North Country

I In the year 2000 I put together a book titled "My Grampa's Wood, the Adirondacks." It was a collection of a lifetime of stories about my own and my family's experiences in the Adirondacks. In it there are stories about the family logging on the Little River near Aldrich and a lot of mountain climbing, backpacking and canoeing. It was received well so I was encouraged to go on. The book brought me in contact with many North Country relatives and friends, thus putting me in the way of more stories and photos. Some folks were kind enough to ask for another book so here it is."North Country" is about people of the Adirondacks and the Tug Hill-Fort Drum area just to the west. It's about canoe trips that nostalgically bring to mind the aspirations and accomplishments of those people in times long past. The Coyote story, that starts things off, is to suggest that in the stories that follow I am presenting facts but that since facts are scarce they are much expanded by imagination. Uncle Charlie Royce's military history is accurately presented but I wasn't satisfied with that alone. I wrote three letters for him to send home so that he could speak to you directly. I pick up the lives of Minnie and Tom Beahan from the earlier book. In "Minnie and Tom" and in "Runnin' Off" I fill out their story before and after the "Camp on the Little River." But "Runnin' Off" is their oldest son Raymond's story; the effect on him of life in the woods and his boyish attempts to meet the family's dream of becoming prosperous land-owning farmers.