Lyon Mountain

The quaint hamlet of Lyon Mountain in the far reaches of the pristine Adirondacks is a rural, insular community which boasts a storied and often-turbulent past. This Clinton County burgh has been home to a minimum-security prison since 1984. But the locality's niche in local lore was carved out well before that year, with mining and bobsledding ventures at the top of the list -with a plethora of ups and downs sprinkled in.

The hardy North Country residents are self-sufficient in Lyon Mountain and, unlike almost every other community throughout New York state, there is no "local" government.

For this community was founded as a company town around 1868, a designation which profoundly affected its residents in their role and ability to show community initiative.

Since the prison opened in 1984, the community has been invigorated by the process of emerging from its former protective custody status. It realizes that any change in the future is now entirely up to its residents, and them alone.

This takes time, and occasionally it can be a difficult process.

This is a community that is strongly tied to its past, but one that is still looking to the future and what must be done to make that future more of a success for an independent community.

In the publication "Hamlets of the Adirondacks," authored by Helena Penalis, Lyon Mountain is described as a perfect example of a mining town that the industry deserted. Unemployed workers, declining housing stock and neglected mines present dramatic images of a community where people are experiencing fewer public services on an already-minimal economic base.

That would all change when the prison opened.

Long-ago discovery charts hamlet's course

The first known record of the town is in 1823 when ore, practically phosphorus-free, was discovered by a trapper named George Collins.

Nothing more was done until 1868 when a business trio consisting of Messrs. Foote, Weed and Waldo made contact with Edmund Rogers, who owned the tract of land, to purchase four-fifths of his property. Much litigation followed between the four gentlemen. An agreement was finally forged in which Mr. Weed and a new player in the purchase game, a Mr. Williams, became the sole owners of the property today known as Lyon Mountain.

The pair formed a partnership which became known as the Chateaugay Ore and Iron Companies. Then, in the fall of 1873, the task of developing the land began in earnest.

At the time there was only one small clearing in the dense forest, with a few log shanties along what are now known as Mine and West Mine streets. The area needed a name so it was called Lyon Mountain after a former resident of the area, one Nathaniel Lyon.

Mr. Lyon had come to the area in 1803 from Vermont and settled at the base of the impressive mountain. He cleared a large farm in the area and lived there until he died around 1850. Records from St. Bernard's Church show that the hamlet was named Rogersfield after a Mr. Rogers. It was to later be renamed Lyon Mountain by Messrs. Weed and Williams.

In 1874, they expanded their property holding while more and more miners were making their way into the hamlet to support themselves and their families. The number of miners that year peaking around 150. This obviously meant that new houses had to be built throughout the community that then consisted of only 40 houses, a small wooden school and a single church.

The mining operation expanded in 1881 to include Lyon Mountain itself. It continued for 86 years under three companies. The once-thriving mining operations ceased for good in 1967, when the cost of getting the ore out of the long-tapped mines became just too expensive.

Probably no parent ever wanted his or her son to work in the mines of Lyon Mountain. It was especially hard work, cold, wet and dangerous. There were so many ways for miners to be killed or seriously injured -rock slides, falling down vertical shafts and mistakes handling dynamite -were among the most common.

When Tony Shusda, who was just three months from his high school graduation in 1934, applied for a job at the mine, the mine superintendent asked him, "Does your father know you're going underground?" The mine superintendent was speaking with the youth applying for the job in the mine drill shop. It was the same level where the lad's father worked as a supervisor. Tony Shusda got the job and was told by the mine superintendent to report to work the next day.

The eager teenager then went home and proudly told his mother that he got a job working in the mine. She was not at all pleased. Then Tony Shusda's father came in with a big grin on his face.

"'You going to work in the mine tomorrow'?" he asked his son. "Yup," was the teen's reply.

"Nope," countered his father. "I just got you fired."

Tony Shusda went back and finished high school as his parents, William and Josephine Shusda, had wanted.

