1929. The big bootlegging time, like all wrong doings it must come to an end. The end of the line for this one came at Brainardsville when the car overturned, spilling all its contents over the highway. Maybe some of the crowd will be recognized. This car was driven by Jim Shea of Malone. This is north of the four corners in Brainardsville.
Bootlegging and hijacking were the rule, and not the exception in this border town, which was the focal point of more than its share of excitement. Thrill packed midnight rides to deliver a cargo of contraband and liquor from "wet" Canada to the officially "dry" United States were commonplace events on the lonely country roads in this territory.
Ingenuity was a prime requisite for the professional bootlegger. It was necessary to route the loaded caravans over back roads and fields to cross the main Route [US] 11 without detection. From that point on it was comparatively easy to reach a Chateaugay Lake hideaway where the liquor was picked up by other transportation and carried downstate.
In winter the "caravan" consisted of four or five heavy sleighs each drawn by a two-horse team. In the summer it was necessary to switch to large automobiles, usually a heavy Cadillac.
While to an extent traveling was easier by horse and sleigh over snow covered fields and back roads, the load was hard to conceal in the event the Border Patrol caught up with the culprits. The Cadillacs, however, were innocent appearing to the naked eye. Several bottles could be concealed in false roofs and the hollowed space between the inside of the car doors and the outer shell without attracting undue attention.
When hit by a real "Chateaugay Thaw", many North Country roads were left impassable in those days. While some traffickers were discouraged by the weather, others, made of sterner stuff, refused to permit a variable thing as the weather to interfere with their profitable ventures.
One group of smugglers can not understand to this day how they were trailed to their hideaway. They would probably find it hard to believe that cagey as they were a pair of horses outwitted them. The smugglers, carrying heavy loads on five horse drawn sleighs, covered their trail carefully after one load had been seized by the Customs Patrol on the Lost Nation Road. Drifting snow helped to obliterate the remaining traces on the lone journey to a lumber camp hideaway across Upper Chateaugay Lake. The bootleggers had reason to believe that they had successfully eluded their pursuers.
Consequently, they were an amazed and crestfallen group when the Border Patrol rode into camp with the captured team and relieved them of their ill-gotten goods. To this day, the survivors whisper darkly of a stool-pigeon in their midst.
However, the patrolmen insisted that no stool pigeon was responsible. They simply gave the horses their leads and the faithful beasts led them unswervingly to the camp. The only ‘stool-pigeon’ was the horses’ native homing instinct.
A local native related another amusing incident. A truck heavily loaded with contraband liquor was backed into a barn east of the village. Several willing hands unloaded the haul. Much to their chagrin, the then weightless truck could not clear the barn door. It took much jockeying and a partial reloading before the truck could finally be freed from its trap.
There was another breed beside the professional bootlegger who caused many headaches for the Border Patrol. These were the enterprising individuals who devised unique methods of getting a small haul across the border for their own personal use.
One time an apparently innocent touring car stopped at the border and declared several cartons of eggs purchased in Canada. Quite by accident a patrolman discovered that the eggs were fake and each hollowed shell contained pure whiskey.
It is a well-known fact that Prohibition initiated the birth of violence and organized crime. Gangsters flourished, and fortunes were made and lost in a single day. It is little wonder that such powerful mobsters as "Legs" Diamond and "Dutch Schultz" were very much interested in the lucrative border traffic.
The heyday of the Prohibition era has been buried for nearly forty years; but memories are still vivid, and the stories have lost none of their dramatic impact. For Chateaugay, with its nearness to Canada and its dozens of back roads and wooded areas, was indeed a veritable "Bootlegger’s Paradise".
Dam and gate-houses, as photographed in 1921.
View facing bridge, preparation to construct steel reinforcement.
Forms and steel in place.
Globe Mill, Chateaugay River, looking North
Douglas Mill and further upstream, Globe Mill
Benjamin Roberts G.A.R. Post
West Main Street, looking east at Four CornersBrook House is at right; notice water barrell by the boardwalk.
Brook House (now Chateaugay Hotel)
WEST MAIN STREET
Fire with its tremendous appetite destroyed all the buildings on the north side of West Main Street, leaving only the Chateaugay Bank intact. Our seniors will remember the date.
EAST MAIN STREET
The north side of East Main Street, between River St. and John St., about 1867. On the far left is now the Farmers Bank. This complete block was destroyed by fire in 1893. Property of Herb McCoy.
George C. Baldwin, Malone, NY
George C. Baldwin, Malone, NY
George C. Baldwin, Malone, NY
George C. Baldwin, Malone, NY
Henry M. Beach, ca. 19091880 MILITARY BRIDGE, CHATEAUGAY RIVER
The first bridge across Chateaugay River, west of the village [of Chateaugay]. This is a military bridge, built in the early 1880's. The carding mill is on the right. Pipe in foreground ran water from Douglas Mill on left. (caption from Chateaugay Record)
Douglas Mill and Globe Mill (upstream)
OLD PULP MILL, CHATEAUGAY RIVER
Only a memory, the Old Pulp Mill on the Chateaugay River.
It was destroyed by fire.
