The Trouble Begins in Hartford: Digging up the Past – Then & Now of the Historic Hotel Ampersand

The Mark Twain House & Museum welcomes Mikayla Ploof to the Trouble Begins stage for her lecture: Digging up the Past – Then & Now of the Historic Hotel Ampersand

The presentation will follow the rise and fall of the Hotel Ampersand located on the shores of Saranac Lake. The Clemens family visited Saranac Lake in 1901, and while they rented a personal cabin on the lake, they did socialize at the Ampersand Hotel and used it for their address so they could send and receive mail. Mikayla’s presentation will also take a look at what the grounds/resort looks like now.

This is a FREE HYBRID event sponsored by CT Humanities and the Center for Mark Twain Studies in Elmira, New York.
In-Person Event: FREE. REGISTER HERE.
Livestream: FREE. REGISTER HERE.

In-person attendees are invited to come to the Museum center early to visit this year’s summer exhibition For Business or Pleasure? Twain’s Summer Sojourns which highlights the Clemens family’s American-based summer vacations. Learn more about the exhibit by CLICKING HERE. Virtual attendees will receive a link to watch live via YouTube.

Mikayla Ploof studied History at Plattsburgh State University. Here she studied the Hotel Ampersand, writing a short piece of Historical Fiction on the clash of classes within the Adirondack Park. She grew up on the old grounds of the hotel, exploring the woods and constantly finding relics of the past. Her mother and her family grew up with the grounds as a “camp”. Over the past decade Mikayla and her family have been discovering bits and pieces of the history of the magnificent hotel. She is excited to share this experience.