does this count as social distancing?

does this count as social distancing?

By Robert Engel

Great Camp Sagamore’s Historian

Who likes black flies? No? Some folks like them, and some like hummingbird liver and pickle relish sandwiches!

Black flies hatch in May and last well into July. They move in packs and bite for blood. I’m pretty sure that’s all they do! You can swat, but that just amuses them. You can move to New Jersey or Antarctica. Or you can do what William West Durant did at Camp Pine Knot.

W.W. Durant built Great Camp Sagamore, but Camp Pine Knot on Raquette Lake was his first. He moved to Raquette as a young man in 1876, where he met his first and his 5-trillionth black fly, both on the same day.

To escape these creepy critters, he built something so cool that we still talk about it.

The strength of the black fly is in the numbers. Alone, they’re clumsy fliers and they can’t cross lakes. So, to escape the flies, Durant built a houseboat and christened it the Barque of Pine Knot.

After people climbed aboard, it was towed to the middle of the lake where someone dropped anchor. Days later (maybe when the wine ran out), someone had to ring a bell to alert the shore for a tow back in.

The Barque was an impressive sight on Raquette Lake. It was 60 feet long, had two bedrooms, a fully stocked kitchen and a bathroom with running water.

The story goes that William put, at various times, his mother Heloise, his sister Ella, and eventually his wife Janet onto the Barque and sent them off into the lake to save them from the black flies while he stayed on shore. Again, social distancing?

The SUNY College at Cortland has been preserving and running Camp Pine Knot since 1949. In 1971, a group of students and faculty raised funds to restore the Barque, which had been beached on a swampy shore behind the camp for decades. Now it sits on a sturdy base in great condition.

Can you find Camp Pine Knot on a map of Raquette lake? What is the historical meaning of the word barque? Someone research black flies. Is sucking blood really all they do? What is William West Durant’s father, Thomas, best known for?

Learn more . . .

• Can you find Camp Pine Knot on a map of Raquette lake?

• What is the historical meaning of the word barque?

• Someone research black flies. Is sucking blood really all they do?

• What is William West Durant’s father, Thomas, best known for?