I saw pictures and read information about an abandoned above ground mine in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State on www.ghosttowns.com If you want to read about it, go to that site, choose New York State and then look for Tahawus.
My sister and I decided to go up there. Tahawus is on the map, its in Essex County. I drove to Rome to meet my Dad and sister, Peggy, at Dad's cottage at Delta Lake Bible Conference. I arrived early, I was tired and I was sleeping on the couch when they arrived. The picture way up at the top is Dad's cottage.
The following morning, Peg and I left for Tahawus. I think it was a two hour drive or maybe a bit more. We stopped briefly at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, but we decided to go directly to our lodging and then to Tahawus. We had a room reserved at the Shamrock Motel on Long Lake. (picture is up above, third from the top). We dropped off our luggage and headed out. We found what we thought was the location. We were a bit nervous, afraid we might be trespassing. Peg walked ahead, while I waited at the car and turned it around so it was in the "getaway position". After a minute or two, Peg called out that we were at the right place.
We walked a bit and there it was. Huge old abandoned mining buildings. Piles of what looked like coal. We wandered around a bit taking pictures.
But then we ran into a bit of what could have become trouble. We were walking by a newer, one story metal building. I just commented to Peggy "there is a sound coming from that building" when we saw a bunch of motorcycles come around the corner of the building. The bikers got off and went into the building. We did not wait around to find out what was going on. We turned around and hightailed it back the way we came, to my car.
We drove back to the main highway. We stopped at a Visitors Center and picked up some historical information. We mentioned the old mines to a woman working the front desk, and she said that she did not see any problem with us going in and walking around the buildings. She said the buildings were owned by "the conservatory". We didn't tell her we had already been there.
However, we headed back with the printed information in hand. We found the old blast furnace and an interesting swinging bridge. Then we located the old Main Street of the ghost town of Tahawus or Adirondak. We went into a couple of the buildings, but the floors looked as if they might give out anytime, so we were not able to explore much. We took a lot of pictures.
We noticed that there were a lot of parked cars just beyond the old buildings and walked up to see what was going on. We discovered that there was a trailhead to a popular uphill hiking trail. A ranger mentioned to us that he saw us near the buildings and asked us why we were interested in them. I think I told him that we were just interested in looking at old buildings.
Back in Long Lake, we had supper at an Irish restaurant and pub. I had "bangers and mash".......mashed potatoes with sausage. I don't recall what Peggy had. I remember that they had some great biscuits and I asked about them. The waitress said they got them from a bakery in a nearby town.
The next morning we went to an area known as Buttermilk Falls. Then we went to the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake. We had been before, many years earlier, probably in 1980. Its a great museum. After that we headed back to Rome. We stopped for ice cream somewhere along the way. We probably went out to supper with Dad that night in Rome.
A couple of years after our visit, I read that the buildings have been torn down, all except the newer building that may still be doing some mining operations. Boy, am I glad we got to see them before they were taken down!
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