West Canada Creek - Nobleboro

Nobleboro

Nobleboro is located at the intersection of the north and south branches of the West Canada Creek. Arthur Noble built a saw mill there to export lumber to Ireland. In 1790 Noble got a road built to Nobleboro so that he could ride to his saw mill in a coach-and-four. Some logging occurred at Nobleboro before the Civil War, but by the late 1800s a new call for lumber and paper caused new activity in the woods of the region. Pulp and paper mills were built at Hinkley, with saw mills and a debarking mill at Nobleboro. The vast forests to the north were still in private ownership and they supplied these industries for decades. Each spring logs and pulpwood were flushed downstream on the wave of snowmelt and Nobleboro was an important staging area for these log drives. If you walk down to the river's edge you can still see the foundation logs of the river drive dam that controlled water flow during these times. Log drives continued on the West Canada Creek until 1949. Since then the land here has healed nearly hiding the once thriving industrial complex once known as "Nobleboro, the gateway to the great north woods". The watershead at Nobleboro covers some 240 square miles (620 km2) of the southwestern Adirondack Park, and is rich in natural resources. The West Canada Lakes Wilderness Area has been expanded to include Fort Noble Mountain. Fort Noble Mountain was the site of a fire tower that was erected in 1916 until it was deactivated and removed in 1985. A kiosk next to the stream at Nobleboro, spells it "Nobleborough", however virtually every map and book refer to it as "Nobleboro."