His words later echoed prophetic of the safety he wanted for his son: William Shusda was killed in the Lyon Mountain Mine on Sept. 7, 1940, crushed by falling debris. It was the third fatality in the mine that year. William Shusda was 51.

However, Tony Shusda did go to work in the mine's drill shop. The pay was 36 cents an hour plus a bonus for quantity produced.

Tony Shusda survived his tenure in the mines without a major mishap, but he did witness a few harrowing incidents.

"I saw a man get blown up," he recalled in later years. "It took his eyes right out. He died in the hospital. The doctor said it wasn't the blast that killed him, it was the shock."

The man's name was Myron Benjamin. His son, a small boy at the time his father was killed, was himself killed years later as he worked the Fisher Hill Mine in nearby Mineville.

An innovative venture slides into town

In October of 1935, J. Hubert Stevens was seeking to re-establish himself and his brother, Curtis, at the top of international bobsledding. The pair had won the two-man gold medal at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid but had since been shut out in a variety of world events.

Hubert Stevens had ideas about how an improved sled could enliven the sport, but had no idea how to implement them.

Forty miles north of Hubert Stevens' home lived Robert J. Linney, a man with the knowledge, the materials and the equipment that Hubert Stevens was searching for. Only 27 years old, Mr. Linney was superintendent at the Chateaugay Ore and Iron Companies in his hometown of Lyon Mountain. He had been employed there since his graduation in 1929 from Yale University as a mining engineer. He later served as a foreman before becoming mine superintendent.

When he met Hubert Stevens, Mr. Linney had never seen a bobsled, much less driven one. But his ignorance seemingly proved to be an advantage, and he took to the task of redesigning the sled with zeal and dedication. By the time Mr. Linney and his brother William finished competing in bobsledding more than a decade later, their design changes had revolutionized the sport and their sleds had set record times at Mt. Van Hoevenberg.

Named "Iron Shoes," Mr. Linney's was the first all-metal bobsled. It was made with materials mined solely at Lyon Mountain and cost about $1,000 to $1,500 more than the standard four-man bobsled of the day.

Mr. Linney had little difficulty obtaining the men and materials from Chateaugay Ore and Iron Companies to produce the bobsled. It could help America's bobsled team -and it certainly did- and thus the venture was considered patriotic. Besides, it also was good publicity for the company.

Conceived by Hubert Stevens' ambition and Mr. Linney's engineering expertise, "Iron Shoes" made its debut at Mt. Van Hoevenberg on Jan 11,1936. It measured 11 feet seven inches in length and was two feet, 10 inches in width. Its front runners were just slightly longer than three feet, 11 inches and its rear runners measured about 4 1/2 feet.

With Mr. Linney at the controls, "Iron Shoes" made its first decent run. Long, silvery and sleek, it attracted a good amount of attention during its inaugural run, but not nearly as much as it did one week later.

Mr. Linney returned the next weekend with his team, the Lyon Mountain Miners, and won the North American Junior Bobsled Championship. In a sport where winners often are determined by hundredths of a second, the miners' time was eight seconds faster than their closest challenger.

The Lyon Mountain Miners won the North American Club Championship in 1946 and the National Amateur Athletic Union Title in 1948. This was the last time either of the Linney brothers won in bobsledding competition. Both returned to their full-time occupations of mining.

Making due in tough times

The late 1920's and early 1930's saw many changes in Lyon Mountain. It was the era of the Great Depression and it clearly impacted the little community.

The mines, the community's lifeline, were temporarily closed from 1926 to 1929 and then, for the next few years, operated on a part-time basis. The community had an abundant supply of skilled workers and they worked for $1-$2 per day building the community. In 1929, an auditorium was built and was known as the Linney Auditorium. This was also a gymnasium and, later, became part of the Lyon Mountain School which was built in 1931.

The stately cement former Linney Auditorium would later become the gymnasium and recreation area for Lyon Mountain's 161 inmates.

By the time the 1940's arrived, Lyon Mountain had over 300 residences, a modern school and a swimming pool. It also had two churches, a convent for religious education, a general store a hotel, a coffee shop, a beer garden, a post office, a railroad station and a baseball field.

