Big Racquette Inc.

About Big Racquette Inc.

The Raquette River comes down out of the Adirondacks and gives itself to the St. Lawrence right here, and Massena has arranged both its winters and its summers around that water. Big Racquette Inc. works the whole turn of the year — plowing and sanding driveways and lots through the long north-country cold, then mowing, trimming and edging once the ground finally lets go in May. Winter this far up is less a season than a residency: storms track the river valley for weeks, and the same drive is opened again and again before first light. Come summer those same properties want an even cut and borders held tight, with cleanups at both ends of the calendar. There is a satisfaction in knowing a place through both extremes — how it drifts in January and where it thins out in August.