Black Mountain Point, written in 1972 by G. Steven Draper 

Black Mountain Point played a brief but shining part in the history of Lake George during the late 19^th century, when hotels dotted the lake shore and various islands, steamboats traversed the lake, and Victorian era vacationers from around the country became aware of and traveled to Lake George 

For only a decade, from 1879to 1889, a hotel existed at the Point. In 1879 Cyrus Butler, president of the Horicon Iron Works of Ticonderoga, purchased a retired steamboat named the Minne-Ha-Ha and moored it in the small bay as a floating hotel. The following year he built a hotel above the bay and adjacent to the foot of the summit trail and named it the Horicon Pavilion. It was a splendid example of Adirondack style architecture and its verandahs, eaves, cornices and balconies featured intricate patterns of wooden lace" made of cedar. Below the hotel and adjacent stable was a huge lawn which extended to the lake shore. A rustic bridge crossed to the island in the photograph and connected with a large steamer pier on the far side. The Minne-Ha-Ha, with her native butternut and walnut paneling, became a floating annex to the main hotel. Seneca Ray Stoddard, the famous Adirondack photographer and publisher of guide-books on the lake hotels, photographed the Horicon Pavilion and its surroundings. Unfortunately, the dreams and plans of Cyrus Butler to further develop the Point and build a small camp on the mountain's summit came to an abrupt end in 1889 when the Pavilion was destroyed by fire. It was never rebuilt. The Minne-Ha-Ha fell into disrepair, her superstructure was dynamited, and her hull sank into the bay. Some-time prior to the 1940's, when it became part of the State Forest Preserve, the Point was utilized by a boys' camp. Although the forest has since swallowed the foundation walls of the hotel and its expansive lawn, traces of roads, iron mooring rings along the North Bay, and the submerged base of the steamer pier can still be seen. Even the keel and ribs of the Minne-Ha-Ha can be discerned on the lake bottom on a calm day.