CMYK

Watertown Daily Times FROM PAGE B1 Sunday, April 28, 2019 B5

Tour
From B1

sources manager.
But she’d like to learn more.
Last week, two buses of
about 70 people took a tour in
and around Fort Drum to find
the many sites that are mostly
a distant memory.
They spent most of Wednes-
day on the Historic Industry of
Fort Drum Tour that the mili-
tary installation’s cultural re-
sources team sponsors every
year.
In the fall, the group puts
on a similar tour about Fort
Drum’s “lost villages,” a day-
long tour looking for the com-
munities that were gobbled up
when the country was prepar-
ing for the Second World War
in 1941.
The Army needed the land
for military training. So the
communities that dotted
75,000 acres disappeared, and
525 families packed up and
moved. Three thousand build-
ings, including churches, post
offices and 24 schools, were
abandoned.
Sterlingville, Woods Mills,
Lewisburg, LeRaysville were
gone.
So, too, were a lot business-
es.
Mr. Fetterly spent a lot of his SYDNEY SCHAEFER/WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES
youth in the woods surround- People walk through forest land at the Alpina Dam site on Wednesday during the Historic Industry of Fort Drum Tour throughout Jefferson and Lewis counties.
ing Quarry Pond, decades be-
fore Fort Drum was expanded
in 1985. He recalled the days
when the post was the home of
just reservists.
“I know this whole area,” he
said, noting that the pond is
more than 100 feet deep.
It was just one of a series of
stops that the 70 mostly older
folks got to see last week. And
reminisce about.
The land that occupied the
businesses and farms is still
used for military training.
On the day of the tour, the
thunderous sounds of live
SYDNEY SCHAEFER/WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES
gunfire from howitzers could
Cliff Gates, 83, looks out the window of a bus on Wednesday
be heard in the not-so-far dis-
during the Historic Industry of Fort Drum.
tance when the group walked
back to the buses at the quarry Slocum Mills today. In its heyday, 900 people
site. Ms. Rush, an archeologist, worked at the St. Regis Paper
There is nothing else like is history’s protector for Fort Co. mill. The village, all of its
Quarry Pond within the 168 Drum. It’s her job to make sure homes, the school, hotel and
square miles that make up that she maps, excavates and other businesses were owned SYDNEY SCHAEFER/WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES
Fort Drum. by the company. Mill workers
records whatever is found at A man looks out onto the water at Quarry Pond on Wednesday during the historic tour.
“It’s the only underwater basically paid rent to live in
the sites. In her role with the
archeological site on Fort the small houses. knowing its history,” Mrs. recognized each other and the park. A woman donated a
cultural resources team, she
Drum,” Ms. Rush remarked. “It was the epitome of a Wagner said. quickly shook hands. scrapbook that showed what
also enforces the international
Earlier in the day, the group company town,” Mrs. Wagner An old park, called the Buck Both learned how to swim the park looked like.
rules protecting cultural prop-
learned about a 19th century said. The group also visited a
erties and helps members of Creek Recreational Area, in the lake when they were
powder mill at Slocum Mills, Both she and her husband maple syrup processing site,
today’s modern Army learn off Lake School Road, based boys. Mr. Gates remembered
where a young chemist from worked in the paper mill when remnants of a small cheese
about how to keep them safe. around an artificial lake, inter- a pipe sticking up out of the
the Polytechnic School of it was owned by Champion factory and an ironworks plant
Before it flooded, the quarry ested many of the people on water a far distance from the
Paris was brought in to de- International. In their college in what was Alpina, Harrisville
velop a new but unreliable became an archeological gold the tour. shore.
mine in 1906 when miners dis- summer jobs, she was a fire The park was created by “If I could swim out to touch in Lewis County. The remains
gunpowder in a powder mill inspector, and husband Jason, of a 30-foot-tall blast furnace
at the site. covered a 20-foot-deep calcite President Franklin Delano it and get back, then I knew I
cave. In it, they found some 14 the team’s natural resources Roosevelt’s Emergency Con- was a swimmer,” Mr. Gates re- still exist.
“They were lucky they didn’t bureau chief, worked on the Back on the bus, Mr. Gates,
blow up the place,” said Heath- tons of lavender and pink crys- servation Work Act, legislation membered.
water moving logs with a pole. Mr. Bylow and a few others
er Wagner, environmental tals. They were removed and to lift the country out of the They remembered where
A few men in the touring traded stories about their
education coordinator. taken to the New York State Depression. On the day of the the pavilion was located,
group worked in the mill or childhoods and what they
Over the years, a sawmill Museum, where they were put park’s dedication, July 2, 1939, mentioning two fancy pianos could remember about the
knew somebody who did.
and grain, woolen and card- on display. about 1,000 people showed inside, and the bathhouse places where they hung out
After large paper corpora-
ing mills also sprang up and Ms. Rush hopes to someday tions in Brazil took over al- up, Mr. Wagner said. along the shore. Mr. Bylow when they were young.
helped the community flour- bring some of the crystals back most all of the globe’s paper It wasn’t too long ago that pointed over to where a series It’s important to hear those
ish for a time. Named for Caleb to Fort Drum and show them production, the paper mill he learned of its history and of elaborate fireplaces were in stories, Ms. Rush said.
Slocum, a Civil War veteran, off. slowly died. It closed in the significance. a wooded area. She and her team learn a lot
the hamlet was typical of the One of the most obvious mid-2000s and was disman- But Cliff Gates, 83, of Phila- The park was taken over by from what is talked about on
dozens of communities that lost businesses that the group tled in 2011. delphia, and Lyle Bylow, in his Fort Drum sometime during the annual tours.
developed across the area. visited was just off post in the A decaying warehouse and a 70s, knew all about the park. the early 1940s and left to de- And she says it’s also impor-
A concrete dam, now cov- village of Deferiet, the home couple of office buildings still And they remembered each teriorate. tant that the soldiers serving at
ered by moss, along Pleasant of a paper mill for more than stand. other. Mr. Wagner and his crew are Fort Drum today learn them,
Creek, is all that remains of a century. “People drive by without Getting off the bus, they slowly working on restoring too, she stressed.

