Hoofs on Ice     by Jon Kopp

As long as our Village has been around the proximity to the lake has provided our community a winter arena for special events. The upcoming automobile races on Raquette Pond is a good example">

Hoofs on Ice     by Jon Kopp As long as our Village has been around the proximity to the lake has provided our community a winter arena for special events. The upcoming automobile races on Raquette Pond is a good example, but, long before the fishing derbies, snow sled races and hockey games there was a winter event that brought out the whole community. It was the mid 1890s and “Ice Trotting” was the biggest thing in town. As long as our Village has been around the proximity to the lake has provided our community a winter arena for special events. The upcoming automobile races on Raquette Pond is a good example, but, long before the fishing derbies, snow sled races and hockey games there was a winter event that brought out the whole community. It was the mid 1890s and “Ice Trotting” was the biggest thing in town. As long as our Village has been around the proximity to the lake has provided our community a winter arena for special events. The upcoming automobile races on Raquette Pond is a good example, but, long before the fishing derbies, snow sled races and hockey games there was a winter event that brought out the whole community. It was the mid 1890s and “Ice Trotting” was the biggest thing in town.     In the early days, John H. and Thomas L. Weir were noted here as promoters of sporting events, both winter and summer. The Weir brothers opened Hotel Altamont to the public in 1891. Tom Weir was an ardent race horse fan, and it was largely through his efforts that annual ice races were held here. In January1895 the Tupper Lake Ice Trotting Association gave the sporting blood of the community something to warm up over when it staged the first trotting races on the lake. In 1896 a $600 dollar purse was put up. According to an inflation calculator I found on the web, that purse today would be comparable to $15,000, a testimony to just how big the sport was back in those days. Father’s would load up the wagon with hay and blankets, hook up one of the horses, and drive the wife and kids down the old road over McLaughlin’s Hill, across the river, through the marsh to Big Simond’s Pond where they all snuggled together deep down in the hay. It was so warm against the blowing cold of winter. Occasionally the races were staged nearer town out on Raquette Pond. There was always plenty of room for creating tracks on either body of water during the winter when the ice would be 35 to 30 inches thick for several months. The races ran for three or four days and they came to the contests from many points in Franklin and St. Lawrence counties, as far distant as Ogdensburg and Ottawa. They came by rail, some rode in wagons, some came on foot and some even came on skis. The horses were sharp shod, which means that they had special horse shoes with sharp spikes to prevent slipping on the ice. Some were hooked to carts called sulkies, some with sleds called “Portland Cutters”, box-like in shape, trim and neat in construction and preferred by horse racers. A large kite shape track was laid out. Kite-shaped tracks, with only one curve, were seen as being more favorable to speed than the oval track with a curve at each end. Tracks were over mile long, from beginning to end. They usually raced two at a time and when the gun sounded you could hear the hooves pound the ice and see the ice chips fly out behind each rig. It was so exciting. Races were run in three heats. The winner would have placed first in two out of three heats. Men came to trade horse flesh, socialize, and gamble; gambling was legal in those days, before the State realized they could make money at it. From an old Tupper Lake Free Press article we learned that a man named “Honest John” was always on hand with a huge wheel of fortune to "entertain" the boys after the races were over. Every hotel in Town was full, the night life, boisterous in anticipation of the next day’s race. It is probable that the most famous horse to visit Tupper Lake in those early days was the famous stallion, "Elial T," owned by Dave French of Potsdam. The animal was a thoroughbred and was noted for his endurance in two, three and five-mile events on ice. He was frequently apparently distanced in the early part of long-winded races, but he always "pulled up" on the final stretches and crossed the finish line out in front of them all. His owner entered him in many races in Northern New York, also in Ottawa, Hull and Montreal, always with the same result — a winner. At one time in the early 90’s a horse appeared in Canada in five mile ice races and set a mark that was believed to be too high for Elial T. A match was arranged to be run on the Ottawa River and Dave French and his pals from Tupper Lake and St. Lawrence County entered the list. The result was disastrous to the Canadian sports and the contingent came home with pockets bulging. With the advent mechanized tractors and the automobile, people began to lose interest in ice trotting. In fact, you will find very little reference to it in the local papers after 1910. Those old time days of horse racing and winter wagering gave way to a new era of skiing and snowshoeing, bobsledding, toboggans, and ice hockey. As the racing venues change the one constant we can all be grateful for is the ice arena on our front doorstep, still providing some excitement for the doldrums of winter.