Potsdam Raquette River Walk

Potsdam's falls provided inexpensive, reliable water power that drew industry to Fall Island, where water from the dams ran through flumes on both sides of the island and along each bank of the river, driving turbines and factory machinery. By 1820, Fall Island had become Potsdam's industrial center, powering two grist mills, six sawmills, two fulling mills, two carding mills, a brewery, a distillery, and a trip hammer and scythe factory. Its industrial prominence lasted until the 1920s and included enterprises such as Leete Foundry, established in 1820 and operating for more than a century; Batchelder & Sons Furniture, founded as Batchelder & Badlam in 1841 and selling furniture, pianos, and cabinetry while also providing undertaking services; and Clarkson Shingle Factory, founded in 1886 and also making butter tubs for the North Country's dairy industry. In 1850, Potsdam businessmen led by Henry Hewitt won a State Legislature declaration making the Raquette upstream from Potsdam a public highway despite objections to log drives, and within three years sawmilling increased eight-fold. During the logging heyday from 1880 to 1910, evolving sawing technology advanced from single blades powered by waterwheels to gangsaws of many blades powered by turbines, and logs were sometimes cut more than fifty miles away in the watersheds of Tupper Lake and Long Lake on land largely owned by Augustus Sherman and George Sisson. From 1803 to 1809, settlers crossed the river by a raft ferry below Fall Island until Benjamin Raymond built the first bridge in 1809 for $100 from pine planks and hemlock beams planed at his upstream sawmill; pieces of that bridge were uncovered in 1924 when the village built the current east bridge, and later bridge reconstructions progressed from iron to concrete, with the bridge linking Market Street to Fall Island being the eighth east bridge over the Raquette River.

Potsdam, New York · United States