Chapter 12 - Tributaries
Caroga Creek is an Enigma
Caroga
Creek is an enigma. It's 22.4 miles long. Its source is in the water-rich
Adirondacks. There were more ancient Indian villages on it than on any
tributary in the valley, so it had to be a good source of water, fish and
mussels. Yet, after settlement it powered only a few mills, spawned no
major villages, and is not considered a good fishing stream. And to make
it even more puzzling its name was changed from Garoga to Caroga.
Officially Caroga Creek starts below the
dam at East Caroga Lake, but it could be argued that the true source is
Mead Creek which flows into West Caroga Lake and then into East Caroga.
All of these waters are located near the Adirondack community of Caroga
Lake. From there it flows generally south for about 5 miles, passing through
the hamlets of Newkirk (Mills) and North Bush before leaving the Adirondack
Park. At 6.5 miles it enters Rockwood Lake, passes through the village
of Rockwood at 7.4 miles and the hamlet of Garoga at 9 miles. At Garoga
(the old name for the creek) it flows into a small reservoir before winding
southward through a gorge to the village of Ephratah where at 13 miles
it turns westward and meanders for three miles before turning south to
flow through Wagner Hollow. At 20 miles it crosses the brand new Wagner
Hollow Bridge, and then flows 2.4 miles to the Mohawk River, passing under
the old and new Route 5 bridges and a railroad bridge along the way.
Discovery; Gauntlet at "Garoga" Creek
May 10, 2002 Sunny, 55 degrees
I had stopped at the mouth of Caroga Creek when Bridget and I canoed this section of the Mohawk River, but Dale had never been there, so we decided to cut cross lots to the river and walk up to the creek. We parked on the east side of the abandoned bridge on Old Route 5 at 9:30. It took a half-hour to walk through cornfields and brush to the mouth of the creek.
After running the "Garoga" Gauntlet we crossed to the other side and . . .
. . . waded up to the remnants of the Old Route 5 Bridge and the site of an early mill.
After making a few fruitless casts in the merging
waters we headed upstream. It didn't take long to realize we had picked
the wrong side of the creek. The streamside vegetation was brutal; mostly
second-growth locust and briar bushes. I tried to walk in the creek but
the water was too high and fast, so I worked my way---dodging, weaving,
sometimes creeping---through a gauntlet of thorns and "prickers." Dale
took a different route, busting through brush and trees, relying on his
heavy sweatshirt for protection. 
After crossing the railroad tracks, we waded to the
other side of the creek and walked back to the Jeep. We had planned to
continue upstream as far as the
crumbling-concrete arch bridge in Wagner Hollow where Dale had parked
his car. However, after getting "skunked" at the big pool at the shale-cliff
bend above the Old Route 5 Bridge we decided to call it quits. We were
tired, discouraged and Dale's arms---despite the sweatshirt---were bleeding.
It was 10:40.
We spent the rest of the morning driving back
roads looking for access points on the creek, trying to locate Indian
village sites, and photographing, buildings, bridges and fields of dandelions.
A 1928 NYS historical marker near the concrete arch bridge in Wagner
Hollow pointed the way to one of the village sites. It read: "TIONONDOGUE
- White Orchard - Upper Mohawk Castle --- Burned by French Army
1689-1693." I learned later that although there was indeed a Mohawk
village located atop a nearby hill, it was abandoned long before 1690.
Discovery: A Valley By Any Other Name is Still Beautiful
August 1, 2002 Sunny 80 degrees
With the Mohawk village site as a carrot, I convinced Dale to join me on
another section of Caroga. This time we would start at the concrete arch
bridge and wade upstream for about a mile.
We drove north from Route 5 on the road just west
of Palatine Church, turned east to Wagner Hollow Road and drove south.
We left Dale's car near the "midway" bridge and continued south to
the concrete arch bridge. It was gone.
After watching a crew work on the
foundations for a new bridge, we headed upstream. It was 10:45. The water
was low and warm, much different than it was three months earlier. There
were a few pools and runs, but for the most part there was barely enough
water to cover the cobblestone bottom. Willows, sycamore, maple and basswood
grew streamside.
