The New York Nobody Knows

[mellow acoustic guitar plays]
[water gently splashing]
[Peter] Good morning, guys.
Here on the shores of beautiful
Lake Champlain on the Vermont side.
But today isn’t about Vermont.
It’s about getting over the lake
and going to Upstate New York.
Now for many, Upstate is pretty much
the whole state outside of New York City.
Which is a massive region.
This part of Upstate is very special.
Home to the largest park in the country
in the lower 48.
Old mining towns, old forts,
even home to the Olympics
that came in 1980.
So today we’re gonna go over the lake,
get lost on some of these back roads,
talk to the locals,
and get a better understanding
of what this part of the country is like.
Let’s do this.
[Peter] So once we cross
this bridge into New York
we’ll end up at this really fascinating
historical site called Fort Crown Point.
It was built by the British
to secure this region from the French.
And I grew up not far from here
on the Vermont side,
and as a kid, whatever I was told
to pay attention to or learn about,
usually did the opposite.
And now as an adult I can make
my early grade school teachers proud
and say this is amazing.
I love this now. It’s fascinating.
This is what’s left of the fort,
Crown Point.
Initially built by the French.
You can see we just came
over that bridge. So that’s Vermont.
Over into New York.
Very strategic important place
because who controlled this
controlled what went through there
and that’s what it looked like.
Pentagon shape.
The had the guns here in the corners.
You know, you can see the ring around here
where it’s built up,
those were the former walls,
and then the barracks
where the soldiers lived.
And I just talked to one of the park guys.
Unfortunately he can’t be on camera.
Full of history but just 20 miles
south of here is Fort Ticonderoga.
So this is in it’s original state,
Crown Point.
But Fort Ticonderoga’s
been completely rebuilt.
They have reenactments there.
He said both are very interesting.
Both were equally as important
in the history of this area,
but this was the battle
for this part of the country.
The French-Indian War,
the Seven Year War,
where basically it was
the French and the British
with Indians on both sides.
Some sided with the French,
some sided with the British,
and the Brits won out here.
That’s why we have a border north of here
at the north end of Lake Champlain
called Canada.
And once you get over that border
it is all French-speaking.
All right guys, the super quick
rundown of the area.
Canada, the French came down.
Samuel D. Champlain,
who the lake is named after,
they came down all the way down here.
The Dutch came up here.
Eventually the British controlled this,
the British controlled this.
This area here,
now you can’t sail through.
Currently there are locks but in the day
you had to carry boats around
some of these points because
the elevation of the water was different
and eventually Benedict Arnold,
for the Americans, the rebels,
and Ethan Allen conquered this.
Beat out the Brits.
Their armies took this into American hands
and since then it has stayed.
The Ethan Allen Boys, worth looking into.
If you’re in this area
put some time into these places
This could be
an hour long video just here.
We gotta push through today
and see a lot.
So little sprinkles of what happened.
Definitely worth checking out
or reading up on.
[seagulls squawk]
All right, so once we entered New York
we entered the Adirondack State Park.
6.1 million acres, making it
the biggest park in the lower 48.
But it’s a bit different.
It’s not like your national park
where nobody’s really living in it.
There are 130,000 people.
So take the park status
with a grain of salt.
There are, I’m sure, some regulations
to what can be built and what can’t be
but as you can see there are houses here.
Again, it’s not like you’re in
Yosemite or Yellowstone
but it is cool and we’re getting into it.
[mellow acoustic guitar plays]
Here we are, Port Henry.
As you saw coming into town,
the home of Champ.
And Champ is this mythical creature
that supposedly lives in Lake Champlain.
From my understanding based off
the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland.
But you can see here
all the sightings over the years.
Robert Hughes saw this in 1981.
Joseph Pratt in the ’40s.
Look at all these sightings.
Now we stop at ’89.
What happened then?
The fall of the Berlin Wall
and Champ went away.
I don’t know.
I would love to hear your theories.
-[Peter] How you doing?
-[woman] Good, how are you?
This is beautiful.
What do you guys have here?
What’s going on?
-So she found a heart.
-[girls giggle]
-Oh, that’s cool.
So you guys are just
exploring out here, huh?
-Yeah.
-Yep.
-[girls] We found a snake!
-[Peter] A snake?
[excited chatter]
That is some cool parenting.
Letting the kids out there,
using their imagination, exploring.
Yeah, shouldn’t be on train tracks.
Well I grew up walking down train tracks.
You sort of get out of the way a
long time before the train comes.
Sort of like crossing a street.
You’ll be surprised
how many people have told me
not to be anywhere near train tracks.
But hey, if you can’t have
adventure and imagination as a child,
well what do you want?
The kids inside on a screen
taking in neon light?
That is cool.
Welp, it’s not really happening anymore.
Some people in there
sitting down and eating.
What’s going on out here?
