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...it's March and it's Tuesday on The Historians
Sportsmen’s Show drew thousands to Amsterdam
“Focus on History” by Bob Cudmore from the files of The Daily Gazette
Larrabee’s hardware and sporting goods store on Market Street was selling Ike Walton fishing boots for $6.95 in March of 1937 as over a thousand hunters and fishermen attended the annual Sportsmen’s Show in Amsterdam.
Sponsored by the Amsterdam Fish and Game League, the shows were held in the gymnasium and auditorium of the former Theodore Roosevelt Junior High on Guy Park Avenue during the school’s annual Easter vacation.
“It was a big thing,” said city resident Mario Checca. “They chopped wood, sawed wood and rolled logs on the water.”
The league formed in 1931 and the annual shows began in 1933, first at the South Side armory then at the junior high. Some years were missed during and after the war but the event resumed with an entire week of activities in the late 1940s, attracting tens of thousands of visitors. Proceeds went for fish stocking and other conservation work.
“The club roster at the time included prominent business and professional men who provided gradually improved know-how combined with enthusiasm that made the beavers being exhibited suffer in comparison,” wrote historian Hugh Donlon in his book “Annals of a Mill Town.”
The men of the league became famous for hearty pancake suppers served in the junior high cafeteria. There were canoe tipping, ax wielding, fly-casting and sharp shooting competitions and demonstrations, along with professional exhibits. In 1937, the show featured the world’s biggest snowshoe, sent by a Maine manufacturer. In 1938, league members put on a skit called “Trappers’ Justice” in which local marksman W.H. Jacoby hit the bulls eye on a card held by Robert Knapp, while Art Grass played the harmonica. Leyman and Arnold Watson of Hope Falls won the men’s log sawing contest that year while Mildred Moore and Sarah Colson won the women’s competition.
In 1946, the show featured state lumberjack championship events. In a program ad, the popular Bigler’s Tavern across from the junior high urged sportsmen to make Bigler’s their “headquarters…before and after the show.” There was no show in 1947 but in 1948, the event ran for eight days, featuring live bears and trick log rollers from Michigan. An estimated 25,000 attended. Larrabee’s sponsored a live radio broadcast by station WENT and William Cerrito from the store’s sporting goods department was president of the fish and game league that year.
Local native Charles Wharton, who died in July at the age of 97, preserved the memorabilia that form the basis for this story. A banker, Wharton was an accomplished Adirondacks outdoorsmen who was founding treasurer of the fish and game league and a prime mover in organizing the annual shows.
He told an interviewer several years ago that people came from all over the state on buses and up from New York City to “see how we did things.”
“Real pine logs right out of the woods,” Wharton said, were used for the log rolling competition. So many pine boughs decorated the junior high, he said, that, “The place smelled like the north woods.”
The shows ended sometime in the 1950s, according to historian Donlon, after professional entertainment companies that competed with the volunteer event asked the State Education Department to rule if it was proper to hold the show in a public school.
Donlon said the answer from the state was “an official frown,” adding, “That brought an end to one of the most ambitious and successful community undertakings ever recorded in the valley.”
As kids, it was eerie
Tomorrow, The Old Main
Wednesday, March 2, 2022-From the Archives-Episode 78, September 20. 2015-Dennis Webster has written “Old Main: New York State Lunatic Asylum in Utica, N.Y.” Opened it 1843, it was the first insane asylum in New York State and the second one in the nation.
Thursday, March 3, 2022-From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—The Italian Gardens of Broadalbin
"Dunn found remains of the Italian Gardens on private property off Meadow and Thompson streets in Broadalbin"
Jim Kaplan with the days of old stories from New York City
Episode 412 this Friday, March 4, 2022
New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan discusses the life of Marinus Willett. Willett is well known to historians because of the work he did during the American Revolution in the Mohawk Valley. But Willett was born downstate and returned there after the war to serve in public office.
Amsterdam and Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, March 1, 2022
A slight chance of snow showers before noon, then a chance of rain and snow showers. Cloudy, with a high near 38. East wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Tonight
Rain and snow showers likely before midnight, then a slight chance of snow showers between midnight and 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 27. Light and variable wind becoming west 6 to 11 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Wednesday
Partly sunny, with a high near 37. West wind 6 to 13 mph.
Mohawk Valley News Headlines, Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Daily Gazette
Fonda-Fultonville senior Carter Petersen becomes fifth athlete from family to reach championships as a hurdler
FONDA — Every family has its traditions, legacies that pass from one generation to the next. Maybe it’s a family…
New York to lift statewide school mask mandate by Wednesday
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Sunday that the statewide masking requirement in schools will be lifted by March 2…
https://dailygazette.com/
Amsterdam Recorder
Graduation rate reaches 84% at Amsterdam High School
AMSTERDAM — Amsterdam High School’s graduation rate reached 84% last school year, but it’s unclear...
https://www.recordernews.com/
Leader Herald
High schools: Broadalbin-Perth’s Cotter wins boys’ slalom at state Alpine ski championship
LH Staff
https://www.leaderherald.com/
View all episodes
By Bob Cudmore...it's March and it's Tuesday on The Historians
Sportsmen’s Show drew thousands to Amsterdam
“Focus on History” by Bob Cudmore from the files of The Daily Gazette
Larrabee’s hardware and sporting goods store on Market Street was selling Ike Walton fishing boots for $6.95 in March of 1937 as over a thousand hunters and fishermen attended the annual Sportsmen’s Show in Amsterdam.
