized vehicles. Among the 50 ponds and lakes are Upper Saint Regis Lake, part of the Seven Carries route, and Saint Regis Pond. It contains the headwaters of the West and Middle Branch of the Saint Regis and the Saranac Rivers. Only two of the lakes can be reached without a portage, or carry as it is known in the region. Primitive canoe camping is permitted on many of the lakes and ponds. Saint Regis Mountain and Long Pond Mountain are within the area.
Edward Livingston Trudeau was an American physician who established the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium at Saranac Lake for treatment of tuberculosis. Dr. Trudeau also established the Saranac Laboratory for the Study of Tuberculosis, the first laboratory in the United States dedicated to the study of tuberculosis. He was a public health pioneer who helped to establish principles for disease prevention and control.
The Adirondack Correctional Facility is a medium-security prison in Ray Brook, New York in the Adirondack Mountains between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid; it detains up to 566 people.
Lake Clear is a hamlet and a lake in Franklin County, New York, United States. The area is named for 940-acre (3.8 km2) Lake Clear, part of the original Seven Carries canoe route. It is located in the town of Harrietstown.
The High Peaks Wilderness Area, the largest Forest Preserve unit in the U.S. state of New York, is located in three counties and six towns in the Adirondack Park: Harrietstown in Franklin County, North Elba, Keene, North Hudson and Newcomb in Essex County and Long Lake in Hamilton County.
The Trudeau Institute is an independent, not-for-profit, biomedical research center located on a 42 acres (170,000 m2) campus in Saranac Lake, New York. Its scientific mission is to make breakthrough discoveries that lead to improved human health.
Lower Saranac Lake is one of three connected lakes, part of the Saranac River, near the village of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks in northern New York. With Middle Saranac Lake and Upper Saranac Lake, a 17-mile (27 km) paddle with only one portage is possible. The Saranac Lake Islands Public Campground provides 87 campsites on inlands in Lower and Middle Saranac Lake. In addition to the Saranac River, it is fed by nearby Lake Colby, Fish Creek, and Lilly Pad Pond. Lower Saranac Lake is located in the town of Harrietstown, New York. The lake, along with both Upper and Middle Saranac Lakes, is also part of the 740-mile Northern Forest Canoe Trail, which begins in Old Forge, NY and ends in Fort Kent, ME.
Middle Saranac Lake, also called Round Lake, is the smallest of three connected lakes, part of the Saranac River, near the village of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks in northern New York. Two-thirds of its shoreline is state-owned. The lake is located in the towns of Harrietstown and Santa Clara, in Franklin County.
Between 1873 and 1945, Saranac Lake, New York, became a world-renowned center for the treatment of tuberculosis, using a treatment that involved exposing patients to as much fresh air as possible under conditions of complete bed-rest. In the process, a specific building type, the "cure cottage", developed, built by residents seeking to capitalize on the town's fame, by physicians, and often by the patients themselves. Many of these structures are extant, and their historic value has been recognized by listing on The National Register of Historic Places.
The Seven Carries is an historic canoe route from Paul Smith's Hotel to the Saranac Inn through what is now known as the Saint Regis Canoe Area in southern Franklin County, New York in the Adirondack Park. The route was famous with sportsmen and tourists from major east-coast cities from the late 19th century through the 1930s; interest has revived in recent years. Despite the name, the route consists of only six carries, or portages.
William Lincoln Coulter (1865–1907) was an American architect who came to Saranac Lake, New York in the spring of 1896 in an effort to cure his tuberculosis, and stayed to design some of the finest Adirondack Great Camps and Cure Cottages in the area. Among the camps he designed were Knollwood Club, Camp Eagle Island and Prospect Point Camp; Camp Eagle Island has been designated a US National Historic Landmark. In Saranac Lake, in 1903, he designed a house at 147 Park Avenue for Thomas Bailey Aldrich, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, that wits dubbed "The Porcupine" because it had so many fine points and belonged to a "quill pusher". He also designed the Coulter Cottage, built between 1897 and 1899.
Ampersand Mountain is a 3,352 ft (1,021.7 m) mountain in Franklin County in the High Peaks Wilderness Area of the northeastern Adirondacks, west of the High Peaks proper in New York State. The trail up the mountain begins on New York State Route 3 8.1 miles (13.0 km) southwest of the village of Saranac Lake, near Middle Saranac Lake; it is a popular day hike. The mountain takes its name from nearby Ampersand Creek, so named because it twists and turns like the ampersand symbol. The summit is bare rock, with extensive views of the High Peaks to the east and the Saranac Lakes to the west. Stony Creek Mountain is located west-southwest of Ampersand Mountain. The mountain is notable as the land surrounding its hiking trail's initial ascent is generally acknowledged as unlogged old growth forest.
Weller Pond is a 177-acre (72 ha) wilderness pond 8 miles (13 km) southwest of the village of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks in northern New York within Franklin County. The lake is found at an elevation of 1,539 feet (469 m). It is connected to Middle Saranac Lake and is entirely state-owned. It sits in the shadow of Boot Bay Mountain; there is a canoe carry to Upper Saranac Lake. It is a popular paddling and cross-country skiing destination.
William G. Distin (1884–1970), an architect of Saranac Lake, New York, was an early associate of Great Camp designer William L. Coulter who went on to design a number of Adirondack Great Camps.
The Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium was a tuberculosis sanatorium established in Saranac Lake, New York in 1885 by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau. After Trudeau's death in 1915, the institution's name was changed to the Trudeau Sanatorium, following changes in conventional usage. It was listed under the latter name on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
Historic Saranac Lake is a non-profit, membership organization dedicated to the preservation of the history and architectural heritage of the Saranac Lake area of New York State in the Adirondacks.
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