BY BLAIR MADORE
Red Sandstone Trail coordinator

POTSDAM — On Sunday September 12th, I was hiking on the Red Sandstone Trail with two students Claudia Beltran and Paxton Smith, from the Clarkson Timber Bridge Team. We were looking at ways to rebuild an area of the trail that frequently washed out.

Along the way, we encountered what looked like an old gravestone. We were all quite amazed and surprised. At first, I thought it was made of stone but then realized it was carved into wood and was in remarkably good shape.

It couldn’t possibly be a real grave marker that was over 60 years old, could it?

I’m the trail coordinator for the Red Sandstone Trail and I had walked this part of the trail at least 25 times in the last few years and this was the first time I had noticed it. Surely someone had put this up recently, maybe as a prank or for a scavenger hunt or other activity? As it turns out, my first thoughts could not have been more wrong.

Claudia took a picture of the grave marker and shared it with me. If you looked carefully you could read it:

LENA

COOKLIN

JULY 1946

JULY 17 - 1961

If this was real, I imagined that a young woman had drowned in the river. Wouldn’t that be such a tragic event it would appear in the local paper? A few hours scouring records for July 1961 led me to nothing.

I posted the picture on a Facebook group for the Adirondack Mountain Club Laurentian Chapter – the organization that appointed me as trail co-ordinator and the group responsible for helping to establish the trail in the first place. Surely, someone in this group would know more than I? Lots of people tried to help but no one could find any concrete information. There did not appear to be any Lena Cooklin in any of the easily available birth/death databases. Someone suggested that maybe it was Len A Cooklin? We could not find that name either. There were mentions of people named Cooklin living in the North Country (past and present) but that was as far as we got.

At this point I should have thought to contact some local history experts but in a pique of frustration, I emailed it to North Country Now during the evening of October 5th. I asked them to publish the picture and inquire if readers could share any information they had with me. Crowdsourcing a problem is a crude tool, but often a quick way to get answers.

The next morning, I began getting emails and phone calls very quickly. The story emerged a bit at a time over the day and we had a nearly complete story by 9 p.m. that night.

Several people who walked the trail more frequently than I, informed me that the marker had been there for many years. Some said at least three. Some said at least 10. One said at least 20. If it was more than 20 years old, it predated the creation of the trail. Maybe it was real? A colleague shared with me that a natural oil, like cedar oil, could have preserved the wood over a long time period, even though it looked untreated.

Several people contacted me to say they thought it was a grave marker for a family pet. After all, we often don’t know the exact date of birth of our pets but, we do know when they pass. That would explain why we could not find any newspaper report of a young woman drowning nor even a name in a birth or death registry. Several people told me that Lena is a very common dog name, in their experience.

An avid outdoorswoman and ADK club member, Eileen Visser, was one of the people who had seen this grave marker over many years. She enlisted the help of a friend, Judy Brassard, who was good at local genealogy and they soon found records about the Cooklin family.

“A Clarence Cooklin family lived on the Back Hannawa Road during the 50's and 60's up to the 1970's. Clarence was a Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds for BOCES in Norwood. Upon retirement they moved to South Carolina where he is buried. He had a son, Earl who moved to Michigan by 1971 and a daughter Barbara who married and lives in Salem, South Carolina.”

Eileen also used public records to determine Clarence Cooklin and his family lived at 261 County Route 59 (the back Hannawa Road). This property was west of the road and not adjacent to the river. How would a marker for a family member or pet end up close to the river?

Mimi Vandeusen, the Director and Curator of the Potsdam Public Museum was able to confirm some of the information from Eileen. In fact, Mimi knew that Barbara Cooklin Maxwell lived in South Carolina and still regularly participated in the Museum facebook group. Mimi had been shown the grave marker some years ago but had not been able to find any specific information at the time. Mimi, like me, had thought it might be a marker for a young woman who drowned even though there were no records found to support that idea. Mimi offered to try contacting Barbara for further information.

That evening I was contacted by Mark Gerrish who owns the property between the back Hannawa road and the trail. The trail and the land between the trail and the water is owned by Brookfield Power Authority though I do not know where the exact property boundaries are. Thankfully the public have been permitted to walk this trail for many years and we all surely owe a debt of gratitude to the landowners. Mark told me that he purchased the property in 1978 and not long after, Mr. Cooklin from across the street came over to visit him. Mr. Cooklin informed him that his dog was buried on Mark’s property down near the river. Mark has observed the grave marker many times over the years since.

At this point, the mystery was solved. We knew this was the gravesite of a family dog and the marker had been there for over 60 years! This was a very interesting piece of the history of the trail and clearly important to preserve out of respect for the Cooklins and for future generations of hikers to experience. I only wished we knew a bit more about the dog and how the grave marker came to be there.

The next morning, October 8, my wish was granted. Judy Brassard had made contact with Earl Cooklin.

Earl was 15 in 1961 and had grown up with Lena, their pet collie. Lena went missing on July 17, 1961 and he and a friend found her at the edge of the river there. Lena had already passed away. Earl was taking shop at the time and got that piece of oak and personally carved the marker. He has never had another dog since.

The following day I received a phone call from Earl himself! He explained the situation further. July 17 was a very hot day and they thought that Lena had gone down to the river to cool off. Earl and Lena had frequently hunted and fished in that area. When Earl and friend went to look for her, they found her already dead. She was much too heavy to carry back up the steep bank so they buried her on the spot. Earl said he carved the grave marker from a piece of oak and must have put at least 10 coats of varnish on it. No wonder it was so well preserved!

I told Earl that Eileen Visser has volunteered to help create an interpretive sign that will share this tale with hikers. We hope to install it on the trail near the grave marker for all to enjoy this touching story and piece of local history for many years to come.

Thanks: Thanks to contributions from Eileen Visser, Judy Brassard, Ivy Donovan, Peggy Patrick, Paula Youmell, Larry Hollister, Mark Gerrish, Mimi Vandeusen, Marianne Hebert and John Omohundro. Thank you to Adam Atkinson at North Country This Week for publishing the photo and information request.

About the trail: The Red Sandstone Trail runs between Hannawa and Potsdam along the Racquette River. It was created as part of an agreement between the landowner, Brookfield Power, and the State of New York. It is a fabulous place to experience beautiful forests, the rapids and still waters of the Racquette River, the area where Potsdam sandstone was quarried, a major hydro electric dam and generator and the remains of the old Hannawa-Potsdam railroad. Wildlife seen regularly along the trail includes deer, squirrels, chipmunks, possum, beaver, porcupine, racoon, toads, frogs, garter snakes, merganzers, ducks, geese, great blue heron and many other bird species. A map and more information about local trails is available at https://adklaurentian.org/?page=trails.html

About the author: Blair Madore is an associate professor of Mathematics at SUNY Potsdam and the Trail Co-ordinator for the Red Sandstone Trail, as appointed by the Laurentian Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club. He is originally from Corner Brook Newfoundland but has made his home in Potsdam since 1999. He loves hiking, canoeing, fishing, cross country skiing, gardening, and has been an avid member of ADK since about 2002.