Ted Cornell’s Art Farm: A scenic hike through the Champlain Valley

The story behind Sayre Road’s scenic trail in Whallonsburg

By Tim Rowland

In the latter half of the 19th century, Sayre Road outside of Whallonsburg would have been recognizable as a dirt strip scratched in the landscape, named for the people who lived there, plowing fields, grazing livestock and mowing grain with a freakish new horse-drawn machine invented by a Wisconsin jeweler that could cut, bundle and tie a stand of wheat into neat tipi-shaped bundles.

The road is there still, although it’s been improved. The old McCormick-Deering grain binder is there too, although its condition has gone in the other direction, encapsulated as it is in rust and green lichen.

Yet the binder, and a lot of other farm-related flotsam and jetsam, has been immortalized by the artist Edward “Ted” Cornell in a series of hillside sculptures at his Crooked Brook Studio, popularly known as the Art Farm. Infirmities have taken Ted from the farm, but his art remains, as does a trail that bisects the property on its way to connecting with several other footpaths developed by Champlain Area Trails.

A new CATS trail

You can hike it at any time, but June 1 marks a special occasion in which hikers are invited to walk the farm and then connect to two other existing CATS trails before embarking on a new trail that runs nearly all the way to Whallonsburg, where there is an ongoing exhibit of Ted’s art.

Related reading: Community celebrates Adirondack artist Ted Cornell

Held in conjunction with National Trails Day, more information and registration is available at  https://www.champlainareatrails.com/Events/Detail/174

The Art Farm trail is an easy 1.5-mile round trip, leaving plenty of time to muse over Cornell’s creations. Of the sculptures, Cornell wrote “The Art Farm is a collection of objects, some of them rather large, some of them sculptures made from junk found on the property and in the area, or now sometimes brought over by people who have heard about the place. All of them are pieces with a history, things that are thought-provoking, beautiful, weird, or funny.”

To find the trailhead, take Walker Road west out of Whallonsburg to the T, then turn left (there is some disagreement on maps as to whether this is now Sayre Road of a continuation of Walker) and drive to the CATS trailhead marker on the left.

The ‘Phoenix of Wadhams’

The first to catch your eye from the grassy parking area is a burst of twisted metal officially named “Rotating Installation of a Minimally Processed Found Object.” The found object in this case was the dome of a silo placed on a pedestal in 2002 that became known as the Phoenix of Wadhams, representing the rebirth of Champlain Valley agriculture.

The trail starts out across the dam of a farm pond, a stone pyramid in its midst representing a beaver lodge. It’s one of many little surprises, including an old shack that, on closer inspection, is inhabited by a lone Cornell painting on an easel.

The trail eases gently uphill through a farm field, with a widening view of the farm and the Hurricane and Jay wildernesses in the distance. Cornell never wanted the trail to look too manicured. “The place is a farm, not an estate,” he wrote. “That is an important distinction for me. The aesthetic of a farm shows the work, where an estate works to hide it.”

Feel free to use this line next time your spouse tells you to put away your garden tools.

At the top of the rise, the trail enters a scenic cedar forest on an old logging road, which can be a bit soupy in the spring, but dries as the year progresses. The route is otherwise level and easy as it exits the woods at six-tenths of a mile to an open field and pond where, in the spring, you are likely to hear an array of shore birds loudly discussing seating arrangements.

The Art Farm trail officially ends after crossing into an adjacent field with a surprisingly broad, pastoral view of the greening landscape, set off by low Champlain hills and, in the distance, the mountains of Vermont.

Connections to other trails

If you’re just out for a stroll this is a logical turnaround point, but as the signpost indicates, it doesn’t have to be. This is the junction of the CATS Field and Forest Trail, where heading left leads to the Bobcat Trail and a new, as-yet unnamed trail to Whallonsburg. Right leads to Wadhams, fulfilling one of CATS’ main goals of connecting communities by footpath.

With only a short bit of road walking, it will be possible to hike from Whallonsburg to Wadhams for a treat at the Dogwood Bakery. Or, from Wadhams, to the River and Rails deli in Whallonsburg  for lunch.

The trails are worth it for a scenic slice of the Champlain Valley alone, but a little food never hurts.

Photo at top: Ted Cornell’s scupture “Phoenix of Wadhams.” Photo by Tim Rowland