KISHERIES, (;AME AXD FORESTS. 129 



Occapants of 3tate Lands. 



Reference has been made here to squatters on the I'reserve. From a written re- 

 port made to us recently by the Superintendent of Forests, it appears that there are 

 ninety-eight cases of occupancy, in each of which there is a building of some kind — a 

 cottage, farmhouse, or log cabin, and in many instances large barns or other buildings — 

 erected on State land. 



These persons are not all squatters in the usual meaning of the term. Three- 

 fourths of them lived on the land before it became the property of the State. Many 

 of them are farmers who have occupied the premises as homes for over thirty, and, in 

 many instances, forty years. In one case there is a large, comfortable farmhouse and 

 good barns on a lot near Lake Placid, Essex County, land which reverted to the State 

 in 1853 ; and, yet, the farmer has lived there ever since and paid his la.xes annually 

 on the farm and buildings. It should be mentioned here that all the territory within 

 the Adirondack I'ark is not forest land, areas of cleared land and farms being scattered 

 through the entire region. 



In the vicinity of the Boreas River, in Township 30, Essex County, there is a small 

 community of French Canadian farmers living on the road running from Newcomb to 

 Schroon River. Nearly all of them, with their houses and barns, are on land now 

 belonging to the State. Some of these houses are painted frame buildings, and many 

 of the barns are large, substantial structures. Each farmer has cleared up from twenty 

 to eighty acres, on which small crops of hay, oats or buckwheat are raised. The 

 occupants are quiet, respectable people, who have lived on these farms and paid ta.xes 

 on the property for thirty years or more. They bought these lands originally of a 

 Glens Falls lumberman, paying only part of the purchase money down and receiving 

 a contract instead of a deed. The man from whom they bought had neglected to 

 keep his taxes paid, and subsequently failed in business. The lands passed into the 

 possession of the State at the tax sale of 1877, and belong to it now, the occupants 

 having failed to redeem through ignorance of the sale or lack of money. 



On the lands bought recently by the State, there are some residents — guides, 

 hotel-keepers or summer cottagers — who occupied places before the property was 

 thus purchased, and by the permission of the previous owners. On Raquette Lake 

 there are some beautiful, expensive cottages which were built there before the organi- 

 zation of the Forest Commission in 1885. On some of the Lake George islands are 

 summer residences, whose owners received permission from the State Board of Land 

 Commissioners to occupy the premises as custodians. 



This matter of occupancies has also received the care and attention of the Commis- 

 sioners. It has given rise to some perplexing questions, for in some cases the long- 

 9 



