The Adirondack Carousel and The Adirondack Scenic Railroad
This video was taken on September 21, 2012 at about 12:15 p.m. showing the close physical relationship of the Adirondack Carousel in the William Morris Park and the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. One sees the Adirondack Scenic Railroad train leaving the Union Station in downtown Saranac Lake, N.Y. on its first return trip of the day to Lake Placid, N.Y. The economic relationship of the carousel and the railroad is a symbiotic one from which both greatly benefit, as do the business communities of Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, N.Y. This same railroad line's tracks extend all the way to Utica, N.Y. where they directly connect to Amtrak, although at the present time the 80 miles of track between Saranac Lake and Thendara, N.Y. are out-of-service trackage and cannot be used at present for passenger service. However these tracks could easily be restored, as earlier the tracks between Snow Junction and Thendara, N.Y., and Lake Placid and Saranac Lake were restored. This would give the North Country direct railroad access to the rest of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Adirondack Carousel is located at the corner of Depot Street and Bloomingdale Avenue (New York State Route 3), and Saranac Lake Union Railroad Depot is located on Depot Street approximately 600 feet from the Carousel. One can see in the video that the only thing that separates the northbound (in railroad terms) passenger loading platform from the lawn which surrounds the carousel is a chain link fence.
West Point Visits the Adirondack Carousel....Take Two
Ten recent graduates of the United States Military Academy Preparatory School (USMAPS) now located at West Point, N.Y. recently visited the Adirondack Carousel in Saranac Lake, N.Y. on its second ever day of operation. This video shows them during their second and final ride on the carousel. All ten of these remarkable young men and women have already been accepted to, and will enter the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, N.Y. as cadet candidates in the USMA Class of 2016. The Grand Opening of this newest Adirondack attraction was the previous day. This attraction will give all of the North Country (and beyond) a beautiful two abreast carousel to ride. This beautiful carousel with its hand carved wooden animals (by carvers from across the US), and paintings of local scenes (on the carousel's rounding boards) and local wild flowers (on the carousel's medallions) were all painted by local artists. The carousel is operated by a not-for-profit corporation, and has educational as well as entertainment goals. Many, many volunteers worked long hard hours to bring this ten year plus project to completion. In the future, residents and area visitors, including campers at nearby Fish Creek Ponds, Rollins Ponds, Loon Lake, Long Lake, and Meadowbrook NY State Public Campsites will have a unique child friendly and reasonably priced attraction for sunny and rainy day use in downtown Saranac Lake.
Of particular note was the friendliness and excellent behavior of all the animals on the carousel during the future military leaders visit.
Please note that the carousel is handicapped accessible, and the boat on the carousel allows for securing a wheel chair and its occupant firmly in place during the carousel ride.
Additionally, the carousel's location in the William Morris Park at Depot Street and Bloomingdale Avenue is approximately 600 feet from Saranac Lake's Union Railroad Station, which offers seasonal railroad passenger service from/to Lake Placid, N.Y. on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. So ride the train from/to Lake Placid, and ride the carousel during the Saranac Lake layover.
The First Christmas Season of the Adirondack Carousel
The Adirondack Carousel celebrated its first ever Christmas season in
December 2012. Special Christmas Holiday hours were in place
between just before Christmas and New Year's Eve. Despite the rather
heavy snow storms which blanketed the North Country during this
period of time, many people and entire families turned out to visit the
carousel. The Adirondack Carousel is owned and operated by a not-for-
profit 501(c)3 corporation, and is located in Morris Park in downtown
Saranac Lake, New York. One family comprised of four separate
generations, rode the carousel simultaneously.
During this holiday time the carousel provided its riders with Christmas music played from CD recordings of Wurlitzer 146Bs, Wurlitzer 153s, and Wurlitzer 165 Band Organs.
One family surprised the Adirondack Carousel with a very special Christmas gift in the form of sponsoring, and thus providing the financial funds which has allowed the procurement of a new circular metal barrier fence that will completely encircle the circumference of the carousel mechanism, replacing the current barrier fence which divided the actual carousel mechanism location from the remainder of the carousel building. One can visualize the original wooden, and soon to be replaced, fence in this video. This new fence will drastically increase the amount of useable floor space for carousel observers, and will for the first time allow observers to view and photograph the carousel from any angle they may chose. The new fence has been ordered, and should be installed in the spring of 2013.
