The Adirondack Park

The Adirondack State Park is the East's greatest wilderness
The heart of this great Park is its treasured public lands, the Forest
Preserve, which was created by an act of the Legislature in 1885. "The
lands now and or hereafter constituting the Forest Preserve shall be
forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be sold, nor shall
they be leased or taken by any person or corporation, public or private".
In 1884 a "Blue Line" was used to dilineate a proposed park boundry. That
Blue Line has been used to dilineate the Park since 1892 when the
Adirondack Park was created to encompass that portion of the Adirondacks
which included the Forest Preserve and the intermixed private lands. During
the last 100 years, numerous purchase have increased the Forest Preserve
from the original 681,374 acres to its present 2.6 million acres. The Blue
Line, originally encompassing 2.8 million acres, now encircles nearly six
million acres. The Adirondack Park is the largest State or National Park
in the United States outside Alaska, it is 2.5 times the area of
Yellowstone National Park and roughly the size of the State of New
Hampshire.

The Adirondack Park

A Brief History

The Adirondack Mountains were originally claimed by two Indian
nations, the Iroquois and the Algonquins. Neither of these two nations ever
settled in the region, but they did however fight over the LakeGeorge -
Lake Champlain water route through the Adirondacks. This was a very
valuable resource, because it was the easiest route through the Adirondacks

The Lake George - Lake Champlain water route has been the object of many
battles. In 1609, Samuel de Champlain, a frenchman, who was traveling
through the Lake Champlain area with some Algonquin Indians, when they
encountered a band of Iroquois. The French fired on the Iroquois. This was
the beginning of a feud that lasted until 1763 when the French were driven
from the area.

Lake George Narrows from 5th Mountain

The English and the French Battled over the Lake George - Lake Champlain
water route for many years. Each side saw that by controlling the land in
between the lakes they could therefore control the water route. In 1690 the
British established a trading post on Crowne Point, but soon abandoned it.
The French then seized the site in 1730. In 1731 the French built Fort St.
Frederic on Crowne Point, which grew into a small town and trading post.
St. Frederic was the first settlement in the Adirondack area.

Lake George Narrows from Black Mountain

1755 saw the British build a fort on the south end of Lake George, and named
Fort William Henry. The French not to be out done built a fort on the north
end of Lake George in Ticonderoga. The Fort was originally known as Fort
Carillon, but was later renamed Fort Ticonderoga by the British. In 1757,
as part of the French and Indian War, French General Montcalm, captured Fort
William Henry. That very summer the French were defeated. The English took
control of all the forts and forced the French from the lakes. When the war
ended and the dust settled in 1763, the English ruled all of Eastern North
America.

In May of 1775, in the wake of the American Revolution, Ethan Allen and the
"Green Mountain Boys" came across Lake Champlain from Vermont, and demanded
the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga. The first American Navy fought on Lake
Champlain against an English army invading from Canada. On October 11 1776
Benedict Arnold led a fleet of ships on Lake Champlain against the English.
His ship went down after 7 hours of battle, but they delayed the English
long enough to stop the invasion. In the next year the Americans lost
control of the lakes to the English. The English were able to advance south
to Saratoga where they were defeated and driven out of the Adirondacks. The
Adirondacks once again fell quiet.

Mt. Marcy Highest Peak In N.Y.

How it came to be known as "The Adirondack"

This area was first named "the Adirondacks"when
Professor Ebenezer Emmons did his irst geological survey of the region
in 1837.

"The cluster of mountains in the neighborhood of the upper Hudson and
Ausable rivers I proposed to call the Adirondack group, a name by which
a well-known tribe of Indians who once hunted here may have commerated.
It appears from historical records that the Adirondacks or Algonquins in
early times held all the country north of the Mohawk, west of Champlain,
south of Lower Canada, and east of the St Lawrence, as their beaver hunting
grounds but were finally expelled by superior force of the Agoneseah, of
Five Nations. Whether this is literally true or not, it is well known
that the Adirondacks resided in and occupied a northern section of the
State and undoubtedly used a portion at least of the territory thus counted
as their beaver hunting ground. The name is not as smooth as the
above historical fact has induced me to propose the one given above"

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Pictures and Quotes used by permission from Greg, visit his site it is awesome.