What was the Prospect Mountain Incline Railway? Who is William R. Waddell? Where did Henry Knox bring his men ashore for rest as they hauled cannons from Lake Champlain to Boston in 1775? The Warren County Letterboxing 2022 Historians’ Challenge leads letterboxers on a path to discover the answers to these and other questions about Warren County, New York history.
Letterboxing is an activity that got its start in 19th Century England when a wilderness guide left a jar with his calling card in Southern England’s Dartmoor National Park. He left instructions for those who found his jar to contact him and add their calling card to the jar. Today, letterboxes are hidden across Europe and North America. Letterboxers must decipher clues to locate boxes, stamp their books as proof of success, and leave behind their personal mark.
The Historians’ Challenge is an initiative of the Warren County Department of Planning and Community Development’s First Wilderness Heritage Corridor. Participants pick up a Historians’ Challenge Letterboxing Passport, which is available at locations throughout the County at no charge, and follow the clues assigned to each of the letterboxes. Each box in the Letterboxing 2022 Challenge includes a clue to solve the final challenge, Where in Warren County is Jeanne Robert Foster?
Participants may bring their completed passports to the Warren County Planning Department at the Municipal Center,1340 State Route 9, Lake George, to collect their reward, an embroidered Historians’ Challenge patch.
Letterboxing not only encourages participants to explore the county and hone their riddle-solving skills, but it also encourages creativity in the way letterboxers leave their mark at each discovered site. To this end, Planning Department employees Gina Martin and Sue Tucker recently held a DIY Stamp-making workshop on the lawn of the Kinnear Museum in Lake Luzerne. Participants were supplied with materials to carve personalized rubber stamps with designs that included Adirondack chairs, camping motifs and Adirondack wildlife.
This is the second letterboxing challenge created by the Planning Department. The 2021 Challenge sent letterboxers to public beaches, wilderness ponds and up mountains to scenic vistas to stamp their passports. The Planning Department returned boxes for the 2021 challenge to their hiding spots, and 2021 passports are still available for those that wish to complete that challenge.
The letterboxing challenges are kid-friendly (the Lake George Examiner team did many while pushing a one-year-old in a stroller,) and there is no cost to participate. The County will leave the letterboxes in place through October. Letterboxers may pick up passports at the following locations:
- Queensbury Hotel, 88 Ridge Street, Glens Falls
- Adirondack Folk School, 51 Main Street, Lake Luzerne
- Kinnear Museum, 52 Main Street, Lake Luzerne
- Warren County Tourism, 1340 State Route 9, Lake George
- Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce, 2176 State Route 9, Lake George
- Fort William Henry Museum & Fort William Henry Resort, Canada Street, Lake George
- Lake George Visitors’ Center, Beach Road, Lake George Village
- Warrensburg Town Hall, 3797 Main Street, Warrensburg
- Martin’s Tree Farm and Lumber, 280 Valley Road, Thurman
- Chester Town Hall, 6307 Main Street, Chestertown
- North Warren Chamber, Dynamite Hill Road, Chestertown
- Johnsburg Town Hall, 219 Main Street, North Creek
- Hudson River Trading Co., 292 Main Street, North Creek