Welcome to Sturgeonville

Welcome to Sturgeonville

by Don Rittner

Before it was SmAlbany our capital city was known as Sturgeonville and Sturgeontown during the mid 19^th century. Instead of being an Albanian you were considered a “Sturgeonite” from “Sturgeondom!”

The Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus) was a favorite fish of the Albany Dutch as recorded as early as 1779.  It happens that the sturgeon once occupied the Hudson River in multitudes. Locally they spawned at the base of the Cohoes Falls. Sturgeons range from four to eight feet in size and weigh from 100 to 450 pounds each. The heaviest weighed in at 486 pounds in 1851. One sturgeon 10-½ feet long weighing 350 pounds was caught in 1855. In Albany the sturgeon were sold at Fish Slip dock at the foot of Maiden Lane.

“Albany Beef” (Atlantic Sturgeon). Source: A View from the Beach Blog.

Sturgeon suckling a cow on this 1809 butter churn playing off the Albany Beef name. Hudson River Panorama: A Passage Through Time
By Tammis Kane Groft, W. Douglas McCombs, Ruth Greene-McNally. 2009.

The harvest season began in April lasting to the first of September. Around 2500 per season were pulled from the Albany area. That amounts to 312,500 pounds and at the rate of 6 cents per pound it brought in $94,000 in today’s dollars. Sturgeon oil was extracted to the tune of 100 barrels and used for lighting and medicinal uses. At $1.25 per gallon it brought in over $37,000 a year.

The fish was sold and known as “Albany Beef” no matter where it was caught in the Hudson. It’s red flesh looked like fresh beef although the white portions were also passed off as veal.

During the Revolution the British used Albany Beef as slang. Albany sturgeon was so popular there was a quickstep march written called “Albany Beef” and was published in 1862 in Bruce & Emmet’s Drummers’ and Fifers’ Guide. In 1883 a fellow tried to trademark the name Albany Beef but was denied.

At the turn of the 20^th century Albany beef was hauled in at 3000 tons a year along the east coast and its eggs (caviar) sold at $250 a pound. By 1998 the population had plummeted to a catch of only one ton. In February 2012 it was officially listed as an endangered species.

Albany Beef March, 1862. Source: Andrew Kuntz.

While Albany was called Sturgeonville as a derogatory term there is a real Sturgeonville 60 miles southwest of Richmond Virginia. This unincorporated settlement is located near Sturgeon Creek where the Atlantic Sturgeon continues to enter and spawn each year.