It was indeed a thriving community at the time, even boasting a pair of doctors.

However, in the 1970's, the population of Lyon Mountain dropped to under 1,000 residents. The economy of the hamlet was a major concern and it soon became evident that the community could no longer support its own local school.

In 1969, Lyon Mountain consolidated with Altona and Ellenburg and a new school centralization was born, Northern Adirondack Central School. In 1970 the local high school was closed and in 1981 the local grade school fell prey to the padlock.

This marked the end of the center of education and socialization in Lyon Mountain.

DOCS expands in the Adirondacks

In the 1980's, the Department was seeing a huge spike in its inmate population, driven by the epidemic of "crack cocaine" that gripped addicts across yon the nation.

The subsequent influx of low-level, nonviolent offenders required the state to expand its medium- and minimum-security housing capacity.

Lyon Mountain, which took in its first inmates 18 years ago, was part of that round of rapid construction. The former Lyon Mountain School is now the dormitory housing unit for Lyon Mountain's inmates. The old Linney Auditorium serves as its indoor recreation area.

Like all other facilities through- out the state, Lyon Mountain is accredited by the American Correctional Association, affirming that it meets high mandated standards when it comes to health services, inmate programming, security, nutritional needs and other important issues. It is subject to reaccreditations every three years.

The facility offers a full range of innovative and self-help programs designed to provide inmates with the tools they need to be law- abiding citizens upon their eventual release from prison and their reintegration back into society. Lyon Inmates paint building for Mountain's offerings include academic and vocational education, counseling services, treatment for alcohol and substance abuse, recreational activities, job skills development, religious services and transitional services.

Education keys inmate programming

Inmates at Lyon Mountain, like those at other facilities throughout the state, now are required to reach at least the ninth- grade level of proficiency in both English and math; the previous requirement was only an eighth-grade proficiency level in those two disciplines. However, Commissioner Goord recently decided to raise the bar. The premise is simple: the more education an inmate has before he or she is released from DOCS custody, the better their chances of success on the outside.

Lyon Mountain also offers its inmates, many of whom not only have limited education but limited job skills as well, vocational training in the form of a building maintenance program. This program provides students with the fundamental skills required to make minor repairs in carpentry, masonry, electricity and plumbing. The course prepares the student inmate with entry-level skills in the field of building maintenance, enhancing their chances of getting a job upon their release from prison and being able to hone those skills and advance up the employment ladder.

Like many other minimum- and-medium-security prisons throughout the state, Lyon Mountain operates supervised community service crews that work on behalf of area communities and not-for-profit agencies,.

The work is varied, depending on local needs. The jobs could entail repairs to senior citizen centers or Little League fields, clearing debris from area cemeteries or roadsides and helping residents recover from natural disasters like floods, ice storms and blizzards. If not for the ongoing efforts of these crews, many necessary public projects would not otherwise be accomplished because of local fiscal constraints.

Between 1995 and the end of 2001, Lyon Mountain inmates logged 360,277 hours of community service hours and staff added an additional 62,031 hours in inmate crew supervision.

Inmates are not the only ones from Lyon Mountain to have had a positive impact on the community.

When they're not working inside the prison, staff at Lyon Mountain are very active in the community, continuing a trend that began in this tight-knit region almost 150 years ago. They serve as volunteer firefighters and Little League and soccer coaches, serve on various community boards and are as much a part of the community as if they had been imbedded there for many decades.

Each year, staff and inmates at facilities throughout the state participate in annual Make a Difference Day activities to assist area municipalities, not-for-profit agencies and the community's needy residents. In 2001, inmates at Lyon Mountain installed more than 4,000 seats in the grandstand area at the Franklin County Fairgrounds; another crew painted the day care center at Clinton Community College.

Lyon Mountain staff members also assisted the survivors of the victims of the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. Two CO's challenged their coworkers to match their separate $20 donations; $1,060 was raised for World Trade Center Relief Fund.

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