Mount McGregor is well known as being home to a correctional facility but is often forgotten as being an important landmark in history. It was atop Mount McGregor that Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, spent the last six weeks of his life before succumbing to throat cancer.

It was June 1885 when Grant left his New York City home for a cottage in Saratoga County. Already given his cancer diagnosis and the grim outlook of imminent death that came with it, Grant was determined to complete his memoirs as a means to provide financial security for his family. Grant had been ruined financially when a junior business partner embezzled the invested capital.

The cottage was owned by Joseph W. Drexel, who offered it to the former president as a place to spend his last days. On the good days, Grant sat on the cottage’s front porch or was wheeled to an overlook for views of the upper Hudson and lower Champlain valleys, the Green Mountains, the Berkshires and the Taghkanic Hills. On bad days, Grant would remain in bed, looking out a nearby window at the same view....