Northern
Adirondack Railroad - (en)
The Northern Adirondack Railroad was chartered February 9, 1883 to
build from Moira on the Ogdensburgh and Lake Champlain Railroad south
to St. Regis Falls. The company was owned by Peter MacFarlane, Charles
Hotchkiss and John Hurd, whom was the son-in-law of P.T. Barnum, and
where logging businessmen, hoping to use this railroad to ship out
their logging products from the region. The line opened on September
25, 1883 with a rented locomotive from the Ogdensburg & Lake
Champlain Railroad, which derailed when it entered St. Regis Falls.
MacFarlane was soon bought out by Hotchkiss and Hurd and eventually
John Hurd became the majority owner.
In 1885, Hurd had extended his railroad southwards to Santa Clara, but
it remained inactive until a new company was created to operate this
section as well as extend further south, eventually ending in Tupper
Lake. This company would merge into the Northern Adirondack Railroad
in 1890 (see below). On July 1 of that year, the first train entered
Tupper Lake. Hurd's business practises would send him into debt and
before he declared bankruptcy; his railroad went into receivership on
January 25, 1894. On May 25, 1895, the railroad was sold to a business
syndicate and two days later was renamed to the Northern New York
Railroad.
