page_title: West Canada Creek
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: West Canada Creek / History
caption_attribution_description: author: David T. Henrickson This picture was taken by me from the bank of the West Canada Creek upstream from the bridge on Rt 8 at Nobleborough. The subject is the picture is the square topped mountain, and the creek. author: David T. Henrickson This picture was taken by me from the bank of the West Canada Creek upstream from the bridge on Rt 8 at Nobleborough. The subject is the picture is the square topped mountain, and the creek.
context_page_description: The West Canada Creek is a 76-mile-long river in upstate New York, United States. West Canada Creek is an important water way in Hamilton, Oneida, and Herkimer counties, draining the south part of the Adirondack Mountains before emptying into the Mohawk River near the Village of Herkimer. The name "Canada" is derived from a Native American word for "village".
context_section_description: The West Canada Creek got its name from being the western boundary of Sir William Johnson's Royal Land Grant, and because the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word for village is Kanata or Canada. The name "Canada" may also refer to the creek's importance as a trail to Canada in colonial times. The creek was also known by Native Americans as Te-ugh-ta-ra-row , meaning "its waters are discolored"; the color of the creek that resulted from its sources in the forest also gave rise to another historical name, "Amber Creek".
  The stream was formerly known as the Kuyahoora River, from the Native American term Kuy-a-ho-ra, meaning "slanting waters", or "leaping waters". The river's valley is also known as the Kuyahoora Valley.
  On October 30, 1781, Walter Butler was killed along West Canada Creek near Black Creek. He was attempting to delay American forces and allow his Loyalist forces to escape after leading them in the Cherry Valley massacre during the American Revolutionary War.  According to legend his body was stripped naked and left to the wolves propped up in an old tree stump.
  Following the Revolutionary War, Arthur Noble II (son of Arthur Noble) purchased 80,000 acres (320 km²) in the present town of Ohio, and called it "Nobleboro". He built a saw mill there to export lumber to Ireland. In 1790 Noble got a road built to Nobleboro so that he could ride to his saw mill in a coach-and-four. Some logging occurred at Nobleboro before the Civil War, but by the late 1800s a new call for lumber and paper caused new activity in the woods of the region.  Pulp and paper mills were built at Hinkley, with saw mills and a debarking mill at Nobleboro.  The vast forests to the north were still in private ownership and they supplied these industries for decades.  Each spring logs and pulpwood were flushed downstream on the wave of snowmelt and Nobleboro was an important staging area for these log drives. The foundation logs of the river drive dam that controlled water flow can still be seen at the river's edge.  Log drives continued on the West Canada Creek until 1949.  Since then the land here has healed nearly hiding the once-thriving industrial complex once known as "Nobleboro, the gateway to the great north woods".
  In the late-19th century and first decade of the 20th century, the area surrounding the creek's source at the West Canada Lakes was inhabited by several woodsmen who were lumberjacks, trappers, fishermen, hunters and guides.  Most notable was a character named Louis Seymore, commonly known as French Louie. In 1922 the Adirondack Mountain Club was founded with the purpose of enacting conservation work and maintaining trails.  They laid out and maintained the Northville-Placid Trail which runs through the West Canada Lakes area and is now maintained by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC).
  By the 1930s float planes were bringing increasing numbers of anglers to the West Canada Lakes and the trout population was decreasing rapidly.  Around that time the state began an aggressive stocking program which continued into the 1960s, but the fishery was still declining. By the mid 1970s water acidity had depleted trout populations in many of the lakes and in the river itself.  In 1972, the West Canada Lake Wilderness Area was designated by the NYSDEC as "Wilderness", and as such no motorized vehicles or watercraft are allowed into the area. It was determined that during summer and fall acidity was fine, but during the spring snow melt a large quantity of acidic water was entering the lakes and streams, just at the time that young trout were hatching.  In the late 1980s increasing catches of brook trout and lake trout renewed interest.  Subsequent studies have shown reduced acidity and increased trout populations.
  In 1863, William H. Seward, then Secretary of State to Abraham Lincoln, met with representatives of foreign nations at Trenton Falls to persuade them not to recognize the Confederacy.
caption: View of Ft. Noble Mountain taken at Nobleboro, including the remains of the old dam.
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