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?