Edward E. Chartrand has been a stickler for finding water for more than seven decades.
The 86-year-old Harrisville resident discovered he had the gift at age 12 while growing up in Jerdon Falls (near Croghan) and his father hired a dowser.
"He put down the stick and went to the barn," Mr. Chartrand recalled. "When he went in, I tried it, and found water."
He has since helped hundreds of people in the north country by "witching water" or finding water sources suitable for wells.
Mr. Chartrand, Larry T. Vielhauer of Ogdensburg and the Forrence family of Peru, Clinton County, are this year's honorees of the Canton-based Traditional Arts in Upstate New York's Salute to North Country Legends.
A ceremony to honor them is Oct. 18 at Best Western University Inn, Canton.
"People find me by word of mouth. This is the first time I've had any advertising," Mr. Chartrand said of the TAUNY award. "I was surprised as all outdoors."
Mr. Chartrand, of County Route 812, said that besides the Harrisville and Gouverneur areas, he often goes to the Watertown and Alexandria Bay areas to dowse.
He began charging for his services only recently, but just to pay for the gas he uses. He said a water well driller can charge $35 a foot to dig to a source, so he can save people lots of money preventing false digs.
"I come within three or four feet of a source," Mr. Chartrand said.
He said he can also note where water veins come together.
"There's quite a lot to it," he said.
Mr. Chartrand uses only a freshly cut crotched stick from a fruit tree.
"Only certain people can do it," he said of his skill, and added it's a mystery why he has the gift. He said some have theorized it has to do with a person's electrical field or charge.
"I don't think anybody knows," he said. "It's a gift from the Lord."
Mr. Chartrand retired 24 years ago. He served in the Army and was employed at the former J&L Steel Corp., Star Lake, for 15 years and at Viking-Cives snowplow plant in Harrisville for 19 years.
■ ■ ■
Mr. Vielhauer is a native of Ogdensburg, where he has practiced taxidermy for more than 40 years. TAUNY calls his 721 Park St. showroom of mounted fish and mammals a small museum of native north country wildlife in an imaginative setting.
Although he prepares all kinds of mammals, birds and reptiles, his specialty is fish. He has won awards in state and national competitions for his fish mounts, especially muskies from the St. Lawrence and Grasse rivers.
In 1981, Mr. Vielhauer started his Northeastern School of Taxidermy, where he teaches up to three people at a time who come from across the nation.
■ ■ ■
A TAUNY release notes the Forrence family settled in the Champlain Valley in 1807 and has been engaged in a variety of agricultural pursuits since. In 1942, Virgil Forrence bought the former Lapham farm and with his three sons developed one of the region's most extensive apple orchards.
Forrence Orchards was recently awarded the Century Farm Award by the New York Agricultural Society. Today, the farm is operated by a third and fourth generations of Forrences. Members farm 1,350 acres and produce and store about a half million bushels of apples per year. Seventy-five percent of the production is the McIntosh variety.
