Adirondack Park is a state park that is more like a state than a park. Its “blue line” perimeter encircles 9,500 square miles—as much as its neighbor, Vermont—and includes more than a hundred towns and villages, serving the needs of 130,000 year-round inhabitants. It also captures the largest protected forested areas in the northeast, and the highest peaks in the Empire State. The eastern side of the park is dominated by the Champlain Valley, the most developed part of the park. West of the interstate, further into the park, varieties of Adirondack style and history can be found on plain view in communities and at interpretive sites, though much is still hidden on private club land and remote family camps. Most development is on the shores of lakes, which are the park’s primary attraction, many of which were made by dams to power mills and float logs. While the extraction of timber transformed the Adirondacks more than anything else, mineral extraction has been, and continues to be, transformative too.
Some Points of Interest in the Adirondacks:
Adirondack Airport
Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium Site
Adirondack Estates Missile Silo
Adirondack Experience
Adirondack History Museum
Adirondack Park Agency Headquarters
Ausable Chasm
Barton Mines Plant
Benson Mines Pit
Benson Mines Plant Site
Camp Pine Knot
Camp Sagamore
Camp Santanoni
Camp Uncas
Clinton State Prison
Coldspring Stone Quarry
Conklingville Dam
Cranberry Lake Dam
Crown Point Fort Site
Crown Point Road Bridge
Dannemora Missile Silo
Eagle Nest
Emporium Forestry Company Site
Enchanted Forest
ESF Interpretive Center
Finch, Pruyn and Company Paper Plant
Fort Ticonderoga
Fort William Henry
Frontier Town Site
Glens Falls Big Boom Site
Gore Mountain Garnet Mine
Guggenheim Camp
Henderson Lake
International Paper Former Headquarters Building
Iron Center Museum
John Brown Farm
Kamp Kill Kare
Knollwood Club
Lake George Howard Johnson's
Lake Placid Olympic Ski Jumping Complex
Lake Sanford Site
Lake Tear of the Clouds
Land of Makebelieve Site
Ledgetop
Lyon Mountain Mine Main Shaft Site
MacNaughton Cottage
Magic Forest
Marion River Carry Site
McIntyre Iron Works Furnace
Mineville Mine Pit
Moriah Shock Prison
Mount Marcy
Nehasane Train Station
New York State Forest Ranger School
Newton Falls Dam
Newton Falls Paper Plant
North Creek Railroad Depot
The North Pole
Old Forge Dam
Opalescent River Dam
Osprey Island
Oval Wood Dish Company Plant Site
Palmer Falls Paper Plant Site
Paul Smith's College VIC
Piercefield Flow Dam
The Point
Prospect Mountain
Ray Brook Correctional Facilities
Republic Steel Separator Site
Ruby Mountain Garnet Mine
Saranac Lake Dam
Saranac Lake Lab Museum
Setting Pole Dam
Six Nations Iroquois Cultural Center
Sunmount Development Center
Tahawus Club
Tahawus Titanium Mine Site
Ticonderoga Paper Plant
Topridge
Trudeau Institute
Upper St. Regis Lake Marina
Upper Works Trailhead
Wallastonite Mine and Plant
Wanakena
W. E. Ward and Company Mill Site
White Pine Camp
Whiteface Mountain Summit
The Wild Center
William West Durant Monument
Willsboro Missile Silo