North Country This Week

MADRID -- If you want to experience what North Country life was like 100 to 200 years ago, you may want to visit a growing community on NYS Hwy. 345.

A log cabin, one-room schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, early textile building and equine pavilion are among the many recent additions to the St. Lawrence Power and Equipment Museum near Madrid.

The log cabin, built in the early 1800’s near Flackville, is currently being reconstructed at the museum.

“It is one of the last remaining unmodified log cabins in the region,” said Roger Austin, a museum volunteer in charge of its restoration.

The museum has come a long way since its start in 1976 with 12 original members whose purpose was to preserve the technologies used in the early days in the rural North Country.

In 2006, the museum acquired the Madrid farm, finally giving the museum a permanent home. Every year since then, more exhibits have been added.

Ground was recently broken for a woodshop to display the South Colton Stowe family’s donation of woodworking equipment. A vertical sawmill and print shop is also in the works.

The construction of a Civil War fort is being planned at the museum next year. A six-pound cannon has recently arrived for the fort exhibit.

While disassembling the cabin, Austin’s wife, Carol, found a diamond ring that had fallen down the cracks in the logs in the 1980s and returned it to its owner, Beverly Parmeter.

This year he hopes to continue its restoration with chinking wood splits and mortar to fill the cracks between the hewn logs and make a new roof of split cedar shakes. Next year he hopes to finish it with a new floor and woodstove.

Once completed, Austin said they plan to show “how life was simple, but a lot of work,” with demonstrations, including soap making and cooking on the stove.

A one-room schoolhouse built around 1850 is another recent addition to the pioneer farmstead at the museum. It was last located near Philadelphia, NY and donated to the museum in 2010. “Kids really enjoy the schoolhouse,” said Sheila Day, another museum volunteer.

Each year the museum hosts two large exhibitions, the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Exhibition in the spring and the Old-Fashioned Harvest Days Exhibition during Labor Day weekend. Antique tractor pulls and kids’ pedal tractor pulls, steam engine and sawmill demonstrations and the maple sugarhouse are some of the biggest attractions at the exhibitions.

Also, a new Pumpkin Patch Party was added last September and is planned again this fall on September 21.

The museum is supported by about 900 members, many of whom do volunteer work and are exhibitors at the museum. “We are always looking for extra hands for help with all aspects of construction. If you go to the museum and see something that excites you and want to learn more about or get involved, become a member. You will be very welcomed,” said Austin. To volunteer, call 315-344-7470.

The museum is open and free to the public on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month from May through October from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Harvest Days

The 29th Annual Old Fashioned Harvest Days will be presented Aug. 31-Sept. 1 by the St. Lawrence Power and Equipment Museum at 1755 State Highway 345.

Events and exhibits include antique cars, tractors, trucks, horse and tractor pulls, working antique engines, 1850's one room schoolhouse and log cabin, shoe repair shop, carriage barn, maple sugar house, farm animals, 1920's gas station, blacksmith, print shop, collection building, wagon rides, horse and tractor parades, early textile demonstrations, flea market, raffles, kids pedal tractor pull and races, baked goods, ice cream, and great food all weekend.

Events on Saturday, Aug. 31 will feature horse pulls, roast pork dinner at 4:30 p.m. and Steelin’ Country band at 6:30 p.m.

On Sunday, Sept. 1 there will be a chicken barbecue at noon, tractor pulls, and much more.

Gate opens at 9 a.m. Admission is $5 for 12 and over, children younger than 12 are free.

For more information call 315-344-7470 or go to www.slpowermuseum.com.