Illustration by Mark Wilson
The main intersection in Onchiota has always been memorably quirky, an unexpected wilderness outpost at this one-time railroad stop. The corner is anchored by an old general store and adjacent seven-gabled gas station, which were opened by Hayden Tormey in the 1920s. But it was Tormey’s son “Bing” that gave the bend in the road its offbeat personality. He littered the area with cheeky signs, including the classic “Leaving 67 of the friendliest people in the Adirondacks (plus a couple of soreheads)” and “Don’t ask for directions, we’re still trying to get out of here.”
When Bing died, in 2005, the corner fell into backwoods normalcy—an abandoned IGA across from a repurposed gas station offering antiques and treats for campers. Then, a handful of summers ago, flyers appeared at the entrance of the old IGA announcing its new life as “The Station.” Social media posts for workshops and dance parties began popping up, promising that “The Curious Will Be Rewarded.”
Being both curious and reward-driven, I motored over during Summer Sessions, an annual art and music festival that’s become an underground hit. Vehicles—most notably, a sky-blue truck painted with fluffy clouds—filled the parking area and spilled down the road. Inside, the owner of the cloud-mobile, Chicago-area artist [jef]Frey Michael Austin, was exhibiting a series of photographs depicting ephemeral installations. There were also works by local artists for sale: ceramic gnomes; pulp paintings; a set of giant skeleton keys, one hanging from an animal skull, the other from a gas can.
Outside, visitors could stop in at the “invisible creatures petting zoo” or grab a transistor radio for a scavenger hunt through the woods, tuning in “sound worlds” from one transmitter to the next. But most of the crowd gamboled on the lawn, hopping among artists’ tents or waiting for the bands to start. A friendly chap offered me a Genesee from the cooler in his trunk; two women in bunny ears spun around each other in a tutu made for two. Bing’s puckish spirit had returned to Onchiota.
Echo Only and his partner, Melissa Lambert, are the authors of this “surprise oasis,” as Echo calls it. After an eclectic, nomadic existence, the pair moved to Saranac Lake during the pandemic—but quiet rustication wasn’t their game plan.
“With the pandemic, and all the social change, it was time to make a move to do something that mattered,” Echo says. In 2020, they bought Tormey’s store and the seven acres it sits upon to open an improvisational art and community space—a shared rabbit hole designed to become curiouser and curiouser.
Echo and Melissa started with small events, riffing on whatever ideas came to mind and crowdsourcing next steps. Music was an early focus, and they leaned on Echo’s event production background to bring in a grab bag of performers: A manic “Cello Goblin” playing from the treetops. A “punk-rock Arlo Guthrie.” Thrash metal. Techno. West African drum and dance. “They’re all memorable,” Echo says. “We’ve never booked anything that’s boring.”
In 2023, they launched a pottery studio and workshops in partnership with artist Carol Vossler, founder of Saranac Lake’s now-shuttered BluSeed Studio. The Station has also hosted blacksmithing and raku demonstrations, a nonviolent action workshop and a poetry reading set to interactive video projections.
Interactive art is at the heart of The Station’s latest project, an upcoming partnership with Saranac Lake–based Play ADK called the ARTcade. The exhibit, parts of which are scheduled to open later this year, will allow visitors to use classic arcade-type machines to manipulate local works of art with video, light and sound. Ultimately, Echo envisions a completely immersive space where “you can jump on a spot on the floor and it might change the clouds.”
After they finish helping others move the heavens, Echo and Melissa will focus on more earthly concerns: installing water and septic systems in the old IGA. For now, the outhouse around back will do just fine.
The Station (1 Kushaqua–Mud Pond Road, in Onchiota) hosts an Outdoor Expo and Community Gear Swap on May 16th. The center does not keep regular hours; visit www.stationadk.com or follow @thestation.yes on Instagram for events.