According to the topo map, it was only a few hundred yards to a brook that
entered the creek from a deep gully. That gully led to the high-ground
peninsula where the Mohawks built a village in the early 1600s. (According
to archaeologists this site was occupied from 1614-1626.)
We started up the brook at 11 o'clock. It was crisscrossed
with fallen trees, so we climbed the side of the gully, pulling ourselves
up on small hemlocks. At the top of the ridge we discovered a meadow where
long houses once stood. Unfortunately, trees along the edge of the meadow
prevented the anticipated view of the valley below. One of those trees
was a black walnut. I wondered if there was a grove of black walnuts
atop this hill when a 1000 Mohawks lived here almost 400 years ago. The
nuts from these now-rare hardwoods provide excellent victuals and black
dye.
Getting down was more difficult---but faster---than going up. At times we sat on our butts and slid down the ridge. It took only 10 minutes to reach the bottom.
It didn't take long to appreciate the beauty of this valley. On the island opposite the Indian village brook, I discovered a patch of Bee Balm. These bright red flowers contrasted sharply with the predominantly green vegetation. Oak, maple and sycamore lined this section of the creek and boulders were abundant. Although there was very little water, there were a few pools. I caught a chub from one of them and Dale saw some tiny smallmouth bass in another. A kingfisher complained and flew upstream.
Dale discovered some clamshells and schools of minnows in a shallow flat-rock
pool. Further upstream he caught a tiny smallmouth from a ledge-pool. Above
this submerged shale outcrop was a large wooded island. Dale took the left
side, I the right. In a pool near the upper end of the island I saw several
tiny smallmouths. This section of Caroga Creek was definitely a smallmouth
nursery. When the Mohawks lived here there were no smallmouths. It was
brook trout and sucker water.
We met at the upper end of the island and
stopped to rest. As we sat on a log discussing all we had seen, dogs at
a nearby home started barking. Their "chorus" subsided as we moved upstream
to a shale cliff. The pool below the cliff was loaded with all sizes of
crayfish. It was 1 o'clock when we walked under the bridge and climbed
the bank to Dale's car.
After exploring a only a couple of miles of Caroga Creek, we
were beginning to understand why the Mohawks lived here. But, why was the
name changed?
In Search of Waterfalls
June 22, 2004, 60 degrees, Rain Showers.
It was 9 a.m. when we continued our upstream trek on Caroga Creek from
the bridge just above Route 67. We didn’t need two cars because
Wagner Hollow Road parallels the creek for a mile or so to the next bridge,
so it would be an easy walk back to the Jeep. 
Considering how few fish we had found thus far on
Caroga Creek, one might think that Dale and I were hogs for punishment.
Although that assumption is not far from the truth, as many of our discovery
trips will attest, this time there was “reason to our rhyme.” According
to our topo map Wagner Hollow along this stretch is a steep-sided ravine
where contour lines cross in several places, usually indicating the location
of waterfalls. Plunge pools below significant waterfalls are excellent
places to find fish, hence our enthusiasm for exploring this stretch of
creek.
There were a couple of good pools and runs
at the bridge, and a long pool next to a shale cliff just upstream. None
of them produced fish. But just around the bend in a run below a
wide but small waterfalls Dale had a hit.
We waded over the ledge-rock falls, spooking a duck
and a sandpiper. The duck disappeared upstream but the sandpiper just hopped
from rock to rock, keeping just ahead of us.
On the left side of the stream a big boulder sat
in a shallow pool. Just beyond the boulder was a white house with a red
roof and shutters. A perfect setting. Hemlock, poplar, boxelder and
maple grew streamside. On the right side of the creek shale cliffs were
partially covered with ferns and small trees. Upstream from the house the
creek bottom was a combination of shale, chunk limestone, and granite rocks
and boulders.
It
was still sprinkling at 9:45 as we approached a stretch of small waterfalls
and a long sloping stretch of flat-rock riffles. Above the riffles, a wall
of stone riprap kept the road from falling into the creek. Below the riprap
was a good pool where Dale and I caught a couple of smallmouth bass.
Around 10 a.m. it was raining hard, as we passed
a house and barn on the left. In this area the creek ran over flat rock
with boulders sitting on top. Crevices in the flat rock were filled with
pebbles and cobble.
