As usual, the information for this story was found deep in the archives of the Adirondack Room in the Saranac Lake Free Library.

The Saranac Lake News, later merged with the Adirondack Enterprise published the following great piece of history on May 20, 1914; but the tale of Lake Flower and the land around it goes back to the 1800s.

“The history of the ownership of the land about Lake Flower, particularly its lower end, which is likely to be rehearsed in court before many months on account of the action of Harold Thomas against certain individuals enjoying water rights in the vicinity of his dock, [which was directly across the street from where St. Bernard’s School is now located] was given in detail a few days ago by Village Clerk Seaver A. Miller, whose conclusion is that the fundamental question to be decided is where is now ‘the low water mark’ in the lake or on its north side?

“The history reaches back to the time when Pliny Miller, the first settler in this region after the Moody’s and the founder of the Miller family here, acquired with one James Bushnell title to the three hundred acres across from John R. Thurman and others, who disposed of several thousand acres in all. The tract included all of the land in the present corporation and more besides and belonged originally to Tract No. 1, one of the five Macomb tracts secured by Alexander Macomb. Deed to all water rights was included in the deed of the land.

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Gained full title in 1827

“Pliny Miller deeded eighty acres to his son, John Jay Miller, out of the tract mentioned, to which he gained full title in 1827. He deeded other portions to other children, but the eighty acres tract is the one which includes all the land now under dispute. It was he who built the first dam in 1828.”

[There is then a detailed deed description which is difficult to follow, such as, “the line began at the southeast corner of township 21 at the upper end of Lake Flower nearer the southern shore than the northern, running thence through the present bed of the lake to the bridge abutment on the north side, from which it follows the middle of Main Street”then it picks up here]

“John J. Miller acquired the foregoing tract on May 10th, 1885. On August 1st, 1865, Mr. and Mrs. John J. Miller deeded it to Arvilla E. Blood and that deed goes on to read, “eighty nine degrees West, six chains and twenty nine links to the place of the beginning containing one acre and 17-100 seventeen hundredths more or less after”

“Practically the entire deed is written by Pliny Miller himself, with several corrections and additions. The signature of Polly Miller is firmer and more uniform than that of her husband which sprawls up into the printed matter. Van Buren Miller was witness. The Town Clerk was N. M. Marshall, when the deed was recorded July 14th, 1887.”

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The blood family bought more property

[John J. Miller and his wife, Abigal, sold a second piece of land to Arvilla E. Blood dated February 11, 1865. The deed reads that the land runs to the Butment at the East end of the bridge across the Saranac River. It is probably the land now occupied by the Harrietstown Housing building at the end of Main Street. That area where the first ski jump was erected was known as ‘Blood Hill’.]

“Arvilla E. Blood sold all of the 80 acre tract to her brother Orlando Blood upon her death and the latter deeded what he had left just before his death to Wallace Murray, whose brother married the adopted child ‘Ettie’ Blood. The brother went West, but the marriage had something to do with the close relationship between Mr. Murray and the Bloods. He was the executor of the estate of Orlando Blood.”

[I had never found much about the Blood family history until this piece}

“The Bloods came from Lewis, Essex County, to Keene, where they had a hotel. Jay Miller, uncle of Milo B. Miller, had put up a hotel where Riverside Inn stands now, but Orlando Blood was the first to actively run it. The place was quite a resort for river drivers and lumbermen for many years. There were three other Blood brothers; Raymond ran a farm and George and Pascal lived with him.”

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Sever miller’s thoughts on the issue

“None of that water or land under the water has been assessed separately. The state has twice appropriated money to clear out the stumps from Lake Flower. Does the state appropriate money to improve private land? Orlando Blood conveyed his water rights, part of them to the village and part to the electric light company which was the predecessor of the Paul Smith’s Company. The only question is. Where is low water mark? Does that mean where the water is today or where it was after the dam was built?”

[ I can remember Tom Cantwell, Village attorney for many years often declaring when disputes came up on lake property; ‘those property rights reach to the thread of the stream’, meaning, of course, near the center of the lake when it was a river.]