Is this functioning? The train station.
-So the story with that is
they are doing maintenance on the rails.
That’s the story we were told anyway.
-You guys all want it in town?
We do. Yeah, yeah.
It brings in a lot of new people.
The other trouble is it’s hard
for them to get around once they get here.
-‘Cause there’s no taxi service.
-Oh, okay.
But that’s another good thing too
with the seniors that are here
because they also volunteer
to help people that get off the train.
Sometimes they’ll give them
a ride to the Airbnb.
-Oh, that’s cool.
-Yeah.
Are you from Port Henry?
I am, yes.
-Okay, so what’s going on in town?
Unfortunately not a whole lot.
A lot of new businesses come in
and it’s such a small town,
it’s really hard to thrive here I think.
-Okay.
So what’s going on in the train station?
You have a lot of older people in there.
-I run the nutrition site.
They come, and sit, and socialize, and…
That’s cool.
So that’s for people
that don’t have the resources,
or just wanna be social, or both?
-A little bit of both. Yep.
-Okay, cool.
[Peter] And so this is
an old train station obviously.
-Mm-hmm.
-This old wood and old feel.
-High ceilings.
-Yes.
And I think I’m gonna get into that
in Port Henry, right?
-A lot of beautiful buildings.
-Yes, yes.
A lot of the original architecture
is still here.
Which is really great especially
for people that like to come and visit.
-So this is the plan, huh?
Montreal, come down here to Port Henry?
-Yep.
-Fort Ticonderoga,
I was just in Crown Point
but Ticonderoga here is amazing.
-Yeah, definitely have to check that out.
-The Capital.
-Yes.
All the way to New York City,
Penn Station?
Yes, and we actually get a lot of people
that are from New York
City that come here.
-Sweet.
-Cool there are people like you in town.
-Yeah, yeah.
-Not a lot, but.
-[both laugh]
-[woman] How is everything.
-[all] Good.
-[man] Let you know in a couple hours.
-[laughter]
[Morgan] Wonderful.
[Peter] They tell it like it is, Morgan.
-[laughter]
-[Peter] Take care.
-Take care. Nice meeting you.
-Thank you. You too.
[Peter] All right guys,
coming into Port Henry.
Looks like there’s
some logging still going on.
And we start to see all of the money
that came down here back in the day.
So much of America was built off of–
Oh, look at that. Beautiful.
Was built off of mining, timber,
whatever commodity it might be.
And then built up in grandeur like this.
And just imagine this…
I don’t know… 80 years ago.
Thriving, the church busy.
But look at that architecture,
the proportions are perfect.
I don’t know if that comes through
on camera.
Wonder if they’ll bring it back.
[man] Actually I’m hoping
somebody restores that.
-You hope somebody restores it?
-I hope so. It’s a beautiful church.
It’s beautiful, I love it.
-So when you were a kid that was in use?
-Yeah, yeah.
How many years ago?
-I’m 37 now.
So I left this town 12 years ago.
-And you came back?
-I came back and it was… deserted.
-If you go up the hill up here…
-Yep.
There’s a big old castle
on the right hand side.
-No way.
-One of the first
man-made pools were built there.
This town, Mineville,
Witherbee, Grover Hills,
they all used to be
all nothing but mining towns.
-So that’s the money
that built all of this stuff?
-Pretty much and now there’s…
There’s nothing here anymore.
-No jobs?
There’s jobs. There’s Dollar General,
there’s the Stewart’s,
and that’s pretty much it. [laughs]
Pretty much it.
Unless you want to travel
45 minutes south.
-Okay, all the best. Thank you.
-Have a good one.
[Peter] “Sherman Free Library”.
Wow, so cool.
Look at a that. The wood just curves up.
[man] Hello, how are you?
-I’m doing better now.
This is such a cool building.
This style is beautiful
where the roof curves like that.
-It is.
-It’s called a cove ceiling, right?
-That sounds right.
This is just a pet theory
but there were a lot of small boat
production operations on the lake shore
and I’m guessing they said,
“Hey guys that know how to bend oak,
come on up and let’s build a ceiling.”
-That’s my guess.
-That is cool.
-So Greater Witherbee, these were all
mining towns back in the day?
Yeah, so Port Henry was
sort of the financial center
and the center of society
and government for all of these hamlets
but they were small company towns
and many just don’t exist anymore.
We still have places
like Witherbee and Moriah Center
and Mr. George Riley Sherman,
one of the operators of the Witherbees
and Sherman Mining Company
gave us this library.
The first part was constructed in 1887.
-Which was just the front room.
-Okay.
He donated the land, the building,
and the library collection itself
to the people of Port Henry
and right around 1906
they decided to add on
this back extension.
-Okay.
-As that was happening
there was unfortunately
a fire during the construction.
-There’s always a fire.
There’s always… If you have a building
long enough there’s going to be a fire.
