Fort Drum history tour highlights lost communities and conservation

A Fort Drum history tour on Oct. 9 took community members to historic sites across the installation’s training area, including the former North Wilna community, Lewisburg Cemetery, Quarry Pond and the remains of a blast furnace.

The tour also covered Fort Drum’s conservation work, including efforts involving grasslands, forests, rivers and streams. North Wilna was one of several communities whose residents were displaced in 1941 during the expansion of Pine Camp, which later became Fort Drum. Quarry Pond covers the former Lewisburg limestone quarry, where calcite crystals were discovered before the site was flooded in 1931.