Big Deer Pond facts for kids
Big Deer Pond is a beautiful pond located in Hamilton County, New York. It's about 1.5 miles west of Lows Lake. You can find it inside the Five Ponds Wilderness Area within the famous Adirondacks. This area is sometimes called the "Bob Marshall Wilderness" area, though there's another one in Montana.
Big Deer Pond is important because it acts as a short water path, about half a mile long. This path connects Lows Lake to the upper part of the Oswegatchie River. The pond is known for being wide and not very deep. It has many special plants that grow in wet, marshy areas called bogs.
A surveyor named Verplanck Colvin first called it Lost Pond. Later, a conservationist named Bob Marshall (wilderness activist) found it again around the early 1900s.
Contents
Philo Scott: The Hermit of Big Deer Pond
Big Deer Pond was once the home of a fascinating person named Philo Scott. He lived from 1841 to 1911 and was known as "The Hermit" of Big Deer Pond, or Lost Pond, near Cranberry Lake.
A Legendary Adirondack Guide
Philo Scott was a childhood friend of J. Henry Rushton, a famous canoe designer, and Reuben Wood, a professional fly-dresser. Scott himself became a legendary guide and trapper in the Adirondack Mountains. He was so well-known that he became the inspiration for the main character in Irving Bacheller's novel, Silas Strong, Emperor of the Woods, published in 1906. Bacheller even dedicated a poem called "Him and Me" to Scott.
Philo Scott's Inventions
Beyond his life in the wilderness, Philo Scott was also an inventor! He registered two patents. One was for a special type of Railroad Switch, which helps trains change tracks. The other was for an excavation tool, used for digging.
Philo Scott's Cabin Moves On
Philo Scott lived in a small, one-room log cabin. Years later, this cabin was carefully moved during the winter through the thick woods. It ended up at Chair Rock, on the south end of Cranberry Lake. The cabin was then used as the dining room for a historic place called Wildcliff Lodge. Today, the cabin still stands there, a quiet reminder of its famous owner.
