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September - October 2018
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Disponible en línea en español.
I
t has probably been 20 years or more since I fished the
waters of the Gooley Club on the Essex Chain Lakes in the
interior of the Adirondack Mountains.
I had the pleasure of fishing the club waters several times
with an old friend of mine. We would usually arrive at the
club late in the day, unload our gear and then spend some
time visiting with other members of the club who happened
to be in camp. After a leisurely dinner, followed by a good
night’s rest, the next morning we would step out of our
small cabin into the morning sun and the crisp mountain
air and head off to the club’s dining hall for a hot breakfast.
The rest of our day would be spent trying to get the lakes to
give up a trout, or three.
Photo: AP Photo:
Mary Esch
Alternative Plan Needed
To Save Gooley Club
by
Bill Conners
Courtesy
The Poughkeepsie Journal, Adirondacks AP
In and About the
Adirondacks
The Gooley Club lies in the extreme southwest corner
of Essex County. After leaving the last paved road near
Newcomb, the last leg of the trip was over a gravel road, the
condition of which depended on the time of year, the beating
it took all winter, followed by the damage inflicted on it during
the “mud season.” Sometimes, the trip took half an hour,
sometimes much longer.
The camp buildings sit on the edge of a bay on Third Lake,
one of at least eight lakes in the chain. The club started life as
a logging camp and it predates the state’s Forest Preserve
Law by several decades. Approved as Article VII of the State
Constitution at the 1894 Constitutional Convention, the new
law was approved by the people of New York in the 1894
General Election and became effective on January 1, 1895.
It was later amended to Article XIV of the State Constitution.