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ASRA project history 1999 - 2009
1700- Settlement and discovery
Water power, human ingenuity, and the availability of raw materials, principally timber and iron ore, fueled the settlement and development of the Ausable Valley in the 19th century. The Ausable River was at the heart of this early development because of its usefulness as a power supply, as a water supply for communities, and as a way of disposing of wastes.
The Ausable Valley has a number of designated historic sites. The entire Adirondack Forest Preserve (est. 1885) is designated as a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior2. Also listed on the National Register of Historic Landmarks, are John Brown Farm (1849) in North Elba; and the Elkanah Watson House (1828) in Port Kent.
There are also an abundance of structures within the Ausable River corridor that are on the National Register of Historic Places; these include: the Keeseville Historic District which includes 125 residential, commercial, ecclesiastical, and industrial buildings, and three historic bridges that are also listed as a national Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The river is spanned by a variety of old and historic bridges that represent one hundred and sixty-six years of engineering history.
1820-1880 Age of Iron, Mills, Forges and Logging
1850's - Artists Hudson River School
Winslow Homer and other noted artists camped much of their summers in this area you can find photos, illustrations and descriptions of how the river once was even with industry making use of the Watershed. Hike up any trail and you'll find ruminants of industry and farming in odd places. Our neighboring boquet River supported fish canneries at one time. Today the mills, iron mines, and factories are gone so what is happening today that is making the habitat disappear.
1870-1923 Golden Age of Tourism
While receiving no official historic designations to date, numerous sites in and around the village of Lake Placid and Whiteface Mountain, in Wilmington, associated with the Winter Olympics in 1932 and 1980, have developed as popular destinations for both residents and tourists alike.
The river systems East Branch has been hardest hit lacking the ability to sustain native brookies and tout.
In 1989 Lee Wulff wrote an article in the Fly Fishing Heritage of how he remembered it. In 1930, "I was told, rising in Keene Valley where, I was told, there was a beautiful run of ten- to twelve-inch rainbows, a few of which drifted down to these waters and grew quite large." But, he continued in the article back in 1989 that the habitat had severely changed and pleads with the reader that some type of new management be established. It never happened and today catch a fish on the East Branch is no more than " fishing season on the East Branch starts the day the stocking trucks arrive and lasts till the fish are taken or die." Hold over fish on the river is few and far between. Even the Brookie population suffers from poor habitat.
Winslow Homer and other noted artists camped much of their summers in this area you can find photos, illustrations and descriptions of how the river once was even with industry making use of the Watershed. Hike up any trail and you'll find ruminants of industry and farming in odd places. Our neighboring boquet River supported fish canneries at one time. Today the mills, iron mines, and factories are gone so what is happening today that is making the habitat disappear.
ASRA is trying to find out why and how we can save the watershed before it is too late. Look at what we are doing today and then plan out a better future.
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