Ghost Town- Tahawus NY

Met some buddies in an abandoned mining town for some camping and exploring.

Here's my much-loved DD Travel Hammock:
http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n...current=DD.jpg

And with my neighbor's Asym HH: (there was one other HH there too)
http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n...nt=DDandHH.jpg

There are lots of cool abandoned homes to explore, but be careful!
http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n...wusTheater.jpg

The "Klasslite" stove-based alcohol cookset I built:
http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n...ksetcookin.jpg

One of the many spectacular views in the area:
http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n...ent=water1.jpg

And our motley crew (that's me on the far left):
http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n...current=28.jpg

It rained most of the second day and night. Some guys went for a ride to the nearest bar, I stayed and went to bed early. I slept from 9:30pm to 8:00am, that's more sleep than I ever get at home! And even though I'm a novice hanger, not a drop of rain got to me in my hammock :) It got down to 31F on that night, I was fine but I'm looking forward to adding an UQ :)

That's cool. Thanks for posting the pics.

Nice pics. I'm always amazed that whole houses are abandoned like that. Where did the people go?

Long story made short (and this is all from memory so don't sue me if it's not 1000% accurate- the gist of it should be about right)... it was a mining town in the mid-1800's, which closed because there was an impurity in the iron that made it hard to work with.

Then it was taken over by an outdoor or sportsman's club, the houses we explored were actually built and used by those folks, roughly turn-of-the-century.

They sold off a lot of the land, then the mine was re-opened because it was learned that the "impurity" was titanium which is kinda useful in itself :) They mined crap-tons of the stuff in the 1940's for the war effort (back then I think they used it in paint!) Some of the homes we explored were used again at that time (which explains the retrofitted electrics), there was also another community of homes and buildings that were either demoed or moved piece-by-piece to Newcomb NY (where they are still in use) when the mine dried up again.

And there it sits. It's right there at the trailhead for Mt. Marcy.

There also remains a ginormous blast furnace and some of it's workings (from the 1840-1850's). It's not mine, but dig this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyuKPkfgh-o We explored this area too and I climbed around on the furnace a bit... the video doesn't really convey the mass and size of the thing. Imagine building this with 1840's tech.

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Originally Posted by NCPatrick

Nice pics. I'm always amazed that whole houses are abandoned like that. Where did the people go?

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Very cool. Thanks for the info. I'll have to watch the vid when I get to a non-video-blocked location.

If I recall correctly, Teddy Roosevelt was staying at a camp in Tahawus in 1901 when he received word that President McKinley had been shot. By the time Roosevelt reached the nearest railway station in North Creek (after a midnight carriage ride over rough Adirondack roads) the President had died. Roosevelt was subsequently sworn in as the next President.

Lots of big stuff designed by Scots back then...

Sounds close enough to right. The building he was staying in at the time is still standing, in fact it's the only one said to be from the original 1850's mining town. Also unlike the others, it's boarded up and has seen some recent work- I believe they plan to restore it to some degree.

As I understand it, Roosevelt was actually on a speaking tour in VT when the president was shot, and raced to his side in Buffalo- only leaving for Tahawus Club when it seemed McKinley would make a full recovery. Roosevelt and his party had reached the peak of Mt. Marcy (highest peak in NY) and were on their way back when someone came up with a telegram for the V.P. stating that McKinley had taken a turn for the worse- he'd been shot through the stomach, and although he was stabilized, eventually infection set in. Long story short, McKinley passed away before Roosevelt left the Adirondacks- he headed back to Buffalo to pay his respects and was there sworn in by a local judge as president.

My plan, having been inspired by my visit there, is to get in much better shape between now and fall, and climb Mt Marcy. I can't think of a better birthday present to myself than adding "mountain climbing" to my profile under "interests" :)

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Originally Posted by H. Hastings

If I recall correctly, Teddy Roosevelt was staying at a camp in Tahawus in 1901 when he received word that President McKinley had been shot. By the time Roosevelt reached the nearest railway station in North Creek (after a midnight carriage ride over rough Adirondack roads) the President had died. Roosevelt was subsequently sworn in as the next President.

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