Vic Kibler continues a strong musical tradition in the southern Adirondacks, performing many old-standard jigs, reels, and hornpipes he got from his family. Vic's youngest son, Paul, worked with him in 1992 to produce a collection recognized as an outstanding folk recording by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.

Jim Cleveland and his daughter Colleen are descendants of Scottish and Irish settlers and sing the traditional ballads of those communities, usually without unaccompaniment. Some of the family's very old ballads have not been collected from any other North American source.

The traditional basketmakers of the Mohawk nation at Akwesasne are known for fine ash splint and sweetgrass work. Some travel to colleges, museums and international pow-wows to teach and show their craft. Samples of their work are owned by major museums, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Vatican.

Bill Massey was one of the last of the traditional St. Lawrence River guides and decoy makers. For more than 70 years, Massey carved countless decoys, both for hunting and for prized decorations. He used no photographs as models; instead he relied on his vast knowledge of St. Lawrence River birds, gained through first-hand contact.

First celebrated in 1897 as a diversion for tuberculosis patients taking the mountain air "cure," the Saranac Lake Winter Festival includes the construction of an elaborate ice palace, races, snow sculpture, concerts, dinners, dancing, the crowning of royalty and a fireworks display.

Beginning in 1954 with a roadside statue of the Virgin Mary, Veronica Terrillion has created a remarkable thing, a total environment of sculpture on her three-acre homestead in Lewis County. Over 400 images include animals (zebra, deer), religious images (a nativity scene and St. Francis of Assisi), and representations of her family members.

By the age of twelve, Clarence Richards was playing fiddle for local dances in the Corinth area of Saratoga County and substituting for the caller when necessary. Early in his music career, he lost his left hand in a paper mill accident, but within six months he had discovered a way to continue playing. "Daddy Dick" was an early entertainer on Radio WGY in Schenectady. He has performed with many prominent country and bluegrass music stars.

Catholicism has its roots deeps in the history of Akwesasne, the St. Regis Mohawk reservation straddling the St. Lawrence River between the US and Canada, going back to the French Jesuit mission established there in the 1750s. The church choir there preserves a unique tradition of Christian music sung in the Mohawk language, and acts as a bridge between two often discordant cultural traditions.

Ham Ferry earned the reputation of being an authentic Adirondacker and a consummate storyteller. Ham's Inn, a small bar located at Sevey's Corners near Childwold, was Ferry's natural setting and the spot where he held listeners rapt for hours on end. Much of the material for Ham Ferry's stories came from his life as a woodsman, lumberman, and a wilderness guide.

Edith E. Cutting—teacher, author and folklorist—was born in the Essex County town of Lewis, on a small family farm. Encouraged by her college mentor, she interviewed her friends and families and collected examples of their old customs, stories and sayings. Her first collection was published in 1944 as Lore of an Adirondack County.

Don Woodcock, a dairyman from Kendrew Corners won the New York Fiddling Championship so often, he was declared grand champion and asked to retire from the competition. He began playing by accompanying his father on piano, and later taught himself a variety of traditional fiddle and dance styles.

The Brier Hill Volunteer Fire Department continues one of the region's oldest community suppers—a bullhead feed. Begun in 1937 as a fundraiser, the bullhead feed is a community-wide social event, with nearly 1000 meals served. An informal master-apprentice system prepares young cooks, who are trusted with the well-guarded "secret recipe" for this regional specialty.

As long as 100 years ago, balsam pillows were made and marketed in the Adirondacks to tourists who wanted to take an aromatic reminder of their vacation home with them. This Adirondack tradition is still alive in Big Moose Lake. The Big Moose Community Chapel began holding balsam bees in the 1930s.

The Ouimet family see themselves as preservers of a number of vanishing tradions. They play traditional music in the French American ethnic tradition, and they pass the music on within the family, performing as a family band. Old-style Quebecois rugmaking is among the other talents of this Valley Falls family.

Jim Brabant of Clayton is a fifth generation river man and a quintessential 1000 Islands fishing guide. In his teenage years he would hang out with the old guides in the same boathouse where he keeps his boat on French Creek Bay today. Hear him talk about stalking the king of St. Lawrence River Muskies.

Carl Hathaway of Saranac Lake is a master builder of Adirondack guideboats, which were originally designed, in Carl's words, as "pickup trucks, working boats." Today they are prized as examples of fine woodwork and are featured in many premium museum collections.

Bill Smith is known throughout the Adirondacks and beyond as a master of many traditional arts of the region, including the making of split ash baskets. He also performs and records stories and songs about local life, including his 1994 collection Tales from the Featherbed.

Alice Clemens of Osceola started fiddling at the age of seven, learning dance tunes from her uncle, Art Colvin. For most of her life, she has played for parties and country dances near home and has collected hundreds of nearly-forgotten tunes from old-time musicians. Alice co-founded the North American Fiddlers Hall of Fame, which maintains an extensive archive and sponsors fiddling events each year.

Roger Huntley of Crary Mills has been an auctioneer since the late 1950s. The sixth generation of his family to operate their 300-acre dairy farm in the town of Pierrepont, Roger knows country things and country people. He still conducts the premier old-time sales in the northern Adirondack foothills and St. Lawrence Valley.

The Hollis family lives along the shore of the St. Lawrence River in Red Mills, New York. Along with a generations-old passion for fishing and hunting, the family is known for their popular handbuilt wooden "Hollis punts" and for superbly carved duck decoys.

Bea Reynolds of Burke has always been well known to her family, church, and community as a special home maker. Helping feed a big family, she learned early from her mother. Bea began in 1985 to enter breads, doughnuts, rolls, cookies, cakes, canned vegetables, fruit, pickles, and pies at the Franklin County Fair in Malone. She came away the Grand Champion Cook.

The Volunteer Fire Department Band of Norwood (more familiar to many as the Norwood Brass Firemen) dates back to the late nineteenth century. Varying over the years from eight to twenty four members, they have played at everything from local celebrations to presidential inaugurations and the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.

Each June since 1973, The Adirondack Mennonite Camping Association has presented the Beaver Camp Auction at the Lewis County fairgrounds, featuring traditional quilts made by local sewing circles. Handmade furniture and crafts, antiques, plants, and even firewood are auctioned all day. In addition, the event offers a vast array of traditional foods.

In the 1940s, Ray Fadden [Tehanetorens] began to teach young Mohawks about their own culture. With a group of young men from the reservation, he traveled to collect information about Mohawk history and trained them in woodsmanship and other traditional arts. Fadden later founded the Six Nations Indian Museum in Onchiota, where an impressive collection of historical Iroquois artifacts are exhibited.

Generations of women have been responsible for the perpetuation of religious and ethnic customs among Watertown's Italian Americans. Ida Jane Alteri recalls the procession for the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel through the old Italian section of Watertown.

In a corrugated metal shed 60 yards from the Church of the Assumption in Redford, New York sits one of the few early merry-go-rounds or carousels made by the Armitage–Hershell company that is still in operation. No one can say precisely how or when it ended up in Redford. It only operates two days out of the year but it is a part of the life of this community and brings the generations together. Lamar Bliss reports.

Redford, New York is a tiny blip on the map today but, like many Adirondack towns, it has been through periods of boom and bust. During a boom time, in the mid 1800s the Roman Catholics came together and built a church which was consecrated on August 15, 1855. Ever since then parishioners take a day in August to get together for the Redford Picnic. The event has become a fundraiser for the church and parochial school, but for the families that have been attending for generation after generation it is much more. Lamar Bliss attended last year's picnic.