One Foggy Christmas Eve Eve at the Spa State Park

The weather outside is delightful, may not be holiday season weather, but, I'll take it. The fog rolled in over night and hung around all morning, which made for some good photos, check it out!

                                        SPAC's lawn is looking quite amazing!!!

                         
                                                            Geyser Creek is flowing fierce!

         
                                                      Beech Constrictor

                                                       RB2 quitely sits and waits........

                    ALL PHOTOS BY GEORGE DEMERS

                                        Thanks for taking time to read my blog!

One big family

 Judge Henry Walton moved to Saratoga Springs in 1790, buying up large parcels of land, two years after he studied law under Aaron Burr, vice president to Thomas Jefferson. Aaron Burr is most famous for his duel with Alexander Hamilton, the man on your ten dollar bill, who Burr shot over politics and slander in 1804. 

 In 1833 Burr married Madam Jumel, who soon after divorced him in 1836, spitefully using Hamilton's son as her lawyer.

Jumel's personal cook was Anne Northup, wife of Solomon Northup, a black man kidnapped and sold as a slave in 1841. He was taken  at Mongomery Hall, bar front later to be a part of the Grand Union Hotel. Both Anne and Solomon worked at the hotel.

 Judge Walton sold the property now known as Skidmore College to A.T. Stewart, who willed it to the attorney who produced the will (?) Judge Henry Hilton in 1879.

Judge Henry Hilton established it as ''Woodlawn Estates'' adorned with statues and winding trolley paths. 

Judge Henry Hilton at the time, through the will deal, also managed/owned the Grand Union Hotel, and was part of a national controversy in 1877, after not allowing Jews to stay at the 1,000 room hotel, which, at the time, is was the largest in the world.

 So, basically, a judge sold property now known as Skidmore College, to a bigot judge, who also owned a hotel that used to employ a couple, where the wife, also worked for a wife, of a guy who taught law to the judge who sold property now known as Skidmore College.

Notice, the stone fence is the only thing left from the old property!

High Rock Spring Water Color

 The mother of all springs in Saratoga Springs is the High Rock Spring. It was highly regarded and known by the Native Americans of the area as healing waters, or the ''Medicine Spring of the Great Spirit.'' So, here's the recipe for "God's elixir."

 The first white person to come to this area, was Sir William Johnson, a wounded soldier brought here in 1767 by the Mohawks. Wounded in the Battle at Lake George, during the French and Indian War, Johnson was Superintendent of Indian Affairs with the British Colonies, and husband of a Mohawk. After his wound healed up, he went and claimed to the world that the water is what got him back on his feet. 
 Once word got out, many wounded soldiers would make the trek to the healing waters. General George Washington visited the spring, led there by General Schuyler, and even attempted to buy the land. 
 In 1771 or 2 or 3 Dirck Scowton cut down some trees and built a hut on the hill above the spring. Obviously, it was a misunderstanding with the local natives, he soon was pressured to leave the area, only to be taken over and improved by a man from Rhode Island. This man, armed with liquor to trade with the natives, was named John Arnold. He opened an inn on the property, the first of it's kind in this North America. This blurry screen snap is  from a 1938 Brooklyn newspaper…..

 He then later abandoned it, then, taken over by a person named Sam Norton. 
 Soon after the Revolutionary war, an American spy named Alexander Bryant bought the inn. Bryant also owned the eyes and ears that spied on Burgoyne, helping foil his campaign at Saratoga. Bryant expanded on the inn to be his house/inn. 
 Fast forward a couple hundred years and now, the Olde Bryan Inn stands at the same location . Here's a photo I took a few weeks ago of the stairway that runs from High Rock Spring to the Olde Bryan Inn. Foliage on the ground currently peaking! hahahaha

 On the wall at the City Council of Saratoga Springs, on the patches on the shoulders of city cops, and used to be on the doors of the cop cars, is this city seal, featuring this old painting depicting High Rock, with half naked natives milling about. This photo below is from an old postcard. The only problem is, tipis/teepees were used by the Plains Indian tribes. Iroquois made longhouses. I also heard this is a Rockwell of the Veitch's. Or that tipi was the first Roohan property. Or the tipi is the first OBI. Yeah, I got jokes.

The spring over time, stopped flowing, and it was very telling of the condition and life's blood of the town. Though I'm just being poetic and corny, it really was due to the pumping of gas out of the adjoining branch springs in the underground chain of springs. There were hundreds in this area, we are down to 17. It was recently drilled and revamped to flow again, and here is part of the dedication ceremony by a Mohawk elder named Tom Porter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbhgWyJcFeA

Here's an old photo….

C.S. Sterry photo 1870

So, here's the scoop, the spring never rose too tall, you have to pay a young lad to scoop it out...

from the Saratoga Library

(oof, pre child labor laws?)

I went there, dipped my cup, and made a water color, cheers to High Rock flowing again! I hope you like it! Check back for more, soon!!!!!

Keller Roohan for Mayor of Timesharatoga Springs

 Last week featured a Sunday phone call from Keller Williams Realty,​ (according to my caller ID) which puzzled me, so I answered, and it was the local Democrat volunteer team, asking me if they can count on my vote for Mayor Joanne Yepsen​ for Saratoga Springs Mayor. 
This Sunday featured a call by Roohan Realty​ (according to my caller ID) and I answered thinking, I have a good idea who this is, and sure enough, it's the local Republicans asking me if they can count on my vote for John Safford for Saratoga Springs Mayor​.
 Ok, this approach, is both collectively by all parties involved, a terrible look to have, and by all means, no thanks.
 I'm sure the rest of this town is getting these calls, or maybe they are too busy with things like constructing solar panel and panhandler ordinances, too much to be bothered by a nagging phone. Not to mention all the while, unbeknownst former residents drive on their respective Rt 9's back to their former town to go digging through candy bars looking for money. 