Sponsored by the Amsterdam Fish and Game League, the shows were held in the gymnasium and auditorium of the former Theodore Roosevelt Junior High on Guy Park Avenue during the school’s annual Easter vacation.
“It was a big thing,” said city resident Mario Checca. “They chopped wood, sawed wood and rolled logs on the water.”
The league formed in 1931 and the annual shows began in 1933, first at the South Side armory then at the junior high. Some years were missed during and after the war but the event resumed with an entire week of activities in the late 1940s, attracting tens of thousands of visitors. Proceeds went for fish stocking and other conservation work.
“The club roster at the time included prominent business and professional men who provided gradually improved know-how combined with enthusiasm that made the beavers being exhibited suffer in comparison,” wrote historian Hugh Donlon in his book “Annals of a Mill Town.”
The men of the league became famous for hearty pancake suppers served in the junior high cafeteria. There were canoe tipping, ax wielding, fly-casting and sharp shooting competitions and demonstrations, along with professional exhibits. In 1937, the show featured the world’s biggest snowshoe, sent by a Maine manufacturer. In 1938, league members put on a skit called “Trappers’ Justice” in which local marksman W.H. Jacoby hit the bulls eye on a card held by Robert Knapp, while Art Grass played the harmonica. Leyman and Arnold Watson of Hope Falls won the men’s log sawing contest that year while Mildred Moore and Sarah Colson won the women’s competition.
In 1946, the show featured state lumberjack championship events. In a program ad, the popular Bigler’s Tavern across from the junior high urged sportsmen to make Bigler’s their “headquarters…before and after the show.” There was no show in 1947 but in 1948, the event ran for eight days, featuring live bears and trick log rollers from Michigan. An estimated 25,000 attended. Larrabee’s sponsored a live radio broadcast by station WENT and William Cerrito from the store’s sporting goods department was president of the fish and game league that year.
Local native Charles Wharton, who died in July at the age of 97, preserved the memorabilia that form the basis for this story. A banker, Wharton was an accomplished Adirondacks outdoorsmen who was founding treasurer of the fish and game league and a prime mover in organizing the annual shows.
He told an interviewer several years ago that people came from all over the state on buses and up from New York City to “see how we did things.”
“Real pine logs right out of the woods,” Wharton said, were used for the log rolling competition. So many pine boughs decorated the junior high, he said, that, “The place smelled like the north woods.”
The shows ended sometime in the 1950s, according to historian Donlon, after professional entertainment companies that competed with the volunteer event asked the State Education Department to rule if it was proper to hold the show in a public school.
Donlon said the answer from the state was “an official frown,” adding, “That brought an end to one of the most ambitious and successful community undertakings ever recorded in the valley.”
As kids, it was eerie
Tomorrow, The Old Main
Wednesday, March 2, 2022-From the Archives-Episode 78, September 20. 2015-Dennis Webster has written “Old Main: New York State Lunatic Asylum in Utica, N.Y.” Opened it 1843, it was the first insane asylum in New York State and the second one in the nation.
Thursday, March 3, 2022-From the Archives of the Daily Gazette—The Italian Gardens of Broadalbin
"Dunn found remains of the Italian Gardens on private property off Meadow and Thompson streets in Broadalbin"
Jim Kaplan with the days of old stories from New York City
Episode 412 this Friday, March 4, 2022
New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan discusses the life of Marinus Willett. Willett is well known to historians because of the work he did during the American Revolution in the Mohawk Valley. But Willett was born downstate and returned there after the war to serve in public office.
Amsterdam and Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, March 1, 2022
A slight chance of snow showers before noon, then a chance of rain and snow showers. Cloudy, with a high near 38. East wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Tonight
Rain and snow showers likely before midnight, then a slight chance of snow showers between midnight and 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 27. Light and variable wind becoming west 6 to 11 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.
Wednesday
Partly sunny, with a high near 37. West wind 6 to 13 mph.
Mohawk Valley News Headlines, Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Daily Gazette
Fonda-Fultonville senior Carter Petersen becomes fifth athlete from family to reach championships as a hurdler
FONDA — Every family has its traditions, legacies that pass from one generation to the next. Maybe it’s a family…
New York to lift statewide school mask mandate by Wednesday
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Sunday that the statewide masking requirement in schools will be lifted by March 2…
https://dailygazette.com/
Amsterdam Recorder
Graduation rate reaches 84% at Amsterdam High School
AMSTERDAM — Amsterdam High School’s graduation rate reached 84% last school year, but it’s unclear...
https://www.recordernews.com/
Leader Herald
High schools: Broadalbin-Perth’s Cotter wins boys’ slalom at state Alpine ski championship
LH Staff
https://www.leaderherald.com/