Especially when you have workmen
with pipes and things, smoking cigars
while they do their work.
But the building was saved
thanks to a young lad.
The story goes,
and we do have contemporaneous
newspaper accounts of this.
He liked to play on Church Street
in front of the library
and he would look through the mail slot,
and he happened to notice it was on fire.
He alerted the fire brigade
and they saved the bones of the building.
-So what were the years
when Port Henry was thriving
and when did that all go away?
Yeah, essentially through
the second half of the 19th century
into the 20th century.
By the stock market crash
of the ’20s they were pretty much done.
The US government then dumped
a whole bunch of money into the area
and into Republic Steel
to ramp up the operations again
for World War II.
Then once that’s completed
the mines operated into,
really the early 1970s, late 1960s
is when they were still productive
and then everything
was closed down by the ’70s.
-So how is it now would you say?
Now we’re in a post-industrial landscape.
Post industrial lifestyle.
There really has not been a
good industrial replacement
for the mining operation.
Prisons were a big industry in the area.
Those have been slowly shut down
by New York.
So the entire Adirondack Region is in
this transition period from industrial
to more of a recreational
and tourism economy
and that’s a struggle
for places like Port Henry.
A lot of our waterfront
has been industrial.
So it’s a long transition period.
-We haven’t quite made it there yet.
-Okay.
-So it’s in flux?
-We’re in flux. Yeah, we’re in transition.
-Do you love it?
I like it here.
Lake Champlain is gorgeous.
You’ve got large lake recreating
on one side of you
and large mountain recreating
on the other.
-There’s nothing to not like.
-Right.
[Peter] “Miners remembered.
This sculpture is dedicated to the memory
of the miners and their
families who forged our town.
For their bravery and hard work,
we are forever grateful.”
And there is a pride that goes with work,
and building a nice community,
and beautiful buildings,
and I think it’s very tough
when that all sort of goes away,
and that’s what’s happened
to so much of the United States
These industry towns
where there was one booming industry
and when that industry leaves
so does the energy
and the wealth of the town.
But let’s check out
the Miss Port Henry Diner.
Looks like a local joint.
-How you doing?
-Good, how are you?
Good.
-Oh, this is cool.
-Yeah.
This is where people eat
obviously but down here
is gonna be a thrift shop
or a antique shop.
-You can come back.
-Okay.
This is gonna be a gallery
of old antiques from around here.
-Oh, cool.
-There’s like these old lanterns.
-There’s cars hangin’ up.
-Oh, nice.
-Yeah.
Look at this cool floor. All pennies.
[woman] So there is only a couple hundred
of these cabooses ever made
in the United States.
-Okay.
-And one of them is here. I do know that.
-So how’s Port Henry these days?
-[girl guffaws]
-It’s Port Henry.
-Yeah.
-What does that mean
for us non-Port Henryites?
Port Henry’s very small.
It used to be very big
back in like the older days.
-Before you were born?
-Oh yeah, for sure.
It’s more of a tourist town in the summer,
in the winter, there’s no one.
-Nobody?
-Nobody.
-Just regulars.
-It’s like… yeah.
They used to make old Western movies
at the intersection here.
-Cool.
-But it was when they had dirt roads.
There’s also an ice cave in Witherbee.
So if you’re driving down the road
all of a sudden you see, like fog.
And you sit there and you can feel
all the water and the coldness.
-Feels like winter.
-Yeah.
Okay, I’m going there.
Go up towards Mineville, take a right?
As soon as you turn on the road
you’re gonna see–
-Cool. I’m so there.
Back in the day when
I think you were a kid actually
there was somebody
named the Garrow Killer.
and the ice caps that
you’re gonna go see, the cave,
he killed people, and put them in there,
and they found them.
I think when I was…
No, my grandmother was little.
Something like that.
-The Garrow Killer?
-Yeah, the Garrow Killer.
-How many people did he kill?
-Um, I think three.
And put ’em on ice?
And put them in the mine.
He used to live up at…
I remember somebody telling me this.
-He used to live up on Barton Hill Road.
-Yeah, Barton Hill Road.
-Yep.
-Yep.
Is there some–
-The house is still there
if you wanna check it out.
-Is there some haunted energy around here?
-No, none of that.
-Um…
-None of that?
-Just weird stuff.
No, I would say up at 80 Barton Hill
there’s stuff going on in there.
I used to live there. So it’s creepy.
And there’s a mine and a cave
underneath their house.
If you go like this on the ground
you can feel that it’s hollow.
-I don’t think anyone in the modern world
has been so excited for Mineville
and Witherbee but I’m fired up.
[ladies laugh]
-Have fun.
-If I don’t come back
you know what happened.
-Have fun.
-Have fun.
-Thank you so much.
“Treasures From the Past Open”?
Open, not closed.
-[woman laughs]
-[man] Absolutely.
