Fresh Wall, Spier Falls Area, The

This area may be haunted (note below).4 existing routes on the most obvious lines of The Fresh Wall, all under 30 feet.There is a 3rd class ridge perfect as a descent route, separating the slabs and the wall.There is a lot of evidence and remnants of quarrying (probably near the time of the dam or power lines above) with some natural rock still available (beware of loose rock, some large plates that may not be obvious without a hammer tap).I have been kicking around the Fresh Wall area for 15+ years but started to clean it up recently.The Fresh Wall is a few hundred feet before the Wet wall (Ice).~ I have spent countless hours here over 15 years or so, mostly at night between 10PM and 1AM with a number of overnights in winter. I have been creeped out beyond description and only recently realized the "Skull Boulder" is staring directly at the location of the area's most deadly tragedy. 29 men died building the dam, and the bodies of many that ended in the water were never recovered. The Italian team, 18 of the dead including the boy known as 'cigarette' who reached for the line pulling the workers' ferry across, took water on when his comrades moved to secure him and ease his panic, and capsized sending many downstream. Some bodies were found, including the mason Frank Kenedy and Fred Farran of Warrensburg whose tragedy continued:"The body of Fred Ferran, the first to be recovered, was taken to the home of his mother-in-law in Warrensburg on Sunday, March 8, in anticipation of the funeral. His wife, Blanche, was shaken beyond words, but her mother provided comfort and convinced Blanche to take a nap, for she hadn’t slept since the accident. Rising in the early afternoon, she spent several minutes with Fred’s body, then walked past family members to the woodshed and shot herself, dying within the hour. A note contained her final wishes. To My Family: I have done all I could for dear Fred. Now it seems that I must go with him. We were so happy together that I cannot live on without him. As a last request of mine, lay us together with Alfred’s baby. I am sure he would want it so, as I could not be buried in the Catholic cemetery. [She had been divorced earlier.] e loved each other so dearly that we must go together. He said to me many times that if I went, he would go, too. Now that God took him first, I must go with him. Forgive me in this for it is better so. Blanche Ferran

She and Fred were buried in the same grave."Lawrence P. GooleyAdirondack Almanack, 2018