There have been many changes since Indians bathed at Saratoga's hot springs, mountain men trapped in area streams and millions of buffalo, elk and antelope grazed the plains. In Saratoga 150 Years, native and local author, Elva Evans, unfolds the history of Saratoga and the Upper North Platte River Valley through remarkable stories and historical photographs.
Celebrate a century and a half of horse racing in Saratoga Springs with stories of the events, horse and people who have made its summers so special. Since the inaugural meeting of August 1863, Saratoga Springs is home to one of the oldest sports venues in the country and has been the scene of memorable races, often featuring legends of the sport. Although some of the epic moments are still familiar today, such as Upset’s defeat of Man o’ War in the 1919 Sanford Memorial, many of the triumphs and defeats that were once famous have been forgotten. Few remember the filly Los Angeles, who thrived at Saratoga, winning sixteen stakes races, or the influential, sometimes suspicious, reasons why the track was closed three times for a total of six years. Authors Allan Carter and Mike Kane take a look back at these and other important but neglected stories and present statistics from the pre-NYRA years and a rundown of the greatest fields assembled at America’s oldest track. “As the subtitle promises, the book consists of unexpected tales regarding Saratoga people, horses, and happenings--things that even certain racing historians had no previous clue about. Kane and Carter are uniquely well-equipped to guide readers down this curious road less traveled.” —Mary Simon, Daily Racing Forum
Saratoga Springs is colorful not only culturally and historically, but also literally. Come spring and summer the historic resort town is filled with lush plantings in the public parks, around private homes from the grandest to the most modest, at the Saratoga Race Course grounds and the Skidmore College campus, and even throughout the business district along Broadway. Rather than discouraging Saratoga's green thumbs, the challenging northern climate only inspires residents to celebrate the return of warm weather and the horse-racing season each year with joyful displays of gardens, fountains, and flower-filled containers of every description. "History, health, and horses," the city's motto, neatly sums up Saratoga's most famous attributes. In this celebration of the region's gardens and the people who create them, photographer and writer Janet Loughrey shows us that "horticulture" should be added to that list.
As much social history as sports history, this is an account of how America's first national resort, Saratoga Springs, gave birth to and nurtured its first national sport and in the process had significant impact on American cultural life. Fine bandw photographs, etchings, and drawings illustrate the text. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Brilliant afternoons awash in sunshine . . . health, history, and horses . . . this is the experience Saratoga Springs spreads out for visitors, year after golden year. From the long distant past, the powerful waters from deep in the earth made this place a wellspring of the healing arts. The allure of meeting in the healthy country environment brought society first from the eastern cities and then from all points of the globe. Society itself became an object for summer entertainment, and connecting with living history came to be a recreational pursuit. Nestled in the foothills of the Adirondacks, Saratoga Springs, across two centuries, has been the midsummer mecca. There is more to Saratoga Springs. While the Spa City opens its arms to all travelers, along with the charms there stands a robust, cheerful, and stalwart core of residents who have over the years transformed a northern wilderness into an oasis of leisure and elegance. Behind the grand hotels of Broadway and America's Monte Carlo are the mansions of Union Avenue and Circular Street, the winter play, and the personalities shaping a place of character, comfort, and culture. Saratoga Springs: A Historical Portrait is their story--the small town at the heart of the City in the Country.
World-famous as the Queen of Spas, Saratoga Springs entered a golden age in the Victorian years and the world flocked to its doorstep every summer. The rich and famous rubbed elbows with a growing post-Civil War middle class popularizing a new concept, the summer vacation. They came ostensibly to take the waters at the bubbling mineral springs, but what they really came for was to see and be seen on the grand piazzas of the magnificent, colossal hotels that lined Saratoga's Broadway, and to share in the limelight of glittering balls and fabulous parties.The grace and opulence of America's Victorian era faded with the dawn of the twentieth century, and almost all of the buildings and views in this book have long since disappeared in clouds of dust from the wrecker's ball or in spectacular cataclysmic infernos, but in Saratoga Lost, Robert Joki takes the reader on a guided tour of that grand era with hundreds of historic photographs from the author's extraordinary private collection, complemented, by period artwork.
Long before there was a Las Vegas, there was a Saratoga. In a time before radio and television, Americans in the Gilded Age viewed Saratoga as the culmination of their hopes and dreams. Then as now, captains of industry and the very wealthy mingled with middle-class visitors for a summer sojourn punctuated by social events, parties, business, and the races, where major stakes days drew sell-out crowds. In Saratoga Stories, Jon Bartels regales readers with tales of the colorful characters of yesteryear such as Diamond Jim Brady and John Morrissey and racing stars like Man o' War and Native Dancer as well as modern-day personalities such as Marylou Whitney and legends like Secretariat. Throughout its long history, Saratoga Race Course has played host to the best - and sometimes the worst - that horse racing has to offer.
In the early 1800s, Saratoga Springs was mostly a tourist destination because of its natural mineral waters and their healing powers. But that changed in 1863 with the opening of the Saratoga Race Course. From then on, summers in the Spa City came alive with the excitement of the sport of kings. Since the victory of the great horse Kentucky in the introductory Travers Stakes, the racecourse has showcased the sport's greatest champions. Otherwise seemingly uncatchable thoroughbreds--including Man o' War and Secretariat--faced unexpected defeat on its turf, earning Saratoga the nickname the Graveyard of Champions. Author Kimberly Gatto chronicles the story of the oldest thoroughbred racetrack in the country, with tales of the famous people and horses that contributed to its illustrious history.
The year 2011 marks the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, and so the time is right for this indispensable collection of 150 key places to see and things to do to remember and to honor the sacrifices made during America’s epic struggle. Covering dozens of states and the District of Columbia, this easy-to-use guide provides a concise text description and one or more images for each entry, as well as directions to all sites.