The Fulton Chain: Early Settlements, Roads, Steamboats, Railroads and Hotels

Using his Weekly Adirondack (Old Forge, NY) articles as a blueprint, Charles Herr presents the first general history of the Fulton Chain region in almost seventy years. Readers will learn about the beginnings of Old Forge and Inlet, Benjamin Harrison’s visits, construction of the Fulton Chain Railroad and Raquette Lake Railway lines, the steamboats, mail boats and pickle boats, as well as the first major hotels of Inlet and Old Forge. Also covered is early town politics and the building of roads.

Extensive coverage is given to the building of the Raquette Lake Railway by millionaires such as Collis P. Huntington and William Seward Webb, the early development of Inlet, NY at Fourth Lake for the first time in print, and the famous Forge House, Arrowhead, Rocky Point Inn, Holls Inn, the Hess Camps and the Seventh Lake House hotels. The time period covered for the personalities, events and transportation histories is from the 1790s to, where possible, the current day.

Charles Herr