-All right, so if people are in Port Henry
come here for some
unique sort of treasures.
-Go inside, you’ll see a lot.
-Go inside? All right.
Very cool.
You from Port Henry?
I’m not from here, my husband is.
We moved up from Connecticut.
-How do you like it?
-I love it here.
If you get broken down or…
No one’s rude, no one’s obnoxious.
In Connecticut if you break down
they give you the finger,
they blow the horn,
they scream at you. Yeah.
-Up here people are kind?
-Yes, very nice.
So you break down winter night,
someone’s pulling over?
-When I broke down once
there was four guys who stopped
and I was scared
’cause I didn’t know the area.
My husband said, “Oh, don’t worry.
They’ll help you change your tire.”
I didn’t know that ’cause
in Connecticut when you stop
and someone knocks on your window,
you don’t know what’s gonna happen.
But up here everyone’s friendly.
-So totally different culture?
-Totally different culture.
It’s all nice and relaxed.
No one’s in a hurry to go anywhere.
You go to a store, you’ll end up there
for 40 minutes talking
to someone you don’t even know.
-So most people from the outside
think of New York City
when they think of New York,
they don’t think of this part.
-Correct.
-And this is real Upstate.
-This is like out there.
-This is almost Canada.
So they took you in well?
Yes, they did.
They welcomed me with open arms.
[Peter] So this must be the castle
that guy was talking about.
Maybe this was an owner of
one of the mines or a top-level manager,
or maybe it was a resort. I’m not sure.
And guys, with a lot of this discovery
I’m coming into it
just like you are for the first time.
Sorry I can’t tell you what this is.
Someone from here I’m sure can.
Please tell us.
That’s what keeps
this content spontaneous
and the trees are blocking
the view from here but you can see it just
looked over the whole lake
and out to Vermont.
The whole Champlain Valley.
Hello, sir.
Where are these ice caves?
They’re up Mineville.
You’re gonna come to
kind of an intersection.
-Okay.
-Don’t drive down the hill. Go straight.
-It’s just a little road.
-Are you from here?
-Yeah, I’ve been here all my life.
-How is it? Do you love it?
-Yeah.
-Peace?
But we need a little less government.
What do you mean by that?
Taxes are too high
for what we get out of ’em.
-Okay.
It ain’t like we get our
money back on our taxes.
-Okay, so you pay in, you don’t feel like
you’re getting much back?
-No.
-New York’s all about New York City,
and Albany, and those places?
Well I don’t know about the county
and town taxes in New York City
what they ought to do with New York City
is saw it off,
push it out in the ocean, and sink it.
[laughter]
-That’s what they outta do.
-You’re not a big fan?
No, make a separate state of it.
Let them have their own damn problems.
-New York City?
-Yeah.
You guys basically want to be left alone
up here, do your own thing?
Yeah.
-But you guys got logging now, right?
Is that the big thing?
It’s petering out pretty fast.
-Mining’s gone?
-Mining’s gone.
What’s holding it together?
-Not a whole lot. Lotta welfare.
-Okay.
Lot of welfare, lot of retired people
that are just getting by.
-Social Security money?
-Yeah.
There’s some jobs
but they’re not right close by.
I’m still working, 67 years old
and I’m driving a dump truck.
-Driving a truck? Okay.
-I was a dairy farmer for 45 years.
And it was a great way to live.
But the price of milk got so low
and I just couldn’t cover my costs.
-Is it…
I’m noticing a lot of the small guys,
the dairy farmers that
it’s tougher these days.
Oh yeah, they are. No.
It’s unfortunate
but it’s all going to just the big ones.
If you’re not milking 1,500 cows today
you’re not doing nothing.
There’s only two dairy farms left…
Three dairy farms left in Essex County.
-Okay.
-That’s terrible.
Used to be 14 just in this little town.
Nothing anymore.
-Are the young people staying,
moving out, or half and half?
If they can find decent work here
they’re staying.
-Oh, you allow four-wheelers
on the streets? That’s awesome.
I’m not sure that’s allowed, but…
[Peter laughs]
-Take care.
-The troopers ain’t caught with ’em yet.
-Take care.
-Nice four-wheeler, buddy.
-Thank you.
-That thing’s huge.
-Yeah.
I’m making a YouTube video
you wanna be on it?
-Sure!
-These are your buddies?
-Yeah.
What’s it like out here?
What’s going on?
It’s pretty awesome.
-You guys rip around on the four-wheelers?
-Oh yeah, always.
-Go where you want?
-Yeah.
-People get mad.
-We get yelled at all the time.
[engine revving]
Not everyone that I run into is on-camera.
You only see the ones that are obviously.
I was told to go up
on some of these roads.
Oh yeah, there they are. The old homes.
The old stone employee homes
for the miners.
