Another View of the Old Eagle Cove Dining Pavillion

The Adirondacks from the Above

The Next Generation

Our neices, Hope and Campbell, tickle the ivories and dream of next summer at Camp.

Family Visits: Eric and Jenny Rebecca Holtze

My cousins Eric Holtze and Jenny Rebecca Holtze (Gordon) visited Penwood, sitting on the dock on Fourth Lake.  JR is part of the fourth generation of the family to enjoy relaxing at Penwood.  Hope and Campbell Levy are the first members of the fifth generation to come to camp.

Albert Gordon

Antique Sign: Private Property. Shooting Forbidden!

Antique POSTED Sign

The Adirondack Garden: Virginia Creeper

Following the final phase of construction and cleanup of the site on our Adirondack house, we began to add landscaping, thinking, naively, that we would not have to do much since we were surrounded by beautiful forest and mature trees.  We were so wrong.  First, we had to remove several major trees that died as a result of the trauma of the construction.  We tried to remove as few trees as possible and only on the immediate footprint of the house, but there were inevitable casualties.  Those had to be taken down, cut and removed or split for firewood.  For tree care, we use Tetreault Tree Works in Old Forge. Pierre Tetreault is reliable and can climb almost any tree to prune it. The second project, or really an ongoing project was pruning.  I did a tremendous amount of it myself but then called Pierre to do the higher and more dangerous work.  The Virginia creeper was planted four years ago in order to create a cover for a large retaining wall, and it worked pretty well.  It likes a lot of sun so was more abundant on the sunny sides of the wall, but the deer like to eat the leaves.  So we have been battling the deer to protect it.  It is very hardy and comes back with energy and renewed spirit every year, with a better and bigger root system, so we are hopeful that it will continue to flourish and spread as long as we can keep the deer at bay.

Survey Map: Uncas Mohegan Lake to Eagle Bay Fourth Lake

Old YMCA Camp on Fourth Lake

On the Dock

Cabins at Eagle Cove

Lifeguard at Camp Eagle Cove

More Camp Eagle Cove Memories

The Adirondacks: Logging

Camp Eagle Cove Dining and Recreation Hall, Yesterday and Today

A Day at Camp Eagle Cove

Camp Eagle Cove Redevelopment Update

As noted previously, the Camp Eagle Cove property on South Shore Road was purchased by Greg and Dawn Timm, realtors in the Old Forge area and proprietors of Timm Associates. Based on Adirondack Park Agency and New York State records, the Timms incorporated Adirondack Phoenix Properties, Inc. to own the property during the development process. Adirondack Phoenix applied for a permit to develop the property by subdividing the 28 acre parcel into several lots on which will be constructed several single family dwellings.   Some of the homes would be built with lake facing lots and others with no lakefront.  There would therefore be two layers of homes, one set on the lake and another set behind those, closer to the South Shore Road.  The application appears to be pending before the APA and the following status report was published in advance of the next APA meeting: 

The project involves the subdivision of 28.88 acres into 13 lots, thereby creating 12 new building lots and a shoreline access lot.  Lots 1 - 10 and the shoreline access lot are located on the north side of South Shore Road in a Moderate Intensity Use land use area.  Lots 11 and 12 are located on the south side of South Shore Road in a Rural Use land use area.  Lots 1 - 10 range in size from 0.89± acres to 2.52± acres. The shoreline access lot is 0.44± acres.  Lots 1, 4, 5, 7 and 8 have existing structures on them that will remain and be used as single family dwellings.  Lots 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12 and the shoreline access lot are vacant (i.e., they do not have any existing dwellings on them).  There are tennis courts on lots 9 and 10 and a barn on Lot 11.  One new single family dwelling is proposed for each of the vacant lots.  All of the proposed dwellings whether existing or proposed will be serviced by a well and an on-site wastewater treatment system.  Lots 1- 6 and the shoreline access lot have frontage on Fourth Lake but do not have any frontage on South Shore Road.  Lots 7 - 12 have frontage on South Shore Road, but no frontage on the Lake.  Lots 7 - 12 will have access to the Lake through the shoreline access lot.  Access to lots 1 - 6 will be by successive easements across adjoining lots.  Access to Lots 7 -12 will be directly from South Shore Road.  An homeowners association is proposed that will own the shoreline access lot and manage the proposed roads.  Most of the site is in the Town of Webb Herkimer County except Lot 1 which is in both the Town of Webb and the Town of Inlet Hamilton County.

Vanishing Adirondack Children's Camps

There is something paricularly special about having a children's summer camp in your town. In the summer, you see the canoe convoys pass by the dock, and hear the distant shouts and laughter of kids enjoying the Adirondacks.  You see the ski boat drive by, circling with the latest kid trying to get up for the first time.  We used to see these things and more when Camp Eagle Cove was operating in Inlet.  My mother worked as a lifeguard there many years ago and I once thought of attending camp there for a summer. After Eagle Cove closed, it became a camp for sick children, then an Adirondack campus of the Florida college, Lynn University.  After Lynn University closed the Adirondack Center, the property was sold to Dawn Timm and her husband, local realtors, for development.  Years later, not a single home has been built. The little cabins are rotting away and the massive dining hall is sagging; the whole place looks sad and depressed.  I wish that property could become a haven for artists, writers, musicians, students, like Yaddo, who need a place to work and to be inspired.  I wish we still had those kids sitting around the campfires telling stories and waterskiing by the dock.  In addition to the vanishing summer camps, I see over and over again the dreamers who come with their dream of owning a little Adirondack shop, their own business, and making it work.  It could be a good life and it is for some. But in Old Forge, I see these places open with all the excitement and optimistic verve in the world only to appear on the real estate website a year later -- for sale, motivated seller.  It is so difficult to run a business in the Adirondack Park, whether a summer camp or a gift shop, and I don't know what the right equation is to make a business succeed there. Few people seem to have figured it out.

Sagamore Park in the Adirondacks