Additionally, since the new fence will completely surround the carousel, it will now allow the four sets of double doors that surround the carousel mechanism to be opened for additional ventilation and carousel viewing. WHAT A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS GIFT TO THE CAROUSEL!
So come one, come all, the young, and the not-so-young, and ride the Adirondack Carousel, conveniently located in the William Morris Park at the corner of Depot Street and Bloomingdale Avenue (New York State Route 3) in downtown Saranac Lake New York, 12983. For those who can only visit the Adirondack Carousel from afar please visit their website at: adirondackcarousel.org, or their Facebook page. For your enjoyment the Adirondack Carousel now has an on-line gift shop featured on their website which can ship to almost any location in the world. In several of the photographs of one of the indoor Christmas trees one can visualize Carousel Pavers, each with its individualized inscriptions. These pavers may be purchased thru the on-line gift shop or at the Carousel in dominations of $100, $200, or $500, and remember that since the Adirondack Carousel is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation under the Internal Revenue Service Code of the United States government purchase of such pavers under almost all circumstances are fully tax deductible for federal tax, and may qualify for state tax deductions on a state by state basis, although one must always check with one's individual tax advisor for final confirmation of tax deductibility. In the spring, after the snow has melted and the ground has thawed, these pavers will be transferred to one of the paths that either leads up to the Carousel building from the street, or the brick pathway that immediately surrounds the Carousel building. So honor children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, family and friends, or whatever or whomever you like, in a meaningful and lasting way while helping to support this worthy cause.
All of the Christmas music in this presentation was played by a 1926 Wurlitzer 165 Band Organ which until 1994 was located in the carousel building of the Seabreeze Amusement Park in Rochester, N.Y. Unfortunately in March 1994, while undergoing roof repair work, the carousel building, and subsequently the carousel and Wurlitzer 165 band organ were destroyed in a massive fire. Luckily, previous to the fire Dynamic Recording and Kaspersin Publishing of Rochester, N.Y. had recorded these Christmas selections from the band organ and preserved them on their CD Carousel Christmas. Please visit their website at dynamicmusic.com for purchase of this great CD of Christmas Carousel music. Dynamic Recording and Kaspersin Publishing granted the producer of this video permission to use the music contained within the CD Carousel Christmas as the soundtrack for this video. Thanks Dave and Jackie Kaspersin!
Adirondack Carousel - Opening Day Reviewed
The Adirondack Carousel is located in downtown Saranac Lake, NY, in the William Morris Park at the junctions of Depot Street and Bloomingdale Avenue (New York State Route 3). Its stated goals are to combine art, entertainment, and education. This truly unique, reasonably priced, and family friendly piece of entertainment is now open and ready to be enjoyed by the general public. What a wonderful place to take the children, especially on a rainy or less than perfect days. The carousel animals are both cute and friendly. This would be a perfect side trip for the many tourists in local motels and nearby local New York State Parks, including Fish Creek Ponds, Rollins Pond, Meadowbrook, Loon Lake, Long Lake, etc. The Grand Opening of the Carousel occurred on Memorial Day Weekend, and Stewart's Shops sponsored the first day, and rides were free to the general public, Saturday afternoon May 26, 2012. Until school closes for this school year the carousel will only be open weekends, but shortly the summer schedule will be announced, so view the Adirondack Carousel website for more information. At the present time one ride cost one token. Tokens may be purchased at the carousel for $2 each, 3 tokens for $5, or 7 tokens for $10. All children under three years of age or under 36 inches must have an adult accompany them on the carousel ride, but if the adult stands right besides the child (as they should) then both the adult and child may ride for one token per ride.
Currently the Adirondack Carousel uses recorded music from CDs, but hopefully in the future a small band organ (not a Wurlitzer 165 which is quite large) will be obtained. However, this recorded music is for the most part professionally recorded from band organs which have played on the large carousels at the older amusement parks (electric light parks or trolley parks, so called because of the huge number of electric lights which surrounded the rides, or the fact that the park was located at the end of a trolley line, and would produce income for the trolley company on non-working days such as Sunday) for years. The carousel would always have a loud band organ (which worked on vacuum and bellow technology, indeed early band organs were driven by steam engines rather than electric motors) which could be heard before the carousel could be seen. Indeed the purpose of the band organ was to attract riders to the carousel. There were several manufacturers of band organs within the United States, most of whom were located in or around the Town of North Tonawanda, New York, a suburb of Buffalo. The largest and best known was the Wurlitzer Company, whose large brick manufacturing plant survives to this day (although used for other purposes). Beginning in the late nineteenth century and continuing into the early twentieth century they produced and offered for sale many different models of band organs, from a basic model right up to the top of the line model, and for the Wurlitzer Company their top of the line model (with a very few exceptions) was known as Wurlitzer 165. If the Wurlitzer 165 were an automobile rather than a band organ it would be comparable to a Mercedes, Rolls Royce, Lexus, or Range Rover. The Adirondack Carousel is hoping in the future to obtain a band organ which would be comparable to a Ford or Chevy. All of the songs played on this video were played by a Wurlitzer 165. Unfortunately only 10 or 11 of these are left in the entire world, and approximately one half of these are in private collections and not available for the public to listen to or view.
