Moriah Plank Road, Moriah, NY - New York Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

In the Moriah village of Port Henry, along Broad Street, is this historical marker locating where a plank road was used to transport iron ore to nearby Port Henry.

The marker is at the intersection of Broad Street and College Street, in the south west corner.

The marker has the following text:

"Moriah Plank Road
Horse drawn wagons hauled iron ore from mines to Port Henry over this road until 1869."

There is a long article about the Moriah Plank Road on the Ticonderoga Historical Society web site. There is also a good article from the Adirondack History Center Museum.

At first, military roads were carved through the Lake Champlain and Adirondack Region. When the Champlain Canal was opened, there was a nee to further develop transportation to get materials and products to markets. About 1850, the Moriah Plank Road Company was formed. The road was constructed to run from the iron mines in Moriah, Mineville, and Wetherbee to the port at lake Champlain. One source quoted documents that related the exact laying of the road from Moriah Center to Port Henry. The text is:

"...being in the Town of Moriah, Essex county, running thence south 42 degrees, east 12 rods, thence south 60 degrees, east 12 rods, thence south 73 degrees, east 10 rods to a hemlock tree marked, thence south 59 degrees, east 20 rods to a stake, thence south 75 degrees east 48 rods to a stake, thence south 81 degrees, west 55 rods to near the corner of lots numbered 21 and 23, Iron Ore Tract, and to the highway running from the Sanford Ore Bed easterly from thence along the said highway and in the same and on the line of said lots easterly to the center of the highway leading from Moriah Four Corners to Elizabethtown, one hundred and forty-four rods, from thence south in the center of the last mentioned highway as the road runs southerly towards Moriah Corners nine hundred and sixty-four rods to the center of the of the last mentioned highway as it runs from Moriah Corners to Port Henry seven hundred and thirty-one rods and seven lines to a Pine tree standing in and near the center of said highway in Port Henry and near the residence of James (Donald) in Port Henry aforesaid; we also further determine that road shall be four rods wide and that the line of the survey above described shall be the center of said road to be built by said company..." (Ticonderoga Historical Society Web Site).

The road was well used until the railroad finally was arrived around 1868.

The modern roads may follow the old plank road. The online map that Waymarking.com currently uses has different names than on my Garmin MapSource program. On the online map, follow Broad Street then bear right onto County Road 4, identified as Dugway Street, to Moriah Center. On Map Source, County Road 4 is also identified as Plank Road all the way to and a little through Moriah Center. Unknowingly, we drove on this route out of town.

Marker Name: Moriah Plank Road Marker Type: Roadside Agency: New York State Education Department Dedication Date: 1937 City/Town/Village Name: Moriah County: Essex Region: The Adirondacks (Region 5) Website: [Web Link]

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