And one thing that was
brought to my attention recently
by some European viewers
is they said, “Wow, Americans are so open.
You can just go up
and sort of talk to anybody.”
and
that is something special
about US culture I will say.
It’s not like it’s the only place
but I think it’s one of the best places
on the planet where if you just want to
have a casual conversation with someone,
ask how they’re doing,
and “What’s it like in this town?”.
Most likely they’re gonna engage with you,
and let you know their thoughts,
and have a good conversation.
That’s not everywhere.
A lot of Americans
don’t know that’s not everywhere.
A lot of countries,
that would be even looked to be odd.
Like weird, “Why are you asking me this?
I don’t know you.”
I’ve realized doing this work that we all
live in our bubbles to some degree.
Yeah, people travel,
but when you really start digging deep
the scope of this country,
the actual sheer size of everything
is insane.
And I do this full-time for a living
and I’m constantly amazed
by what I run into and how big…
It actually gets bigger.
The more I get into it
it’s like the bigger it actually gets.
Like, where am I?
This is wild. Look at that,
there’s a church up there on the hill
and then this massive lodge of sorts.
A missile.
Yeah, try putting a label on New York.
“New York is like this.”,
good luck on that one.
I mean Manhattan is in the same state.
When’s the last time you saw
a bowling alley look like this?
Looks like it’s still in operation
but closed.
We’ve got a missile over here.
You don’t see so much of that
in the United States actually.
When I lived in the Former Soviet Union,
that being Ukraine
you’d see stuff like this
in small towns all the time.
Just a random missile monument.
[woman] I know one where of ’em is
but here’s one right here.
-Yeah, I was told the ice mines were
somewhere around here.
-There’s… basically it’s right where
that mailbox is.
-It’s that first black one?
-Yeah.
-Okay.
-[man] Beyond the fence.
-Beyond the fence?
-Yeah.
-Is it cool up there, literally?
-Oh, it’s freezing. Yeah.
-[woman] It’s really deep.
-And in the summer it’s steaming, right?
Oh, yeah. My buddy lives
in the red house across the road
and they say they don’t use AC.
they just pop the windows open
and it naturally cools their house down.
-If you go you can
crawl through the fence,
to get closer to the mine and look in it.
-I like your style.
-What’s your name?
-Logan.
-Peter.
-Peter, nice to meet you.
-So you grew up here?
-Yeah.
Break it down. What’s it like?
-I mean there was a lot of
camping in the woods
and walking through just doing
what you’re doing, exploring these caves.
There’s a huge difference
between here and Keene.
-Where I’m going next?
-Oh, yeah. Massive difference.
Just in the way of like here you have
a lot of low-income families
and then you got to Keene
and it’s just like all rich snowbirds.
Like very vast difference,
30 minute drive from here to there.
Totally different.
-Same county?
-Same county.
Keene Valley,
they have a high school there
that my friend graduated
with eight students
’cause there’s just
nowhere for people to live.
-It’s older snowbird types?
-Mm-hmm.
You know, rich people who come in
and have houses. Very small.
Beautiful, beautiful.
-Is there a…
‘Cause I noticed in Vermont…
There’s a bit of a tension
with some of the locals I talked to
where they’re the locals
and then wealthy people moved in…
-Yeah.
-And there’s a tension in that.
-Is it the same here?
-It’s the same going closer towards Keene
and Lake Placid for sure.
Here we don’t have it too badly
’cause no one wants to move here.
-Nobody’s moving in, huh?
There’s not really too much
to do around here.
There’s no job opportunities
other than like we have the mill.
The pencil mill in Ticonderoga
and that’s really it. [laughs]
-Do people still use pencils?
I guess so. [laughs]
-Appreciate it.
-It was good meeting you.
-Yeah, great meeting you.
-I’m gonna check this out now.
-It’s pretty cool.
All right.
[whispers] Oh, this is interesting.
Just got super cold back here.
Literally
20,
25 degree reduction in temperature.
Okay, before we get there
for those of you who have seen
many of my videos
you’re probably like, “Hey, Peter,
where’s the black shirt?
You’ve worn that the last,
I don’t know, 200 videos.”
and so the time finally came.
I came out with some new merch.
Seek the Truth.
It’s one of the missions of the channel.
Nobody fully has it.
Okay, there are objective
truths like getting hit by a car
or someone stealing your money.
But with this human philosophical stuff,
getting into story.
Well, it’s a little bit harder to find.
The goal is always
ask as many questions as you can,
listen as much as you can,
try to see things
from another perspective.
No one’s a master.
I try.
Don’t always get it right.
But my goal is
to bring you into these situations
and ask the questions where…
Well, it brings us all
closer to the truth.
So we got this shirt.
We have, “Look Below the Surface”.
Which, well, that’s what we’re doing here
in most of this content.
And then “American Stories”.