Cleanup Franklin landfill to expand

From B1
cial activity planned and a range of how
many volunteers will be needed to suc-
cessfully do the work in the time available.
Many community members have
signed up, but there are more volunteers
needed for some locations. If there aren’t
enough community volunteers to work
with the Leadership Academy members,
the project may have to be dropped, ac-
cording to group sponsor, Chamber of
Commerce Executive Director Kristen
Aucter.
Individuals, groups and families are
welcome and while tools will be provided,
volunteers are encouraged to bring their
own rakes and tools if they would like,
said 2018-2019 Leadership Coach and Fa-
cilitator Christie Andrus-Nakano.
The projects most in need of volunteers
are the Port Leyden cleanup effort at the
Community Park which needs at least
seven volunteers and four or more vol-
unteers are needed in Montague to help
clean up Liberty and Garner Road cem-
eteries.
Projects including the beautification
of the town building in Constableville,
cleaning up the playground in Harrisville
and flower planting at the Harrisburg
Town Hall all require at least three more
volunteers to be successful. SIXTH CELL: Solid Waste board approves bonding for up to $7.25 million
The volunteer teams for cleanup of the
Riverside Park in Lyons Falls and three By FRANK DIFIORE and the increase in the in-county mately $6.5 million toward the
cemeteries in Greigg, planting flowers at fdifiore@mtelegram.com tonnage rate. funding of a possible seventh
the Copenhagen gazebo, and the cleanup MALONE — The Franklin Sherwin took care to answer cell.
and prep work for the installation of a new County Solid Waste Manage- previous concerns raised by Perry and SWMA board Presi-
playground at the park near the baseball ment Authority board voted county officials about accruing dent Warren Gaggin, mean-
diamond in New Bremen have all met Wednesday afternoon to ap- debt in order to fund the sixth while, said that the rate increase
their minimum level of volunteers, how- prove a bond resolution for the cell’s construction. is necessary to keep up with
ever, more are still welcome to sign up. construction of a sixth cell at the He handed out copies of a rising expenses for operating
county landfill. 10-year fiscal review — cover- the landfill. Gaggin specifically
Ms. Andrus-Nakano said that each
The resolution — approved ing 2018 to 2027 — to show how noted that there has not been a
year, Leadership Academy participants
unanimously by board members funding for the 2020 bond would rate increase for some time, dur-
chose a final group project that will have a
at a special meeting on Wednes- be separate from bonds issued in ing which the authority has been
cross-county impact. She said the diverse day — stipulates that the total 2012, 2015 and 2016 for previous “eating the costs.”
work backgrounds of Academy students project cost will not exceed $7.25 work. County legislators who at-
ensures that the projects get considered million, with the total amount to “We are not stacking debt on tended the meeting — along
from a number of different perspectives. be paid off by 2027. debt,” said Sherwin. “We are with County Manager Donna
“The Community Day of Caring is their The authority board also vot- paying it down while working on Kissane and County Treasurer
project,” Ms. Aucter said, “They could ed to approve a rate increase of infrastructure.” Fran Perry — expressed both
have taken on anything.” $15 per ton for material brought Sherwin estimated that in concern and optimism regard-
All volunteers will be contacted the to the landfill from within the addition to paying off the sixth ing both votes on Wednesday.
day before the event with instructions by county. cell’s construction bond by 2027, Kissane noted that the landfill
Leadership Academy participants. The vote followed presenta- the SWMA would have also paid was “one of our most valuable
To volunteer for any of the locations, tions by authority Treasurer off roughly $9.6 million of the assets” and should be developed
sign up on the Community Day of Caring Boyce Sherwin and Executive approximately $24 million prin- carefully to both avoid further
Facebook page or send an email to leader- Director Todd Perry regarding cipal of the 2012, 2015 and 2016 debt and utilized for the benefit
ship@lewiscountychamber.org. both the proposed construction bonds, as well as saved approxi- of the county as a whole.