Wandering Wanakena: A town known for its iconic footbridge

Once a bustling mill town, Wanakena continues to make a name for itself

By Tom French

Despite the economic decline that has devastated many company towns in the Adirondacks, Wanakena has survived as one of the most magical places inside the Blue Line, perhaps because of a footbridge.

A town ‘Rich’ in history

Established in 1902 as a mill town for the Rich Lumber Company, most of the houses were transported to the shores of the Oswegatchie River by rail after having been used in Pennsylvania at the company’s previous locations. 

Possibly named after a streetcar that Herbert Rich saw near Buffalo, Wanakena was the site of five mills producing veneer, barrel heads (tops and bottoms), whip butts, lath (for plaster), and shoe lasts. Over 2,000 people lived in the hamlet, which supported the mills, two large hotels, rooming houses, a restaurant, and four logging camps on the perimeter of town.

According to Allen Ditch, President of the Wanakena Historical Association, the Rich Lumber Company only owned the railroad and the land. Everything else was subcontracted. 

“Rich just collected the money from the people and businesses that rented the mills and houses. He didn’t even pay the loggers. He had a logging boss for that. The logging boss would sell the lumber to the mills, and then they would use Rich Lumber Company to ship out the product. All he did was make money.” Ditch said.

The footbridge was built in 1903 and is sometimes reported as the longest suspension footbridge in the United States (at 171 feet). The bridge was built so workers could access the mills. 

“The original design of the village, to keep all the houses on the north shore, was intentional. Many logging villages burned down because of the mills.” Ditch said.

A boom period

In addition to creating a mill town, Rich Lumber also opened up the northwestern Adirondacks to tourists. The first rails into the area were laid by Rich. Cranberry Lake’s Grasse River Railroad (along with the Emporium Forestry Company) didn’t arrive until later. 

“That’s one reason the railroad was so popular,” Ditch said. “The depot was just yards from the dock where boats would transport people to hotels on Cranberry Lake. We’ve got advertisements saying you could leave New York City after breakfast and be in Wanakena by suppertime.”

Navigating to the main body of Cranberry Lake could be treacherous because of underwater stumps and floaters washed down from the upper Oswegatchie during spring floods. The Cranberry Lake dam was first built in 1867, and the impound reaches just above Wanakena.

An original buoy, once tied to a stump, is displayed on Front Street, across from the town beach. Buoys still mark some of the stumps along with channel markers. 

Wanakena sported two large hotels. The first, built in 1902, doubled in size by 1907. At one time, the post office had over 2,000 mailboxes and almost 20,000 people passed through Wanakena in the summer.

Moving on

By 1912, the trees were gone. When Rich Lumber left for a new operation in Vermont, most of the workers followed. Those who stayed, less than 40, found other employment. The area became popular for sportsmen. Some of the houses moved upriver for camps. For a time, two nurses created sleeping porches on one of the houses for a sanitarium. Many of the homes became seasonal cottages. At one point, the schoolhouse burned, and the former jail from the Rich Lumber days was converted into a classroom. 

It is estimated that the summer population is now around 300, with 60 year-rounders. Some work for the SUNY-ESF Ranger School, one of the oldest forestry programs in the country, established when Rich Lumber donated 1,814 acres to the College of Forestry at Syracuse University when they left the area.

A beloved landmark

Over time, the bridge endeared itself more and more into the community and surrounding area. 

“People love to get married on the bridge,” Ditch said. “Then they bring their children and then their grandchildren.”

It was listed on the National Register of Historic places in 1999, a title held until its destruction from an ice dam in 2014.

“We’d had ice jams before. The bridge had been repaired many times, but nothing like that day. We had three thaws before January, so the ice just kept building up and the ice would move a little bit, and with the third melt, we had a lot of rain, and it just all came down – chunks of ice. We had icebergs in the middle of the road. The ice knocked the trestle over, and it was not repairable,” Ditch said.

The community rallied to replace the bridge. 

“We had kids selling lemonade and hot dogs, fairs and bake sales,” Ditch said.

The Historical Association raised over $185,000 toward the $441,000 cost. Other funds came from the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the state Dormitory Authority, St. Lawrence River Valley Redevelopment Agency, and Clifton-Fine Waterfront Revitalization Fund.

The community unveiled the new bridge, two feet higher than the previous one, in 2017.

Bridge builders discovered that for over 110 years, the original suspension cables on one side had been held in place by a single railroad tie buried in the earth. A large, buried boulder held down the other side.

Wanakena today

Today, the community sparkles no matter the time of year or day. Otto’s Abode, named after Otto Hamele, a long-time leader in the community who first arrived in 1901 as a millwright for the Rich Lumber Company, serves as a year-round general store and gathering place for art exhibitions and performances complete with fresh foodstuffs.

Every winter, the community hosts its White Out Weekend, with lit trails through the woods, live music, curling, and dog sled rides.

In 1999, the Historical Association, with support from the SUNY ESF Ranger School, created a walking tour of the community. It now consists of several kiosks and picture stations. A kiosk on the green opposite Otto’s Abode contains brochures outlining the stops.

The History Center, on Second Street, is open weekends from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Oct. 9. It features home movies from as early as 1936, a slide show on railroads and logging, and an almost complete postcard collection showing the unique history of the quaint little town.