A former reporter for the Potsdam Courier and Freeman has published a book of historical sketches on North Country topics based on his reporting nearly 60 years ago.

Murray Shor, who now divides his time between Rockland County and the Lake Champlain shore, was a reporter for the now-defunct Potsdam newspaper in 1957. In a foreword to his new volume, “St. Lawrence Ripples: Tales of the North Country,” he explains that the book grew out of some articles and columns he wrote that had been recently unearthed by his grandson.

The chapters have headings such as “The First Teacher in Potsdam,” “The Last Steamboats on Black Lake,” “Parishville Whiskey and the Parishes,” and “The Racquette River Monster.”

The articles and his column, also called “St. Lawrence Ripples,” “provide personal glimpses based on old diaries, family documents, interviews with residents and their descendants, legends and other research material in the North Country of St. Lawrence County,” he writes.

Shor describes himself as a reporter-photographer, editor, columnist and publisher of more than 55 years’ experience.

He expresses gratitude to Potsdam Public Library Director Patricia Musante, who led him to the growing digital archive of old newspapers on the Northern New York Library Network.

Shor says on his web site, Shor2.com, that the book is available through Amazon “and all retail bookstores. Shop indie first!”