The producer of this video very recently was given several CDs of Wurlitzer 165 Band Organ music which contained well over 70 titled songs. In the near future these songs will also be playing on the Adirondack Carousel (via CDs). So sit back, relax, and view this video with your children (make it a family night), and observe the beauty of The Adirondack Carousel and the superb audio quality of the music produced by a Wurlitzer 165.
Adirondack Carousel - Preparing for the Grand Opening
This installment of Build A Carousel encompasses the period beginning immediately after the installation of the Adirondack Carousel's mechanicals in the later part of April 2012 until immediately before The Grand Opening of the Adirondack Carousel on Saturday May 26, 2012.
The Adirondack Carousel is located in the William Morris Park at the intersection of Bloomingdale Avenue (New York State Route 3) and Depot Street in downtown Saranac Lake, N.Y. From the original idea to The Grand Opening on May 26, 2012 more than a decade transpired. The Adirondack Carousel is owned by a not-for-profit (IRS code 501-c-3) corporation whose goals are multiple but include education, entertainment, and the economic promotion of Saranac Lake, N.Y. in particular, and the Adirondack Region in general. Paula Hameline has recently been hired as the Executive Director, and to my knowledge is the only paid employee of the carousel at this time. Volunteers provide the rest of the labor force for the Adirondack Carousel.
This is a truly unique, reasonably priced, and family orientated amusement in downtown Saranac Lake, N.Y.
This video is the first in my series of presentations on You Tube about The Adirondack Carousel to have only one type of Band Organ playing all seven songs heard during the video. The type of Band Organ is known as a Wurlitzer 165 and there are only eleven of these remaining in the entire world, unfortunately the twelfth was lost in a tragic fire which destroyed a PTC carousel and a Wurlitzer 165 Band Organ in the mid-ninetees at Seabreeze Amusement Park in Rochester, NY.
The purposes of this series of video presentations is two fold: (1) to document for current and future generations the building of the Adirondack Carousel, and (2) to introduce to the younger generation, and re-introduce to an older generation, the truly wonderful and unique sound of band organ music. At the current time only recorded band organ music is played on the Adirondack Carousel, but a movement is just beginning to be organized to purchase a real live band organ for the carousel, hopefully this movement will be successful. This would help to distinguish the Adirondack Carousel from many newer carousels which rely solely on recorded music.
The Wurlitzer 165 that is properly tuned and maintained is a wonder to behold. Wurlitzer band organ catalogues of the early twentieth century list its price as $3500 (a basic band organ at that time could be purchased from Wurlitzer for approximately $700. Of the remaining 11 Wurlitzer 165s at most five are available for the public to hear, including one located at Glen Echo Park outside of Washington, D.C (which is owned by the National Park Service of the United States Government, and plays on its own antique Denzel Carousel), one or two in the American Treasure Tours Collection which is located just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one or two located in California. The remainder are in private collections, and a band organ broker recently told me that there is one in good shape for sale with an asking price of approximately $265,000, talk about inflation! If the Wurlitzer 165 were an automobile it would be a Mercedes, Lexus, or Ranger Rover. The goal for securing a band organ for the Adirondack Carousel is much, much more modest, with the desire to hopefully secure a nicely restored Wurlitzer 146 or 153 Band Organ. Musical presentations by some of these instruments can be found on You Tube by merely entering the type of band organ, i.e., Wurlitzer 165, into the search box and pressing enter. Please read the credits at the end of this video for the names of the songs that the 165s played.
Please explore the Adirondack Carousel website and its Facebook Page to obtain more information about this uniquely entertaining and educational experience, and ways in which you could help it accomplish its multiple goals, with a donation of your time, talent, and financial resources.
