Tahawus ghost village and mine

[imarchant]

I am starting some planning for a boy scout trip this summer. The trip will be several days. The places they want to go include, Exploring old ruins, visit fire towers, visit plane crash sites, Mt. Marcy, Lake tear of the clouds. It seems that a logical starting point is upper works.

I have not been able to find much information about the old ghost town. How much time could be spent exploring this area?

The 2003 AMC map of the high peaks area shows this as private ownership. Does the new 2004 guide and map include any information about this area, now that it has become public? Is the ghost town located near the "Old MacIntyre Furnace" or is it the buildings shown to the west of Sandford Hill? I think there may have been two towns, maybe that is my confusion.

Next would be Mount Adams for the fire tower. We would then backpack into the flowed Lands/Lake Colden area. From there we could do day trips to Marcy, Wright Peak, & Mount Marshall. The crash on Wright Peak seems to be easy to find. How about the one on Marshall? Are there any other crash sites near our base camp?

 

[hillman1]

I have yet to find the crash site on Wright peak. Been up there a few times. One of my friends found a peice of the wreckage on the slide though.

 

[WBB]

What is left of the town is past the furnace right before the parking lot. There is not a lot to explore as the building are off limits due to their weaken condition. An alternative destination could be Camp Santinoni. This is an old “Great Camp” that is slowly being restored along with the its farm and outbuildings. It is a five mile hike or bike ride into the camp from the trail head in Newcomb , NY which is just down the road from the turn off to U W. The camp is staff and tours are offered during the summer months.

 

[JimB]

imarchant, you should be able to find some info on Tahawus or the village of Adirondac by doing a search here or on adkforum.com. This topic has been discussed before. The village is located quite near to the old blast furnace at the end of the road. The parking lot there is the trail head(which you probably knew). I personally could spend a day checking out the village and old ruins but young boys could find it boring. The houses are also private property( I'm not sure about the new status) and dangerously delapidated. The Adirondack Museum in Blue Mt Lake has a great exhibit on the whole mining operation around Upper and Lower Works if you really want more info. The Mt. Adams trailhead is located just south of UW and that would make a great trip. You could continue on up the Hanging Spear Falls trail to Flowed Lands or backtrack and take the shorter Calamity Brook route. They are both pretty good hikes.

 

[professor]

Some neat pictures of the remnants of both the old and new ghost twons can be found here:

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ny/tahawusoradirondak.html

 

[MrOysterhead]

My friends and I spent several hours exploring the area last Memorial Day weekend. Pictures can be found here -

http://community.webshots.com/album/268964324Sukacl - LINK HAS BEEN FIXED

We spent maybe an hour going into some of the houses in the ghost town and walking around there. I WOULD NOT take boy scouts in there - the buildings are more then ready to come down, there was insulation that we thought was asbestos in a lot of rooms, there’s a lot of broken glass, and lastly there are signs saying not to enter the buildings.

We also spent a ton of time (several hours) in the NL mine. That’s a lot safer then the ghost town, but still sketchy in several areas and since they still own it it's technically trespassing.

As for your questions about plane wrecks...I've heard (but have no personal experience) that not only is the summit of Marshall hard to find but so is the plane wreck. Not sure though...

I know the vast majority of the crash on Wright is gone, but if you climb the slide (again not sure if thats such a hot idea with a lot of little kids) there may be some small pieces left hanging around.

Enjoy!
Oysterhead

 

[skiguy]

Scrambling around on the North and Northwest sides below the Summit of Wright peak this past September I found parts of Airplane engines and other remnants of the the Crash. There is also a Memorial Plaque there also. Not all that hard to find..A little bit below the summit but definetly still above the treeline.