The US map with characters
from past videos
If you’ve watched the channel before
you’ve probably recognized some of them.
So it’s a great way
to support the channel.
I don’t want to sell you guys junk.
As in products you don’t need.
I say no to that all the time
with ad deals
because that’s not how
I want to be treated.
I would only promote an ad
that I think is worth something to you
or would be useful.
We got sweatshirts, long-sleeve, hats.
So if you want to support us in that way
we would love you
to buy some of our merch.
Wear it in style.
And just so you know…
we’re getting really in here.
But just so you know
The quality of the merch,
I spent a lot more money
per shirt to get better quality.
So you’re not gonna wash it three times
and it’s all peeled up, and shrunken,
and all that sort of stuff.
So you’re getting a good quality product
and guys, seems to be fenced-off.
But okay, the point of the story here is
it’s freezing back here.
I went through some warm pockets,
colder pockets,
and…
[laughs] Maybe a bit anti-climatic.
We’re seeking the truth though.
The truth is it’s colder back here
and I might be getting poison ivy.
Maybe in my younger days
I would’ve tried to get over this
but that ship’s sailed.
There’s another one up there
that’s gonna take a hike
and believe it or not,
we’re getting to a town
that had two Olympics.
Can you believe that? Not far from here.
So I don’t want to get
bogged down for too long.
But that I guess is the pit right there
’cause it is the coldest right here.
Like freezing cold.
So interesting how that works.
[mellow acoustic guitar plays]
All right guys, the high peaks
in the clouds, can’t really see them.
Mount Marcy,
the highest peak in New York State
tops at 5,300 feet.
Which for West-Coasters
that’s not very high
but on the East-Coast
it’s quite a big mountain.
And we’re going under 87
which goes one way to New York City,
the other way to Montreal.
Starting the High Peak Scenic Byway.
So a lot of tourists coming up
from the city or down from the city
are gonna go this way in.
This is where the hiking is
and the scenery becomes more spectacular.
Unfortunately it’s cloudy
but just to put it in comparison
Vermont, the Green Mountain State,
the highest Peak there, Mount Mansfield,
roughly 4,400 feet.
So the mountains are bigger here.
They’re a little more rugged.
They’re younger than the Green Mountains
and I’d say a little more wild out here
as in more space.
All right guys, Berkshire Hathaway
Investments, the Birch Store.
We’re in Keene Valley.
Little bit of a different vibe over here.
Looks to be a bit better off economically.
Lot of tourism, second homes,
as the guy was saying in the last town.
And a world away.
And maple syrup
is serious business
or more so pride
in this part of the country.
I don’t think you’ll see
too many Vermonters
drinking New York maple syrup
or vice-versa,
or New Hampshire, or Massachusetts.
Every state pretty much thinks
they have the best from my understanding.
But look at this.
You gotta love something like this.
Where you just walk in
and I guess you just leave cash.
Here are the prices.
You can leave your name
and I guess what you bought.
Put the cash in. The cash stays.
How crazy is that?
That is so cool.
We’re in a society here where
this business is so trusting.
Okay, there are cameras.
So we’re in the modern world
with that security but still quite cool.
When’s the last time you did this?
Okay.
Half pint.
Seven dollars.
I don’t have change so I’ll leave 10.
Here’s my New York maple syrup, grade A.
And this is how
the wood business works here.
8$ per bundle, $20, half a row.
So basically half of this.
“Leave money inside the passenger window”.
So you just got like…
How does it work? Oh.
You just put it through the slot there.
That’s awesome.
[mellow acoustic guitar plays]
Coming up on Lake Placid soon.
We got some mega ski jumps there.
Let’s see if we can
talk to any locals here.
[Peter] You bought an old cop car here?
[man] I did. State Police auction.
-So it’s all modified, goes fast?
Oh, yeah.
350 with the interceptor in it.
-People think you’re a cop?
-All the time.
Undercover with that big antennae,
that’s awesome.
-How much did you get her for?
-$500.
-You got this for $500?
-I got two, a blue and a white one.
The white one I paid $400 for.
-And it ran?
-Yeah, the both run.
The other one my girlfriend drives.
-Nobody else wanted it?
-Nobody bid on it.
-Oh, that’s great.
-Do you live around here?
-Yeah, born and raised.
-Lake Placid?
-Yeah.
How is it?
Little expensive but it’s all right.
At the time my kid’s mom,
she was an opiate addict, right?
-Oh, okay.
-Packed up and moved to Utah,
I got a daughter in Utah.
She said move out here, try it out here,
we went out there and… [whistles]
It was worse.
-With what?
-Drugs.
-In Utah, worse than here?
-Yeah, oh boy, you aren’t kidding.
-Huh.
-Yeah.
My kids haven’t seen their mom in months.
-So this is nice up here?
-Yeah.
-Well nice car.
-Well thank you.
Yeah, I’m making a video
on the whole area?
