14th Annual Durant Days August 3-5, 2012

Schedule of Events 

AUG 3 FRIDAY You Can't Get There By Car!

Harken back to the days when waterways were the highways and cruisin' was by boat! Pine Knot Tour, the first Great Camp, with luncheon cruise. Reservations Required. Call 315-354-5532. Limited to 56. $59 per person inclusive. RLN returns $12 of every admission to Camp Pine Knot. Pine Knot is not usually open to the public. This is a special arrangement made available specifically for Durant Days.

www.cortland.edu/outdoor/raquette/Huntington.html 

• 8:30-8:45 am Arrive WW Durant dock in the village for water taxi ride over to Pine Knot
• 8:45-9:15 am  Cruise South Bay and arrive Pine Knot dock
• 9:20-10:55 am Guided tour Pine Knot
• 11:00-11:15 am Walk through woods from Pine Knot on south shore of Long Point to St. Williams on north shore of Long Point
• 11:15-11:35 am  Visit the historic St. Williams on Long Point, built over 100 years ago by Durant and recently refurbished.  A boat- access only church dating from 1890 and placed on the National Register of Historic Sites in 2005.
• 11:40-1:00 pm Luncheon cruise with historic narration as you cruise by other Great Camps on Raquette Lake, including Gov. Lounsbury's Echo Camp, Collier's Bluff Point and Carnegie's North Point.

If you haven’t been to Great Camp Sagamore, plan on returning Sunday for the 10 am 1/2 price guided tour of Great Camp Sagamore, the Alfred Vanderbilt estate.  www.greatcampsagamore.org

AUG 4 SATURDAY

• 2:00-3:00 PM Free Concert at Raquette Lake School, sponsored by St. Williams on Long Point. Wide Variety,"Jersey's Premiere A Cappella Group," is a group of a cappella singers, seven ne'er do wells who love to entertain. They take the best of R&B, rock and roll and popular standards, add their own blend of vocal harmonies (and slightly dysfunctional personalities), and deliver a truly unique entertainment experience. Sound zany? Come see for yourself!  www.stwilliamsonlongpoint.org        Doors open at 1:30.
• Poker Run 3:00-5:00.  Registration at tent in village.  All participants get free admission on the moonlight cruise.
• There will be live music in the village green late afternoon, featuring Adam Reynolds.
• 7pm Boat parade in the village
• 9:30 Fireworks
• 10:00-11:30 Moonlight cruise with live entertainment 

AUG 5 SUNDAY

• 10:00 am  1/2 price guided tour Great Camp Sagamore www.greatcampsagamore.org
• 2:00-2:45 pm Water taxi service to/from St. Hubert's Isle from the village dock.  
• 3:00 pm Annual ecumenical vespers service at Church of the Good Shepherd, on Raquette Lake www.sthubertsisle.com                  All events on St. Hubert's Isle are free and open to the public.

Why Do We Honor William West Durant?

Can you imagine the Adirondacks in the gilded age era when just one man owned literally hundreds of thousands of acres including all of Raquette Lake and its entire township? He was Thomas C. Durant, general manager of the Union Pacific Railroad. His fame derived from his success at pushing the Transcontinental Railroad from the East to Promontory Point. Too busy with his own work, he turned Raquette Lake development over to his son, William West Durant.

Having spent his privileged youth in Europe, William visited the hunting and fishing camps of the European aristocracy and decided that the Adirondacks lent its woods, lakes, and mountains to similar grand estates. He arrived on Raquette Lake where he concentrated his efforts on Pine Knot, a camp that would eventually be owned by Collis P. Huntington, another Transcontinental RR man. William West Durant’s building legacy eventually included Camp Uncas (1895) owned by J.P. Morgan and Sagamore Lodge(1897) purchased in 1901 by Alfred G. Vanderbilt, the wealthiest young man in America. Altogether he built well over 100 buildings at the three camps and supported 200 workers year ‘round to construct roads, telegraph lines, the shortest standard gauge RR in the world, and two churches to serve the well-heeled guests who visited the three luxurious wilderness estates. The Vanderbilts, Morgans, and other Captains of Industry "vacated" the stifling heat of New York City to vacation in their sumptuous Adirondack Camps.

William West Durant’s rampant spending on development of estates we now call Great Camps led to his bankruptcy; but his three camps remain, Camp Pine Knot, Sagamore and Uncas, and all three boast National Historic Landmark status, shining a spotlight on the tiny village of Raquette Lake.

