Every week we share a different image on the Essex on Lake Champlain Facebook page and invite our viewers to play some Vintage Essex Trivia.

Last week we share the image above with this note: Check out this vintage postcard! Do you recognize any landmarks or buildings? Where is this? How has this scene changed when looking at it today? (Note: It’s not Essex, but in the region.)

We cropped the image to exclude the caption on the front of the postcard that reads: “Ausable Chasm, NY. Hotel Ausable Chasm and Rainbow Falls.” Did you recognize the location before reading the caption?

Here’s the conversation that ensued within the community about the image without the caption:

Bryan Nelson Elder: The old mill in Willsboro beside the Boquet River with the bridge in the distance!

Scott Sayward: AuSable Chasm with Hotel Champlain in the distance??

Essex on Lake Champlain: This is Au Sable!

Bryan Nelson Elder: Darn! Guessed wrong! It has some similar features as Willsboro. A thought came to mind that it could’ve been Plattsburgh with Hotel Champlain (now Clinton Community College) in the distance.

That big building in the background does look like Hotel Champlain, although I don’t think you could see it from Au Sable, especially looking that close. So it may be another building. The caption notes a Hotel Ausable. Has anyone ever heard of that? Though that may be referring to another building in the image. Of course this is not a photograph so the artist could have taken some artistic license with perspectives…

The postage stamp on the back shows us this postcard was mailed from Saratoga Springs, NY in August of 1909.

The video below shows Rainbow Falls as it looks today! About half-way through the video shows about the same perspective as the postcard and you can see how things have changed (or not changed).

Do you have any thoughts to share? Please leave a comment below!

Share Your Essex Artifacts

If you want to share your old photos of Essex (also brochures, postcards, menus, tickets, artifacts, etc.) on the blog please email us at editor [AT] essexonlakechamplain [DOT] com.