On December 13, 1882, Nicholas Shaul’s store in Barkersville, Town of Providence, Saratoga County was destroyed by fire. While the contents were a total loss, it was noted in the Daily Saratogian that 20-year-old Charlie Steele took time away from fighting the fire to save the store’s telephone. Today we would scratch our heads if this made the news, but 140 years ago it was vital information as this was the only telephone for miles around this isolated hamlet. Read more ..read more

The Adirondack Council thanked Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie for working with Gov. Kathy Hochul to restore what they call key Adirondack priorities in the $237-billion state budget, including money for scientific research and municipal clean water projects. The Council also expressed thanks for the Legislature’s efforts to restore the full $500 million in annual funding to the state’s Clean Water grants program. The $250 million boost above the Governor’s original proposal will significantly improve the opportunities for Adirondack communities ..read more

Dubbed the “first lady of radio,” Mary Margaret McBride (1899-1976) was a welcome voice in millions of homes in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, pulling in 6 to 8 million listeners daily. McBride interviewed 30,000 guests, from Eleanor Roosevelt to the neighborhood plumber, and produced 15,000 shows.  She was a radio pioneer, broadcasting some of those shows from her converted Catskills barn. McBride first worked steadily in radio for WOR in New York City, starting in 1934. Read more ..read more

Situated in southeastern Connecticut, New London was a center of American Revolutionary War naval activities. State and continental naval vessels operated out of its harbor, which doubled as a haven for American privateers (and now home to two US submarine bases). By 1781, the Revolution had reached a stalemate. Throughout the summer the combined Franco-American armies of Generals George Washington and Jean-Baptiste comte de Rochambeau deceived British General Sir Henry Clinton into believing they were about to lay siege to the city of New York. Read more ..read more

A new study published in the journal Neurology highlights two cases of hunters who regularly ate chronic wasting disease (CWD) infected whitetail deer contracted Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a degenerative brain disorder that leads to dementia and death. “Clusters of sporadic CJD cases may occur in regions with CWD-confirmed deer populations, hinting at potential cross-species prion transmission,” the study authors concluded. Prions cause prion diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies that are transmissible, fatal neurodegenerative diseases in humans and animals, includ ..read more

On March 19th, a Massachusetts Department of Public Works plow driver noticed a car at the Taconic Crest Trail’s Berlin Pass trailhead in Williamstown that had been parked at that location since March 11. The vehicle was 700 feet from the New York border near Taconic Ridge State Forest. Massachusetts State Police requested Forest Ranger assistance with a search for the 40-year-old owner of the car who had last been seen March 7. Read more ..read more

The following text is from The Grateful Dead and LSD: A Study into the Phenomenon a report written in late April, 1991 by Amy Costanzi, who was then a research analyst with the Maryland State Police Criminal Intelligence Division. It was annotated by John Warren. For the past 27 years [sic, since 1964], the Grateful Dead have been an icon in the rock scene. No other band has had as successful a career.  Read more ..read more

Located at 59 West 44th Street in New York’s theatre district, the Algonquin Hotel became an artistic hub for the city and a landmark in America’s cultural life. It was a meeting place and home away from home for such luminaries as famed wits Alexander Woollcott and Dorothy Parker; Broadway and Hollywood stars, including Tallulah Bankhead and Charles Laughton; popular raconteurs like Robert Benchley; and New York City mayors Jimmy Walker and Fiorello LaGuardia. Read more ..read more

The NYS Department of Transportation has been studying various proposals to reconnect Albany with the Hudson River, thanks to a grant of over $5 million secured by Assemblywoman Pat Fahy. On Wednesday, May 1st they are hosting an Open House at the Capital Center in Albany, located on Eagle Street adjacent to the Renaissance Hotel, from 4 pm until 7 pm. At that time the study team will be presenting draft concepts resulting from the work to date by them, including information boards and interactive stations with DOT analysts to answer questions regarding their work so far. Read more ..read more

The National Wildlife Refuge System began on March 14, 1904, when President Theodore Roosevelt established the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. Since then the system has expanded to include more than 570 different refuges. There are 13 National Wildlife Refuges in New York State: two in Western New York, two in the Lower Hudson Valley/Catskills region, and nine on Long Island. Administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (part of the Department of the Interior), the National Wildlife Refuge System maintains a “national network of lands and waters for the conservation ..read more