The Saranac River is an 81-mile-long (130 km)[3]river in the U.S. state of
New York.
Geography
In its upper reaches is a region of mostly flat water and lakes. The river has more than three dozen source lakes and ponds north of Upper Saranac Lake; the highest is Mountain Pond on Long Pond Mountain. In the last third of its length it drops two-thirds of its total drop, and is known for having navigable rapids, which make it a popular site for
whitewaterkayaking and
canoeing.[4]
The river encompasses
Upper,
Middle and
Lower Saranac Lakes, as well as
Oseetah Lake,
Lake Flower,
Franklin Falls Pond and
Union Falls Pond, and flows through the village of
Saranac Lake; there are
locks between Middle and Lower Saranac Lakes and between Lower Saranac and Oseetah, although the drop is only a few feet. Thirty-three miles further northeast, the river flows through the Town of
Saranac, before winding through Plattsburgh, reaching Lake Champlain after a further 23 miles.
Origin of name
The name of the river is from the
Abenaki word zalônák:tégw, composed of the free noun root zalôn, meaning "
staghorn sumac cone"; -ak, the Abenaki plural suffix for nouns of the animate
noun class; and the bound noun root (i.e., suffix) -tégw, meaning "river."[1] Other names for the river are Riviere Saint Amant, Riviere Saint Arnont, Riviere Salasanac, Sal-a-sa-nac and Salasance.[2]
^Jamieson, Paul and Morris, Donald, Adirondack Canoe Waters, North Flow, Lake George, NY: Adirondack Mountain Club, 1987.
ISBN0-935272-43-7.
^Day, Gordon M. "Abenaki Place Names in the Champlain Valley." In Foster, Michael K. and Cowan, William, eds., In Search of New England's Native Past: Selected Essays by Gordon M. Day, pp. 229–262, Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998.
ISBN1-558491-50-3.