Town of Hague, PO Box 509, Hague NY 12836.
Phone: 518‑543‑6161.
Neighborhoods
Beginnings [1]
Hague was formed from Bolton February 28, 1807 and was first known as Rochester. The reason for changing the name to Hague on April 6, 1808, and indeed for choosing either of these names, is not apparent, because the early town records have been lost. Settlers began to arrive just before the beginning of the nineteenth century. Small saw mills and grist mills were established and lumbering, under the able direction of lumber barons Samuel Ackerman and Stephen Hoyt, soon became the most important economic factor. Even the farmers became wood choppers in winter and, in 1860, great rafts of logs were floated to Ticonderoga. The forests were rapidly cleared so that by 1880 the lumber industry was waning and instead of saw logs, poplar was being cut for the pulp mills at Ticonderoga and Mechanicville. As the early industries vanished, small scale farming and summer resorts along the shore of Lake George became the chief means of livelihood. In 1940 there were 739 inhabitants in the town.