“Lake George is without comparison the most beautiful water I ever saw…”
If you’ve spent any amount of time in Lake George, you have seen this quote. Pulled from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to his daughter, this line is Lake George enthusiasts’ favorite celebrity endorsement. So, what was this Declaration of Independence writer, Secretary of State and future President doing in Lake George (besides writing letters to his daughter?)
In the spring of 1791, Jefferson and Congressman James Madison traveled to Lake George as part of a month-long tour of the North. Historians have speculated the trip had political motives. Ron Chernow, in his bestselling biography of Alexander Hamilton, noted the duo’s tour took them through “the heartland of Hamilton’s support.” Hamilton and Jefferson were political rivals, and it is possible Jefferson hoped to cultivate some allies in this hostile territory. And there is this:
The week before Jefferson left Philadelphia, Paine’s “The Rights of Man” was republished. It included introductory notes penned by Jefferson, notes he did not intend for publication. Jefferson’s words could be construed as charging John Adams with political heresies. Jefferson biographer Gilbert Chinard speculated that the trip was timed to prevent an embarrassing confrontation with Adams. This doesn’t seem likely though, as plans for the Northern Tour began two months earlier.
Jefferson just needed a vacation. He was stressed by his many duties and the soot and clamor of Philadelphia probably didn’t do much for the health of this Virginian. He complained of a never-ending headache and believed some physical labor, away from the mental strains of his office, would do him good.
“I think to avail myself also of the present interval of quiet to get rid of a headach which is very troublesome, by giving more exercise to the body & less to the mind. I shall set out tomorrow for New York, where mister Madison is waiting for me, to go up the North river, & return down Connecticut river and through Long-island. my progress up the North river will be limited by the time I allot for my whole journey, which is a month. so that I shall turn about whenever that renders it necessary.” — To George Washington From Thomas Jefferson, May 15, 1791
Jefferson kept a journal of his trip, noting the variety of plant life he found along the way. He also undertook a study of the Hessian fly. He created a listing of distances between destinations and provided ratings (good, middling, bad) for the inns where he and Madison stayed, sort of an 18th Century Trip Advisor. Following are his notes on Lake George:
May 29 1791
Lake George. Honeysuckle [Lonicera] wild cherry with single fruit, the black gooseberry, Velvet Aspen, cotton Willow, paper birch or white birch, bass-wood wild rose, Spruce pine with single leaves all round the stem ⅓ I. long, with abundance of sugar maple pitch pine, white pine, silver fir, thuya, red cedar. The Thuya is much covered with a species of long moss of a foot long generally, but sometimes 4.f. Strawberries now in blossom and young fruit.
This lake is formed by a contour of mountains into a bason 36 miles long and from 1 to 4 miles wide, the hill sides shelving down to the water edge and only here and there leaving small intervals of low land, tolerably good. Now and then are precipices of rock forming the bank of the lake, as well as hanging over it in immence heights. One of these is famous &c. [famed by the name of Rogers’s rock, the celebrated partisan officer of that name having escaped the pursuit of Indns. by sliding down it when covered with snow, and escaping across the lake then frozen over. The neighborhood of this lake is healthy but there are few inhabitants on it.] It’s waters very clear, except just at the North end, abounding with salmon-trout of 7 ℔ weight, speckled or red trout, Oswego bass of 6 or 7℔ weight, rock bass, yellow perch. There are seagulls in abundance, loons and some wild-ducks. Rattle snakes abound on it’s borders. Two which we killed were of a sutty dark colour, obscurely checkered. It is infested with swarms of musketoes and gnats, and 2 kinds of biting fleas. It is pretty much interspersed with small islands. It closes with ice about the last of December and opens from the 15th. to the 20th. of April. The difference between the height of it’s water in spring and fall is about 2. feet. There is no lime stone immediately on the lake but abundance in the neighborhood on the East side.
James Madison also took notes:
June 1.
Lake George. On each side are mountains of considerable height the entire length of the lake. They are very rocky & have scattered intervals only of arable land. This appears to be good. Near the shore it is sometimes sandy. A considerable part of these mountains is said to be unlocated, but not likely to remain so, as far as they can be turned to any account. The growth of most value is Sugar maple, white pine, white & red Cedar.
At Fort George are a few families concerned in the litter trade & ferriage thro the Lake. On the East side not a House is seen except one at the North end owned & inhabited by a free Negro. He possesses a good farm of about 250 Acres which he cultivates with 6 white hirelings for which he is said to have paid about 2½ dollrs. per Acre and by his industry & good management turns to good account. He is intelligent; reads writes & understands accounts, and is dextrous in his affairs. During the late war he was employed in the Commissary department. He has no wife, and is said to be disinclined to marriage: nor any woman on his farm.
On the West side from Fort George to Sabath day point (24 miles) not a house is seen except a hut near the fort inhabited by the family of a hunter. At Sabbath day point is a small clearing with a small log house, now abandoned. At friends point 5 miles from the North end of the Lake one or two families are settled on a small clearing. From this northward the side of the Lake is again uninhabited. At the carrying place are several families and at one of the falls a saw & Grist Mills.
Jefferson’s famous Lake George quote was penned on May 31, 1791. Here is the full description of the lake as he wrote it to his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph:
My dear Martha
I wrote to Maria yesterday, while sailing on Lake George, and the same kind of leisure is afforded me today to write to you.
Lake George is without comparison the most beautiful water I ever saw: formed by a contour of mountains into a bason 35 miles long, and from 2 to 4 miles broad, finely interspersed with islands, its waters limpid as chrystal and the mountain sides covered with rich groves of Thuya, silver fir, white pine, Aspen and paper birch down to the water edge, here and there precipices of rock to checquer the scene and save it from monotony. An abundance of speckled trout, salmon trout, bass and other fish with which it is stored, have added to our other amusements the sport of taking them.
By June 5, the pair had reached Bennington, Vermont. From there, Jefferson wrote his son-law-law, Thomas Mann Randolph Jr., summarizing his trip through upstate New York. He included this report of a “small red squirrel, of the colour of our fox squirrel with a black stripe on each side, weighing about six ounces generally, and in such abundance, on Lake Champlain particularly, as that twenty odd were killed at the house we lodged in opposite Crown point the morning we arrived there, without going ten steps from the door. We killed three which were crossing the lakes, one of them just as he was getting ashore where it was three miles wide, and where, with the high winds then blowing, he must have made it 5 or 6 miles.”
Jefferson returned to Philadelphia, reportedly relaxed and free from the migraines that had plagued him for months. For further reading, transcripts of the original journals may be accessed online at the National Archives.
This is a fascinating, well-researched article! What fun to see Lake George through the jeyes of jefferson and Madison.