LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 17 Erik, the "Place Name Dude," begins Part 2 of our four-part series surrounding the history of names given to various locations throughout the Adirondacks. Enjoy learning about the history of the names – known as toponyms – behind some of your favorite locations. Be on the lookout for Schlimmer's most recent publications, Wicked\ Awesome Adirondack Chronology: 1524-2024 and Cranberry Lake Fifty Place Names: The Tiny Toponym Tome. Erebus Mountain While searching old newspaper articles, seeking hints regarding the history of this toponym, I stumbled across a saying of the 1800s. "Dark as Erebus" expressed two things. One is darkness, as in "a night as dark as Erebus." Another is wickedness, as in "a heart as dark as Erebus." Erebus is defined as "a personification of darkness in Greek mythology" and "a place of darkness in the un- derworld on the way to Hades." This toponym commu- nicates this 2,527-foot mountain's dark appearance, or something terrible happened on or within sight of this mountain. This Warren County toponym was first men- tioned in a newspaper in 1890 when it was reported, "There has been no fall of rain since July 25, and Mount Erebus, just south of Black Mountain, has been burning forty-eight hours." This toponym reached maps in 1895 when the United States Geological Survey published its first topographic map of this area. Hatch Brook Harry Hatch, born 1808, was a notable regional set- tler and leader. Shortly after the Town of Bellmont was formed in 1833, he was elected its second supervisor. He would be reelected four times. When the Town of Franklin was formed in 1836, the first town meeting was held in his home, and he was again elected super- visor. He would be reelected two times. According to a historian of the early 1900s, Harry "kept a hotel on the Hopkinton and Port Kent Turnpike, north of Loon Lake and twenty five miles south of Malone, built a sawmill and ran it for several years." When Harry died on the third day of April 1850 there was much snow, and the ground was still frozen. It was impossible to bury him at the time of death, and so the corpse was kept in a snowbank until spring. He was buried in Hoose Ceme- tery two miles from Hatch Brook. This Franklin County waterway was identified on the first United States Geo- logical Survey topographic map of this area published in 1910. Irondequoit Mountain This Hamilton County mountain shares the name of a Monroe County town. Irondequoit is an Indian word meaning "place where the waves gasp and die" or "where the land meets the water." While the Town of Irondequoit is on the shore of Lake Ontario, this 2,293- foot mountain is on the shore of Piseco Lake. Ironde- quoit Mountain rises steeply. It was written in 1922 that if a plumb line was dropped off this mountain the end "would fall within half a mile of the edge of the lake." This toponym was on the first edition United States Geological Survey topographic map of this area pub- lished in 1904. Louis Clearing Bay Essex County's Louis Clearing Bay was first identified on United States Geological Survey topographic maps beginning 1945 and has remained on agency maps with that spelling. This agency's Geographic Names Informa- tion System gives that spelling, too. However, Google Maps and all Department of Environmental Conserva- tion documents and state trail signs call it Lewis Clear- ing Bay. Though eponym Robert Lewis was most active in the adjacent Town of Moriah, this Town of Westport bay is named for him because he owned land here. When the Town of Moriah's first town meeting was held April 5, 1808, Robert was elected one of its assessors, and he established the Town of Moriah's first Lake Cham- plain ferry in 1811. It was remembered, "His son, Robert Lewis, Jr., who succeeded him in the milling business, was also a member of the Third Regiment of the Albany County Militia." Potash Mountain Potash was made by leaching wood ashes and then evaporating lye from them. The final product was po- tassium carbonate, which was used in the production of soap and gunpowder and served as fertilizer. Produc- tion was statewide. Potash toponyms survive in Essex, Hamilton, Lewis, Oneida, and Warren counties. A histo- rian of the late 1800s explained the value of this com- modity. "This was a very important source of revenue for pioneers in all parts of the country; indeed it was almost the only one at a time when it was nearly im- possible to get cash from any quarter or for any article. The pioneers found little difficulty in hoarding large quantities of ashes, which they were forced to make in clearing their lands and they were always marketable, for the demand for potash was constant." In 1824 the Town of Keene of Essex County, which 2,874-foot Pot- ash Mountain is within, had two asheries. This toponym reached United States Geological Survey topographic maps in 1953. t

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