Saratoga Springs, NY Year 2030

Can we count on your vote?

Halloween Haunted History!!!!

It's been a while since I posted on this here blog, but, it's too cold to risk a damn hemorrhoid or whatever for a painting, I'm already turning into a bitter old man. So, the tired olde man I am, I'll tell you all some local creepy stories, being that it is Halloween today! American Pharoah lost at the track last time we spoke, and today he takes his final jaunt around the track, it's been a hell of a run!
  Anyway, have you heard of the Saratoga Witch? Her name was Angeline Tubb, a British soldier's girlfriend, abandoned here after the Revolutionary War. So, back in the late 1800's a strange story about her emerged from papers found on the person of a decaying body, found kinda near where she inhabited, north of Saratoga Springs, about the wilderness area west of Rt. 9 and Northern Pines Rd. Old maps show it as "Devil's Den" Here is an excerpt from the Saratogian 1869

There's this story about someone keeping a piece of Gen. Grant's skin, for keepsake!

Strange side note to the fact that Holmes was deemed to drunk to embalm Gen Grant. You might know Holmes' family brownstones,  the Woodlawn brownstones that are being rebuilt after a devastating fire a few years ago. Word is, the houses were built as additions on the north side, the original house, being Holmes' embalming chamber.

Then, there's the Sadler Burying Ground, a graveyard that once existed near High Rock and Nelson Ave!

(from https://archive.org/details/reminiscencessa00dawsgoog)

Most of the graves were moved to the Greenridge cemetery on Lincoln Ave. I said, most.

Creepy, eh?

Oh yeah, I did paint a spring, near the ol' Sadler, I'll tell ya about it soon!

The Graveyard of Champions

August, the month in general, as a Saratogian, produces so many connotations, and each resident, or former residents, have their own take, be it sordid, surreal, or sucks or whatever. There really is no place I would rather be, in the 8th calendar month, than in this town.  This is all due to this little city being flooded by (mostly gaudy type) humans, gambling on horse racing. The third weekend brings about Travers Day, the biggest race of the meet, and the week following is always summer's last hurrah. So here I am. 

 This year is especially significant, due to the fact that a triple crown winner has entered the Travers stakes. Meaning, potentially the best race horse in horse racing history is in town. The track sold out weeks prior to Travers Day, yet, I was able to score a ticket! (Thanks Richie!) Things started off well, I hit $20 on a exacta box which paid for the ticket and program, which undoubtably rules. But it is winning early that not only helps pay for the day, it also deviously leads you into a day of gambling nonetheless, a false sense of wallet security if you will. So, I also needed to eat something which leads me to this....

 Here's a Saratoga foodie secret I will share with you, if you want the best authentic Mexican food in Saratoga Springs, go to the Oklahoma track/side, where the Mexicans live and work. There is a restaurant that caters to the workers, and they offer beans and rice, pork, beef, chicken tacos, I'm not sure what else because I don't speak spanish, I just point at stuff and say pollo, or taco, or me no nintendo, and gracias amigo Corona! hahahaha

Anyway, they had Corona Familia in a brown 32 oz bottle, mexican cokes and and orange and strawberry soda in the glass bottle, and $2 tacos. Life rules.

 $12 lunch, the best lunch in Saratoga Springs, NY pound for pound.

I ordered chicken tacos, the lady pulled a breast and thigh out of a chicken and tomato stew, hand picked it (with gloves) and laced my tacos, then dressed it all up with beans and rice and onions and cilantro, mole', and green chili, it doesn't get much better than this, people, I don't care where you are on the map.

After I finished eating lunch with the working stiffs of Travers, I joined them in walking to the backstretch, and, well, like I do EVERYWHERE, I acted like I belong there, and here comes the triple crown winner, and other contestants, and I walk along them and re-enter the track as the entourage!~that ruled.

Anyway, back to the horses. Oh no, wait, I noticed a helicopter coming and going, and thought that was the worst idea, nothing like a helicopter to frazzle a bunch of horses, jeez.

 Then you had this dude circling the joint like a buzzard...

Anyway, my good friend Ian was at the track at 4:30 am and got a sweet spot next to the paddock, which is where I was able to rattle off these shots of Triple Crown Champion American Pharoah. (Thanks Ian!) It's so fitting that the horse's name is misspelled. 'Murica Baby. 

I have never seen paparazzi for a four legged animal.

The rose blanket!

Trainer Bob Baffert was on the fence whether or not to bring his horse to the "Graveyard of Champions" and I don't blame him, but I thanked him for it, once I was within earshot!

And they're off!!! In the 2015 Travers Stakes!

You can see #7 was next to last....

And history repeats itself, as American Pharoah, a favorite towing 1 to 5 odds, who lead most of the race, lost by almost a horse length to Keen Ice.

Just after the finish, a kid, about 14 years old, b-lined to the winner's circle with this hat on...

 I met a guy who bet a thousand for American Pharoah to Show 

(3rd place) he won $1,050. So, he risked a thousand dollars to get $50. No thanks, I'll keep playing longshots and hope the great horses lose. Cheerful ain't it? At the end of the day, that was pretty epic, glad I was there for it.

Late Addition;

Every year, the Travers winner gets it's stable colors painted on the canoe that sits on the pond in the middle of the racetrack. And there, it displays and reflects for next years meet, until Travers, and a new set of colors will be donned by the pond.

Ok, everybody go home now!