A red house on the left marked another change in
the creek. Shallow water filled with boulders. Tough to walk through and
no chance of finding fish, so at 10:15 we walked to the road and started
back. When we got to the riprapped bank, we could
see fish in the pool where we had caught smallmouth earlier. Dale dropped
a Panther Martin in the pool . . . and hauled up a smallmouth.
There were no significant waterfalls, deep plunge
pools or concentrations of fish in Wagner Hollow. However, after we drove
up to the bridge at the upper end of the Hollow to fish the pools in that
area, there was a glimmer of hope. One of the pools gave up a brook trout.
Could it be there really were trout in Caroga Creek?
September 21, 2004, 55 degrees, Cloudy
This was a hard sell. We had explored several miles of the lower reaches
of Caroga Creek without finding a significant waterfalls or catching many
fish. However, I knew Dale had another weakness besides fishing. He liked
to explore the sites of long ago Indian villages.
As
noted previously, there were more ancient Indian villages along Caroga
Creek than on any tributary in the valley.
Dale and I had explored one of them at the south end of Wagner Hollow,
so when I told him we could explore another, perhaps two village sites,
just north of Ephratah, he agreed to join me on one more discovery trip
on the Caroga.
It was 10 a.m. when we parked near the first bridge
on Route 10 north of Ephratah. The creek was way down when we waded into
the shallow pool near the bridge. There were pools downstream near a pair
of old bridge abutments, but we were on a mission, so we headed upstream.
It was less than a mile to the first village site: a high-ground peninsula
that jutted into the valley, with only one easy approach. According to
archaeologists some 800 Mohawks lived here in the early to mid 1500s. Their
village---now called the Garoga Site--- consisted of nine large longhouses
with a double palisade across the neck of the peninsula.
At 10:20 we passed a sculpted shale cliff at a bend
in the creek. Although the water was too shallow for fish, we ran
a couple of lures through the pool below the cliff. A few minutes later
we passed another section of ledge rock and again made token casts to barren
water.
According to the information I had from
a book on Mohawk archaeological sites and a topo map, the Garoga site was
at the top of the wooded hill on our right. We started the uphill climb
around 10:45. Fortunately, an overgrown logging road zigzagged to the top,
so we didn’t have to climb straight up through fallen trees and logs.
Unfortunately, there were berry bushes and other briars growing in the
roadbed. Halfway up, nearly out of breath, I stumbled and fell headlong
into a patch of blackberry bushes. Except for a few scratches on my hands
and face, I was practically unscathed thanks to the rain gear I was wearing.
Dale followed behind, waiting for me to have a heart attack or bleed to
death. I did neither.
It was 11:25 when we reached the top. Even Dale was exhausted. After a
five-minute rest, we wandered around the heavily wooded hilltop, wishing
we had been there when log skidders had exposed mussel and clamshells,
and perhaps some pot shards and flint pieces. It didn’t seem possible that
so many people actually lived in such a small area, but that was during
a period when the Mohawks lived in easily defended, compact villages.
As the crow flies it was only a half-mile or so
to the second village site, but there was no way I was going to climb down
into the valley and then climb back up again. So, we took a compass heading
and walked toward the road on the east side of the valley. Again we followed
old logging trails, eventually ending up at a staging area where we saw
a paved road through the trees.
The road ran down into the valley and back
to Route 10 where we had left the Jeep. As we approached the end of the
road, we could here turbines running in the old limestone powerhouse. Dale
noted, “That explains why there was so little water in the creek.”
Having solved that mystery, we walked up Route 10 and arrived back at the
Jeep around noon.
Incidentally, the other Indian village site was
occupied from the mid to late 1500s, and over a 1000 Mohawks lived there.
Like the Garoga site it was located on a high-ground peninsula with a stockade
at the neck. Beyond the stockades, the Mohawks had extensive high-ground
fields of corn, beans and squash. Back then Caroga Creek must have been
a significant source of freshwater clams, mussels and fish. Of course that
was some 500 years ago, when there were no dams to prevent upstream migration,
or power plants to reduce stream flow.
Follow the path of these discovery trips by clicking on Mohawk
Valley Maps: by Maptech.
Type Caroga Creek, select New York, press GO!
Click on margin arrows to follow the path of the Mohawk River east to the
mouth of Caroga Creek.
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