Honoring William West Durant’s legacy is the cruise boat on Raquette Lake, the W.W. Durant. Cruising on Raquette Lake's 99 miles of shoreline where you will still see Durant’s original camp, Pine Knot, it captures the ambience of an opulent, by-gone era by surrounding guests with wainscoting, stained and etched glass, gleaming brass, rich carpeting and polished oak, while, at the same time, offering the convenience and comfort of modern amenities. Read what satisfied guests have written about their experience on the W.W. Durant at www.raquettelakenavigation.com.

The architectural style known as “Great Camp” originated in Raquette Lake with Camp Pine Knot, a National Historic Landmark. The significant elements of the Great Camp style are log construction, native stonework, decorative rustic work in twigs and branches and self-sufficient, multi-building complexes often connected by covered walkways. Guests felt very honored to be invited to stay here, for Pine Knot was considered the most beautiful and outstanding camp in the Adirondack woods in its heyday, until Sagamore was built. On your guided tour you’ll view the Swiss chalet, Durant’s cottage, the library, and Japanese teahouse, among others. Pine Knot is now owned by SUNY Cortland who operates year-round outdoor education programs at what they call Camp Huntington. Pine Knot is not normally open for public tours. www.greatcamps.com/tour.htm

Great Camp Sagamore, also a National Historic Landmark, offers 2-hour guided tours daily from late June through Columbus Day. You will see the Main Lodge where guests still stay, the Dining Hall, the Bowling Alley, the Blacksmith's Shop, the Barn and Carriage House. You'll marvel at the rustic luxury enjoyed by the Vanderbilt family and be invited to ask why they thought their annual trips into the woods for over 50 years were so important. www.greatcampsagamore.org will give you a tantalizing taste of history.

During Durant Days also enjoy a fantasy visit to the original site of the village of Durant, NY., combining 2/3 imagination and 1/3 historic structures. While building Great Camps like Pine Knot, Sagamore and Uncas, William West Durant was not only establishing summer residences for families like the Huntingtons, the Vanderbilts and the Morgans, but he was also creating towns for the workers and families who lived year round in the mountains, maintaining and running the Great Camps their employers visited only a month or two out of the year.

Durant, NY was one of those towns, built by Durant on the north shore of Long Point, just a few minutes walk from his own personal estate, Pine Knot, built on the south shore. Harkening back over 100 years, before Route 28 was built, to an era when the only “roads” were waterways and the primary means of transportation was by boat, upon arrival at St. Williams’ dock via the WW Durant your tour guide’s commentary will help you picture in your mind’s eye the small community that existed there, including the school, the post office, the hotel Under the Hemlocks, and the boardwalk teeming with steamboats and passengers boarding and deboarding. The original store still stands, converted to housing for St. Williams guests. Before your visit ends, you’ll discover why the village was picked up and moved to its present site and renamed Raquette Lake.

Without doubt the piece de resistance, the star of this fantasy visit to the first village, is St. Williams, built in 1890 by Durant, and gifted to the families of the employees and residents who had been instrumental in constructing Durant’s Adirondack Railroad and maintaining his vast holdings. Rehabilitated with new exterior cedar shingle siding and roofing and with a stabilized foundation during the 1990’s and early 2000, all paid for with private donations, St. Williams stands as a testament to a grassroots campaign and locals’ love affair to save a priceless part of Raquette Lake history. St. Williams on Long Point was placed on the National Register of Historic Sites in 2005. Today St. Williams is operated as a conference center by a non-profit organization available for programs, weddings, retreats and reunions with lodging and dining facilities. www.stwilliamsonlongpoint.org Fundraising is on-going as plans are solidified to refurbish the
interior of the church.

Ten years before Durant built St. Williams in 1890 to help provide a center for community life in Durant, NY, he built the Episcopal Mission of the Good Shepherd in 1880. Both churches were dedicated to the people of Raquette Lake. Both churches were designed by the firm of Josiah Cleveland Cady, architect of the original Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Good Shepherd was designed in the ‘stick” style and St. William’s in the “shingle” style. Originally known as Bluff Island, St. Hubert’s was sold in 1879 for $1 to the Diocese of Albany and immediately renamed in honor of the patron saint of hunters. The location was perfect- directly across the bay from the fledgling community of Durant on Long Point. In 1900, when the 18 mile NY Central Railway spur from Carter Station was near completion, William Durant moved the post office from Durant on Long Point, to its present site, the terminus of the new railroad. The General Store soon followed. In 1904 Durant left the Adirondacks rarely to return and the spot on the map labeled “Durant Station & Post Office” became known as the hamlet of Raquette Lake.

Once a year Church of the Good Shepherd organizes a vesper service, on Sunday during Durant Days. Marvel at the 1883 Tiffany Stained Glass Windows. Sing hymns accompanied by the 1873 Estey Pump organ. The bell in the tower dates from 1880! http://www.sthubertsisle.com/page3.html