Boats and Boating on Cranberry Lake

Boats and Boating on Cranberry Lake portrays the evolution of boating life on a lake that was barely known until the late 19th century. Illustrated here are some of the lake's earliest guide boats and canoes, workboats and steamers, and early motor launches that brought visitors from the dock at Wanakena to hotels around the lake. In the summer of 1909, a few men who regularly spent the season on Cranberry Lake organized a motorboat club to promote the sport of power boating, improve boating conditions on the lake, and have some fun. Today the Cranberry Lake Boat Club, with 400 memberships, is thought to be the oldest such continuously active club in the western Adirondacks. The club will celebrate its centennial in 2009 with a summer of activities related to boats and boating on the lake.

Allen P. Splete is chair of the centennial celebration committee and former president of the St. Lawrence County Historical Association. His interest in the Adirondacks was shaped by his experiences at St. Lawrence University, where he initiated a series of summer conferences in the 1970s dealing with the Adirondack Park Agency. In 2000, he became a seasonal resident of Cranberry Lake.