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Peter Hendersonphenders@butler.edu

Review of Session 1• The Adirondack Park is in what state?

• The ADK is the largest park in the

• Todays ADK park landform is mainly due to

• The word Adirondack means ??????, a derogatory Iroquois word for the Algonquins. Answer:

• Rivers & Streams in the Adirondack park flow in all directions

• The Adirondack park is a blending of private and preserved forest lands – “forever wild”

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Lake Champlain

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TheBlueLine

There are about 110Forest rangers

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• There are 46 high peaks above ~4,000 feet in the ADK park

• Artic alpine plant zone – very fragile, endangered (humans)

• Highest is Mt Marcy (Mohawk : Tewawe’éstha) @ 5,343 feet

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Adirondak Loj at

Heart LakeJohns Brook

Lodge

AdirondackInterpretive Center

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2018

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Potsdam

Lake Champlain

Lake George

Lake Placid

Fort Ticonderoga

Willsboro

Westport –ADK Chair

Old Forge -Bacon Brothers

Keesville –Ausable Chasm

Tupper Lake –Wild Center

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View of Willsboro Point from top of Rattlesnake Mountain

Burlington, VT

Green Mtns

Willsboro Bay

Lake Champlain

Major threats to the Adirondacks

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• 1800 – 1880

– 1800 > Majority of land was “virgin forest”

– 1880 > ~29% of land was “virgin forest”

• 1900 – 2000+

– Acid rain & Mercury Pollution – Midwest power

• Aquatec Invasive species

– Zebra mussels, Lamprey Ells, milfoil

1193% of land in ADKs today are forest

12Lake Placid, NYWhat is the name of the lake in this photo?

13Lake Placid News Column – “World Focus” Frank Shatz

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City of Lake Placid &Mirror Lake

Lake Placid

Whiteface Mountain

Atmospheric Sciences Research Center

Veterans Memorial Highway

Early Mining in ADKs

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• wollastonite, mined near Harrisville

• magnetite and hematite, mined at the Benson Mines, Lyon Mountain, Mineville, Tawahus, and Witherbee.

• graphite, mined near Hague and Ticonderoga.

• garnet, mined at the Barton Mine, north of Gore Mountain.

• anorthosite, Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake areas

• Marble & zinc & titanium

• What were the largest mining operations in the Adirondacks?IRON: especially Civil War – Adirondack iron constituted 25% of union.

The iron used to build the USS Monitor was mined in Hammondville, separated in Ironville, processed in Crown Point & shipped by railroad along Lake Champlain.

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McIntyre Iron Mine at Tahawus NYMining Ghost Town

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Lake Tear of the Clouds

Henderson Lake

Opalescent Brook

Calamity Brook

Camp Santanoni is the only

Adirondack Great Camp that is both

publicly owned and open to visitors

year-round (1893)

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Expanding public awareness of the Adirondacks (1800’s – 1900’s)

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• Artist – Winslow Homer, Thomas Cole, Georgia O’Keeffe, Rockwell Kent

• Authors & Poets – Nancy Drew, Robert Frost, James F. Cooper, Seneca Ray Stoddard (photographer & author), Theodore Dreiser (An American Tragedy)

• William H. H. Murray, “Adirondack Murray” father of the outdoor movement ~1869, “Murray’s fools”

• Rich & Famous - Edward L. Trudeau, Teddy Roosevelt, Great Camps – Vanderbilt’s, Rockerfeller’s, Presidents

Camp Pine Knot - W.W. Durant's first Great Camp 1885

Murder of Grace Brown in 1906, inspired the fictional character Roberta Alden in Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy

Berkeley Lodge, President Benjamin Harrison’s Adirondack Residence

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North Country Employment – October 2017

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There are 13 correctional facilities in the region

region is economically challenged

Manufacturing –wood & building products

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Downtown Dannemora – population ~4,000, of which ~3,000 are prison inmates

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6% of the market value of all agricultural products in New York State

Many small family owned farms & ranches

Apples

Wildway Overlook

Amish

Grapes & Hops, wineries

27Wildway Overlook

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15 years added about 60 new trails

Wildway Overlook

Fire Towers

Opening the ADKs to Public

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William H. H. Murray, “Adirondack Murray” ~1869

Transportation in late 1800’s, waterways & railroads, helped open the ADKs for those wishing to escape from major cities

Adventures in the Wilderness or

Camp-Life in the Adirondacks and

Adirondack Tales (1877)

Books considered influential books

in the conservation movement of

the 19th century,

“health-giving and spirit-enhancing”

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Paul Smith's

College Visitor

Interpretive Center

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Bluff Point - Lake Champlain 1890 (Clinton Country Community College)

Stevens House – Lake Placid 1877(demolished late 1940s).

Prospect House –Blue Mt Lake 1877(torn down in 1915)

Fort William Henry Hotel – Lake George 1855(Fire 1909)

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The Great Adirondack Camps

“The Gilded Age”

Camp Pine Knot

Camp Santanoni

White Pines camp

Camp Sagamore

There are many other lesser known “great camps”. Some even for sale now$$$

Camp Pine Knot - William West Durant. Begun in 1877, it was the first of the "Adirondack Great Camps“

Huntington Memorial Camp

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Durant @ Pine Knot, 1890

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ADK great camp style include log and native stonework construction, decorative rustic items of branches and twigs, and layout as a compound of separated structures.

Pine Knot today, owned by SUNY Cortland and is only open to the public on July 30th during Durant Days.

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Flat Rock Camp, Willsboro Point 1890’s Paine FamilyLake Champlain

36Great camp built by Brazil ambassador to the United States in early 1900’s

Keene Valley

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Trains in ADKs- Crown Point south along

Lake Champlain & LakeGeorge (Civil War)

- from Saratoga Springsto North Creek*

- Adirondack Scenic

Railroad to LakePlacid (ride this now)

- Lake Placid to Paul Smiths

- Several others- Old Forge- Saranac Lake- NYC to Montreal

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