Big Wolf Lake

Big Wolf was officially established on July, 1st 1916. Here is a bit of history as written by Dudley B. Lawrence (slightly abbreviated):

“It was late in August in 1912 that I was returning from Europe on the steamship Baltic. At the time we were several hundred miles off the banks of Newfoundland and probably six hundred miles from the nearest American port. When I came on deck I noticed we were proceeding in what seemed to be a fog but was somehow different. I asked one of the officers and he told me that this was no fog, it was smoke from the burning Adirondacks which had blown so far to sea. That very day most of Big Wolf Lake was on fire. It was the end of one era but the beginning of another, although it took ten to twelve years to get there.

I had no particular interest in the Adirondacks at that time but my brother-in-law, Ferris Meigs, was a large owner of lumber lands and mills in the Tupper Lake region. It was three years later when he told me the story of Big Wolf and of his intention to buy the lake and surrounding property for sale as camp sites.

It seemed that at the time of the fire the whole tract was owned by a successful retail druggist with several stores located in New York City. He must have been a temperamental person because the story is that when he heard of the burning he refused to ever go near the lake again. He sent in men to build the mill, now converted to Big Wolf Club House, and ordered everything possible to be sold, even to netting the lake for fish, after which he offered everything that was left at a low price to Ferris Meigs.

That year I was staying in Lake Placid with my family and at Ferris’ suggestion I drove over to Big Wolf. It was certainly a discouraging outlook to drive all the way from town to the lake with nothing to see except blackened stumps and burned-over hills and fields. However, even at that point, it was possible to see the second growth starting up with birches and poplars, and I realized that the time was not far off when the scars of this great fire would disappear. There was further assurance of this as Mr. Meigs was busily engaging in planting tiny pines, spruce and hemlock on both sides of the road to town and in other parts of the burned-over acres. The splendid trees lining our drive to the village are a result of his planting.

Life in its early days at Big Wolf was certainly primitive - the principle lack being electricity. This meant the daily cleaning of kerosene lamps, replacement candles, carrying ice from the ice house, which had to be filled during the winter, cranking crude gasoline motor to pump water and cutting wood for the kitchen stove.

The first break came in 1917 when little by little electric wires were extended to the camps. Water transportation was also slow in development. An unusual feature of life for forty years at Big Wolf has been the sailing canoe which continues, I’m glad to say, at this time. In the beginning the campers all had paddling canoes with their rowboats.

No story of Big Wolf can be complete without reference to that certain fascination for the life there felt by all. Perhaps it is the woods or the brilliant sunsets and moon rises over the lake, perhaps the change from the city or suburb with its noise and heat in July and August. In any event, campers come and go but when a new generation grows up there comes the desire to return to the little mountain lake and take their children with them.”

The Quinn Camp was built in 1925. The cobblestone chimney in the main house was made from rocks out of the lake. Water-seasoned hemlock logs were retrieved from the bottom of the lake to be used as roof supporting ridge poles in the living room. Another unique feature is the wide sandy beach and water that is shallow for about 50 feet out to the dock. The view from the front porch is something worth taking in. Everyone who comes to visit is so amazed by the beautiful sunsets.

The original owners were the Fielder Coffin family. It was later purchased by the Max Rettig family on October 4th, 1977. Max was my grandfather and met Bruce Coffin Sr. through working at P&G. Max was originally from Darien, CT, so this was a good meeting point for family, and to escape the HOT Cincinnati summers. It was a wonderful experience to have family reunions in the Adirondacks. The simplicity of exploring and being together meant everything. We are now on our 4th generation of Big Wolfers.

My late mother Vikki (Rettig) Johnston said:

“Big Wolf is great for families and dogs to run around free. The beauty, peace, and serenity say it all. Where in this rush, rush world can a place like Big Wolf be found? We feel so lucky that our grandkids can experience this slow pace and beauty that our own kids did growing up. Our daughter Natalie sums it up. “Time goes on, and the world becomes more complex, but this place never changes.”

-Natalie