-Are you?
-Yeah, yeah, that’s what I’m doing.
I really want to give cred
to this part of the country.
-I’m Rob Colby.
-Rob Colby, Peter Santenello.
How you doing? That’s my son, Connor.
-Connor?
-Hi.
He’s the one that caught
the big nine pound brown.
-Connor, is your dad pretty cool?
-I love my dad.
-He’s fun?
-Yes.
Takes you fishing, can’t beat that,
and you drive around in an old cop car.
-And we motorcycle ride. Don’t we, bud?
-Yeah, we scare people.
-We scare people on that bike don’t we?
-Yeah.
-Yes we do.
-[Peter chuckles]
That’s cool.
This part of New York is special.
It is. They call it God’s country.
People don’t know
this part of the country.
I talk on a CB all the time.
Big President Washington 80 foot high
antennae, I talk all over the world
and my call numbers are triple 6,
they call me the gigolo.
They call me triple 6,
Devil Station from Upstate New York.
They said they never heard…
I got a notebook probably
about 6,000 places I’ve talked to.
-Just for fun?
-Yeah.
-You talk with people all over the world.
-All over the world.
-About what?
-Just everything
Where I’m from, what do I do,
where they’re from, what they do.
I keep a log of everybody I talk to.
-It’s like CB or what is that?
-Yeah, it’s a CB radio.
-So that’s old school, right?
-Yeah.
It’s all peaked and tuned.
It came out of the shop at 3.5 watts
and I got it swinging like 60.
I got a big power mic
that swings another 60 behind that.
-So you just get into a frequency
and can talk with anyone?
Yeah, I got upper and lower sideband
on it, can go between channels.
I got a 40 channel CB,
President Washington.
I go between channels, I talk on FCC,
which I’m not supposed to.
I’m not licensed for it.
I talk on FCC channels. I talk to
the Bahamas, Bermuda, St. Martin, France.
Talk all around the world.
I was living in a house,
every time I keyed my mic,
guys garage door would open and shut.
That’s how much power
I was running out of my radio.
-It’s just for companionship?
-Yeah.
-I’m a single dad of four.
-Oh, wow.
I got seven kids. I got one that’s 48.
-What’d you have him at 15?
-No, 16.
Single dad of all of ’em.
-Wow.
-I got Connor’s 10.
My daughter at home is 13.
A seven year old
and a two year old right now.
-How’s that going?
-It’s tough, bud. It’s tough.
Just to work,
and raise kids, and all of the above?
Wouldn’t change it for the world.
-You wouldn’t?
-Nope.
Okay.
My oldest son, when he was two
he did a laceration of his cornea.
My daughter was born,
she was one pound eleven ounces.
She was in Montreal,
my boy was in Burlington.
I got done work and flipped a coin
if I was going to Montreal
or Burlington after work.
In the meantime I was
in Montreal seeing my daughter
’cause she was just
a little tiny thing, you know?
Got home, my house was emptied out.
Light bulbs gone, everything.
My wife left me said,
“I hope you do the right thing.”
I said, “Wow, really?”,
sat down to take a shower,
didn’t have towel to shower with.
So those are my first…
My two oldest ones I raised.
-Well good you didn’t run.
-No sir, I couldn’t run!
-That’d be very weak.
-Hell no. Responsibility.
Exactly.
I got four of ’em now
that I take care of all by myself.
-It’s a grind though, right?
-It is. Everyday.
Everyday.
You notice the inflation?
Do you feel that?
Yeah, they just raised my rent $100 today.
-What do you do for work?
I do maintenance for
two hotels here in town.
-Okay.
-The Weekender Hotels.
-So you’re plenty busy?
-Ugh, every day.
Guys like you are hard to find.
-That’s what everybody tells me,
but there’s a place up
there when I’m done.
Yes there is.
-So with that job
you can support four kids?
I do the best I can.
Can I support them? I do.
I go without a lot for my kids.
I’d take my last piece of bread
for any one of them.
Wouldn’t I?
-What?
-Absolutely.
[chuckling]
It was hard during COVID.
I had three computers,
three kids in school.
It was tough.
Running back and forth, bedroom
to bedroom trying to help ’em all out.
We got through it though.
They all moved onto the next grade.
-Good work.
-Thank you.
-Peter, it was nice to meet you.
-Great meeting you.
-Thanks.
-Take care.
[Peter] Wow, what a great guy.
We’re getting rained out here
but I want to show you guys downtown.
I believe these are the skating rinks
and for those of you who remember
Miracle on Ice.
The US college team beat the Soviets.
Huge upset.
The Soviets were much better.
At that time I don’t know why
we played college players
but we couldn’t play
pro players for some reason,
and so it was a college team
that beat the Soviet Union
at a time when let’s just say
the Cold War was in flux.
It sort of could have gone either way.
