Towns & History

Malone, and the places around it

Malone is the Franklin County seat and the town you will use, about ten road miles north of the cabins: supermarkets, pharmacies, fuel, the hospital and most of the restaurants are there. It has a longer story than its size suggests. The British attacked the village in the War of 1812, one arm of the Fenian raids into Canada was staged from here, William A. Wheeler practiced law here before he became vice president, and in 1935 a Malone jury acquitted the gangster Dutch Schultz. The Franklin County Historical and Museum Society keeps that history at the House of History on Milwaukee Street.

Thirteen road miles away in Burke, the Almanzo Wilder Farm is the restored boyhood home of Almanzo Wilder and the setting of Farmer Boy, the book his wife, Laura Ingalls Wilder, wrote about his childhood; Almanzo attended Franklin Academy in Malone. The farm closes through the winter months, so plan it for a summer or early-fall stay.

In August the Franklin County Fair, held since the 1850s, fills the fairgrounds on East Main Street for nine days. The Malone Golf Club, nine road miles from the cabins, has 36 holes on two courses: an East Course whose front nine Donald Ross and Willard G. Wilkinson laid out in the 1930s, with Robert Trent Jones holes on the back nine, and a Robert Trent Jones West Course. Tee times are open to visitors.