Where in the ADK? McKeever on the Moose River
This week’s “Where in the ADK?” comes from the hamlet of McKeever, which is about 10 miles west of Old Forge, on the Moose River, a favorite destination for ADK paddlers.
In a certain light, one might be fooled into thinking they were gazing upon the remains of an ancient Celtic castle. Those are ruins, but not centuries old. You are looking at what’s left of the McKeever Pulp Mill on the Moose River. A dam built on the Moose at McKeever provided power for a series of mills until the dam washed out in 1947.
The mill in or around 1910. Photo courtesy the Adirondack Experience.
The first sawmill at McKeever was built by Lemon Thomson in 1891, known as the Moose River Lumber Co. It burned and was rebuilt in 1895. During the teens, a new Moose River Trading Co. milled selected birch and hard maple along with railroad ties. This company enlarged the mill built originally by Thomson. It maintained six camps of forty men each on tracts east of McKeever and used its standard gauge railroad to haul logs to the mill.
Iroquois Pulp and Paper took over the company and its woodlands, which sold Township 1 of Moose River Tract, exclusive of the Wagner Tract, to the State in 1918. The pulp mill was expanded by Gould Paper Co., and in 1949, Rice Veneer bought Gould Paper Co.'s mill and began producing veneer.
The hamlet was purchased by Charles Vosburg, an auctioneer, from the Georgia Pacific Corporation in early August 1961. Vosburg sold other bits of the hamlet and industrial buildings in late August 1961.
We aren’t sure when the mill ceased operations, but this is all that’s left today.
Watch the video below to see an aerial view of the ruins and footage of the gorgeous river.
Video courtesy CNY Video
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