An Adirondack Journey
End O' the Road Cabins

Sittin' on the steps of Cabin #1

Adirondack Journey is dedicated to my parents,  Floyd and Virginia Dobson, a part of the Adirondacks all of their lives.
   
Floyd, an Adirondack native, lived his entire life in Port Henry, a small Adirondack village sited on the bluffs overlooking Lake Champlain.  Floyd was a long-time member of the Port Henry Fire Department, served many years on the Port Henry High School Board of Education, and was a founding member of the Town of Moriah Ambulance Squad on which he served into his eighties.  For most of his life he was vestryman or warden of Christ's Episcopal Church in Port Henry.  

Virginia (née Eddy) Dobson was a strong, no-nonsense woman who laughed often.  She was born in Idaho and raised mostly in Vermont by her parents.  Her roots were with the original Plymouth Colony settlers in Massachusetts.  In the 1930s her parents moved to Willsboro, NY, where she met Floyd at a dance. Virginia was utterly devoted to her husband, her family, and her church.  She was a member of the Altar Guild for most of her life and was Business Manager of the family's summer business on the shores of Lake Champlain.  

Floyd and Virginia raised four children.  They experienced their share of pain and difficulty in their life together, particularly with the loss of one of their children, but through their strong faith in God, their love for each other, and their outgoing nature they made the most of life and bettered the lives of many others.
 
An important part of their legacy to the Adirondacks and the Lake Champlain Valley (and my favorite part of growing up) was their summer business,  End O' the Road Cabins on the shores of Lake Champlain.  Although the roadside cabin business thrived and was a unique part of Adirondack culture into the mid-Fifties, it struggled thereafter.  End O' the Road, however, was a success from its inception in the late 1940's until Floyd and Virginia retired in the early 1960's.  End O' the Road was much more than just a dozen homey cabins on Lake Champlain and its guests were far more than just paying customers.  The End O' the Road families that were our guests returned year after year from their homes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and elsewhere to renew friendships and share in the close-knit community that End O' the Road quickly became.  On Floyd's and Virginia's retirement, End O' the Road was purchased by an association created by our former customers and became, from then on, the summer homes of an association of those past campers.   

Above is a close replica of the sign that stood at the side of Rte 9N-22 for many years.  Each panel was planed by hand so that it would look quite a bit like a section of log.  In 2003, the post that held the sign still stood upright, but the sign, itself, had been removed many years prior, probably at the time the property was sold to the association formed by many of our former customers. 

End O' the Road was very likely the most successful venture of its kind in the Adirondacks.  Its season was timed to the state's school year.  Except for the very start of the summer season and its very end,  the full sign, which hung by hooks, never came down. 

It was an unusual sign; not as professional or costly as most signs that advertised other summer businesses.  The reason ours was in in brown and yellow, my father once explained, was that state law required all signage within the 6,000,000 acre Adirondack Park was required by law to be in these colors only.  But, as it turned out, we were among the very few private businesses that followed the rules.

I have taken the liberty of adding, as a commemoration of my parents' lives, one panel that obviously wasn't on the original sign .  

Would that more of us would or could live our lives as well as they!