America wasn’t at its best moment.
Hyper-inflation,
gas prices through the roof,
and it was a huge win for the country.
Not only for hockey but for the country.
And here we’re coming up on a main street.
You know, this is one of those
Olympic towns that hasn’t gone broke
or dormant.
I believe tourism’s just come
through here and kept it alive quite well.
Here’s what the prices look like.
Million dollars, four beds, three baths.
That’s what you’re gonna get here.
Another million dollar home,
four beds, four baths, 3,000 square feet.
So depending on where you’re from
these are great prices or super steep.
Where we started today,
definitely super steep.
I am absolutely freezing.
So we’re gonna have to do one of these.
Lake Placid tourist sweatshirt.
[laughter]
Okay, so you’re from
Bosnia and you’re from India?
[laughter]
-Okay, you’re working for the summer?
Is that what you’re doing or what?
She’s working for the summer
but I’m here for whole year.
-Okay.
-So a lot of international people here?
-Mm-hmm.
-A lot of us.
-A lot of you?
Around 300 Bosnian students this year.
-This summer, work and travel program.
-How is it?
It’s awesome.
We have two, three jobs,
we work in hotels, bars, restaurants.
-You just work, save up money, go home?
-Yes.
-Speak English all day.
Yeah.
-Cool.
-[laughs]
-Take a picture.
-Yeah.
Let’s do it. Let’s get in there, guys.
All right.
What have you learned?
-Hindi.
-Um…
[speaking Hindi and laughing]
I’m means, “How are you? I’m good.”
And I’ve learned that you can
make friends in the middle of nowhere.
Nowhere, yeah.
Even Lake Placid. Lake Placid is a…
-It’s removed.
-It’s a weird place.
-How so?
I mean what happens in Lake Placid
stays in Lake Placid.
-Oh, wow.
-They give us the best memories.
The best memories.
This is one of my best friends.
I didn’t expect this to happen.
-It just happened.
-Click, click, click on the first day.
Yeah, first day.
-You gotta go visit him in India.
I told her the same thing.
-India will blow your mind.
-I have a lot of Indian friends
because of this program and this place,
and he has a lot of
Bosnian friends now so we’re gonna…
But mostly Bosnians. We take over,
over the summer.
-American dream.
-See you, guys.
-See you.
So cool.
So we have the J-1 Visa workers.
For those that don’t know
it’s the student visas.
Usually it’s for university students.
They come over,
work for the summers, then go home
and that program
has been going on forever.
I think during the pandemic
it was shut down to some degree.
But good to see it back.
I met a lot of J-1 visa people
when I worked at a restaurant
at a resort when I was that age
and it was awesome.
It was cool to meet people
from all over the the world.
So here we go.
This is, as you can see, a hotel,
and the Olympic vibe, the sporting vibe.
And thriving.
[doors open]
Look at that, 1932.
That was the look and the style.
Look at the guys
in a suit and tie on the skates.
Roosevelt here in 1932.
This is the main street.
with all the stores
and at the time just a few homes.
“80 Herb Brooks Arena”.
Miracle on Ice.
That was the coach for the team
and this is where it happened.
[announcer] …good save, [shouts]
Michael Rosiotti!
[crowd cheering]
The countdown going on right now.
Five seconds left in the game.
Do you believe in miracles? Yes!
-[crowd cheering]
-Unbelievable!
[Peter] I’m getting goosebumps
just by being here
as a hockey lover
and an America lover.
Miracle on Ice.
One of the coolest documentaries,
definitely worth watching.
It wasn’t just a game.
It was moment of pride
in the country through sports
and that’s the beauty of sports.
Even though they should be
out of politics completely in my opinion.
Athletes have nothing to do
with their country’s foreign policies.
I believe they should all compete.
It has something to do
with national pride.
And right down there on the ice
not just America
beating the Soviet Union.
Who was a much better team
if it was pro to pro.
It was the college team and Herb Brooks,
brilliant coach said to his team,
“Don’t be scared of these guys.
Call them goofy names.
Belittle them.”
And the psychology of his coaching
enabled the US to win.
Beautiful Lake Placid.
Look at those homes around the lake
off in the distance,
and there is so much more to see up here.
Unfortunately we got rained out
but did the best I could.
Moral of this story…
Okay, the main thing
I take away from this video
is don’t easily label a place.
So you can say New York is one thing,
and New York is many things.
Even in this broad Upstate category.
Upstate New York, this is one part of it.
Which is totally different
from other parts of it
and even within that you can be
in one county like we were today
and see many different realities,
ways of living, ideology,
socioeconomic statuses,
and basic values.
Good and bad people all over the place.
But always keep that in mind
when you put an easy label on something
because the world,
the country, the state, the county
is way more granular than you think.
Thanks for coming along
on that journey, guys.
Until the next one.
[mellow acoustic guitar plays]