One special note of thanks to a truly remarkable and outstanding individual in the world of band organs. Mr. Matthew Caulfield greatly helped with information about band organs in general, and Wurlitzer 165s in particular.
So set back, relax, and enjoy this presentation while listening to the glorious sounds of the best in band organ music, not electronically produced, but produced with the use of vacuum and bellows technology by our grandfathers and great-grandfathers.
Syracuse, NY - Onondaga Lake from the Sky...
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I'm taking a break from winter videos, here is a lost summer treat from the vault. Filmed during the summer while visiting Syracuse.
Onondaga Lake is a lake in Central New York located northwest of Syracuse, New York. The southeastern end of the lake and the southwestern shore abut industrial areas and expressways; the northeastern shore and northwestern end border a series of parks and museums.
Although it is near the Finger Lakes region, it is not traditionally counted as one of the Finger Lakes. Onondaga Lake is a dimictic lake, meaning that the lake water completely mixes from top to bottom twice a year. The lake is 4.6 miles long and 1 mile wide making a surface area of 4.6 square miles.The maximum depth of the lake is 63 feet with an average depth of 35 feet. Its drainage basin has a surface area of 642 square kilometers, encompassing Syracuse, Onondaga County except the eastern and northern edges, the southeastern corner of Cayuga County and the Onondaga Nation Territory, and supports approximately 450,000 people.
Onondaga Lake has two natural tributaries that contribute approximately 70% of the total water flow to the lake. These tributaries are: Ninemile Creek and Onondaga Creek. The Metropolitan Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant (METRO) contributes 20% of the annual flow. No other lake in the United States receives as much of its inflow as treated wastewater. The other tributaries, which include Ley Creek, Bloody Brook, Harbor Brook, Sawmill Creek, Tributary 5A, and East Flume, contribute the remaining 10% of water flow into the lake. The tributaries flush the lake out about four times a year. Onondaga Lake is flushed much more rapidly than most other lakes. The lake flows to the northwest and discharges into Seneca River which combines with the Oneida River to form the Oswego River, and ultimately ends up in Lake Ontario.
For thousands of years, the lake was considered sacred within indigenous territory. The historic Onondaga people lost control of the lake to New York State following the American Revolutionary War. During the late 19th century, European-Americans built many resorts along the lake's shoreline, as it was a destination of great beauty.
With the industrialization of the region, much of the lake's shoreline was developed; domestic and industrial waste, due to industry and urbanization, led to the severe degradation of the lake. Unsafe levels of pollution led to the banning of ice harvesting as early as 1901. In 1940, swimming was banned, and in 1970 fishing was banned due to mercury contamination. Mercury pollution is still a problem for the lake today. Despite the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1973 and the closing of the major industrial polluter in 1986, Onondaga Lake is still one of the most polluted lakes in the United States. Several initiatives, including a 15-year multi-stage program currently under way, have been recently undertaken to clean up the lake.
CREDITS:
Filmed and edited by Dan Oshier
Production Assistant: Sid, Joseph J. Peddo, Esq.
Edited Software: GoPro Studio v2.5 on Mac
Camera: GoPro Hero3+ Black
Film Format: 1440 60fps Protune Flat
Quadcopter/ Drone: Osh Force One made by DJI- Phantom2 with H3-3D Zenmuse Gimbal.
Downtown Lake George Beach
1000 Islands (Upstate NY/Canada border) on our boat
If you have never been to the 1000 Islands, along the St. Lawrence River - GO! This is a beautiful area and one of my all time favorite places to visit. The area is located toward the north east side of Lake Ontario, between the United States and Canada. Visit one of the many bed and breakfast, cottage rentals, hotels or campgrounds in the area and have a great time. Stop by Alexandria Bay or Clayton on the US side, in Up State New Your, or enjoy dinner in the quaint little town of Gananoque, Ontario just across the river. Do a tour boat ride on Uncle Sam Boat tours or 1000 Island Cruises on the CA side. AND let's not forget Boldt Castle and the love story behind it being built. I love this area and look forward to visiting again, soon!
Brewed in New York - Central Region Full Episode
Matt heads to Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown to learn about Belgian-style beers and attends Belgium Comes to Cooperstown: a summer music and craft beer festival held each year on the brewery grounds. Maya visits Good Nature Brewery in the town of Hamilton and finds out about New York State’s Farm Brewery license. And we visit Water Street Brewing Co. in Binghamton to attend the “running of the hounds” at the brewery’s Beers and Beasts 8k event.
Produced by MagicWig Productions, Inc.