List of Facts

The summit of Whiteface offers a 360-degree view of the Adirondacks. Glimpses of Vermont and Canada can be seen when the sky is very clear.
With 47 waterfalls, Essex County in the Adirondacks has the most waterfalls in New York State.
New York State has over 561 waterfalls. The falls in Essex country account for 6.60% of all the falls in the state. In comparison, Clinton County only has one waterfall.
To get into the park, there is no admission fee or “entrance gate,” as well as no designated boundary that is marked.
The Adirondack Park is the largest park found in the continental United States of America.
The Adirondack Park at about 6.1 million acres is larger than Yellowstone (2.2 million acres), Yosemite (0.76 million acres), Glacier (1 million acres), Grand Canyon (1.2 million acres), Great Smokies (.5 million acres) National parks combined.
The Adirondack Forest Preserve is one of two constitutionally protected forest lands, the Catskill preserve being the second park, in the United States. No other state has their forest parks protected under state constitution.
About 60 million people live within a days' drive of the Adirondack park region.
There are no cities within Adirondack Park - the largest area without a city in New York State.
“Vacation” was a word termed in the Adirondacks in the 1900’s when the upper class would vacate the cities to relax and escape the summer heat and deadly fevers. Americans vacate when taking a break, while the British prefer the term “holiday.”
Hamilton County, located in the Adirondacks, is the 3rd largest county in New York State.
There is one traffic light in Hamilton County (at Long Lake) in the Adirondacks.
Hamilton County also has the smallest population, 5,279 (1990), of any county in New York State, as well as the lowest population density at 3.1 people per square mile.
Lewis County has about twice as many cows (53,000) as people (27,000).
The names of both Lake Placid, surrounding Mirror Lake, and Saranac Lake, surrounding Lake Flower, do not reflect the lakes located in them.
The length of all the rivers, brooks, and streams located in the Adirondacks is about 31,200 miles, which is longer than the circumference of the Earth (24,900 miles). It is also about one-eighth of the distance to the moon.
The first hotel in the United States to have electric lights was the Prospect House in Blue Mountain Lake, where the Adirondack Museum is located. The prospect house was a large hotel built by Frederick Durant in Blue Mountain Lake in the late 19th century. This is amazing for a hotel back then to be in the middle of nowhere, secluded from most of society, at the time of its construction.
Loons are commonly found nesting on many lakes found in the Adirondacks.
The Adirondack Mountains have an uplift growth rate of one foot every 100 years, which is about 0.12 inches per year.
The Nile River, located in northeastern Africa at about 4,130 miles long, is the largest river in the world. The Hudson River, stretching from Newcomb, located in the Adirondacks, to the boundary between New York City and the State of New Jersey, is about 315 miles long. Only 156 of those miles are located within the Adirondack boundary, which is only about 0.03 the length of the Nile River.
While being driven from Tahawus Club near Mt. Marcy to North Creek, in the early morning hours of September 14, 1901, then-Vice President Theodore Roosevelt learned that President William McKinley had died at 2:30 AM. At North Creek station, Roosevelt was sworn in as the 26th President of the United States.
About 7-10 million tourists visit the Adirondack park every year, while only about five million people travel to view the Grand Canyon annually.
The 556th Strategic Missile Squadron at Plattsburgh operated 10 silos in northern NY, six of which were within the Blue Line of the Adirondack Park.
From 1860-1900, the state bought 967,000 acres of forest That is the equivalent of 879,090.91 football fields.
The Adirondack Region is comprised of 12 counties encompassing 92 towns. There is a population of 994,082, which breaks down to 60.2 persons per square mile, on average.
Ampersand Mountain, a 3300-foot peak in the High Peaks region, was made bald by Verplanck Colvin during his 19th Century survey. He used Ampersand as a survey station and ordered the removal of all the trees from the summit; now nothing but bare rock remains.
Lewis and Clark charted the Northwest region of the U.S. three decades before the first ascent of Mt. Marcy, and 70 years before the source of the Hudson River was discovered.
“Far above the chilly waters of Lake Avalanche at an elevation of 4,293 feet lies summit water, a minute, unpretending, tear of the clouds — as it were — a lovely pool shivering in the breezes of the mountains and sending its limpid surplus through Feldspar Brook to the Opalescent River, the well-spring of the Hudson.”
The oldest houses in the park can be found along the Champlain shore (built before 1900).
The preserve contains over 1500 miles of designated hiking trails 303 of which are in the High Peaks region of the park.
The village of Saranac Lake lies within three towns (Harrietstown, North Elba, and St. Armand) and two counties (Essex and Franklin) within the Adirondack park. The village boundaries in fact do not even touch any of the shores of the three Saranac Lakes (Lower, Middle, and Upper Saranac Lakes).
New York State established the Forest Preserve in 1885, which was an act of the Legislature declaring that any State-owned lands in eight of the Adirondack counties should “be forever kept as wild forest lands.” This means that the land could not be sold or leased.
In 1892, the Adirondack Park was created to encompass the Forest Preserve lands, as well as private lands, in the central region of New York State.
An informal poll found that the five most annoying Adirondack bugs are the blackfly, mosquito, deerfly, 'no-see-um' or punkie, and the housefly, in that order.
Fort William Henry, located at the southern end of Lake George in the Adirondack Park, was used during the French and Indian War and was the fort in James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Last of the Mohicans.
“The Park is a mosaic of 2.5 million acres of state-owned Forest Preserve intermingled with 3.5 million acres of private land.”
Starting as a wilderness settlement in the 1870s, Saranac Lake became a world renowned center for the study and treatment of tuberculosis.
The Adirondack Mountains are the only mountains in the eastern United States that are not geologically related to the Appalachian Mountains
The rocks making up the Adirondack region are amongst the oldest rocks on the planet (around one billion years old). However, the Adirondack Mountains are relatively young despite being composed of very old rocks.
The High Peaks region in the Adirondack Park is primarily made up of Anorthosite, which is a type of rock that is more often found well underground rather than at the surface of the Earth. Lunar anorthosite makes of the light colored areas of the Moon’s surface.
Most of the major features of the Adirondack landscape that you see today are a result of the last Ice Age, 10,000 years or so ago.
Esther Mountain is the only peak in the Adirondacks that is named after a woman. Esther McComb made the first ascent of this peak when she was 15-years old.
The Adirondack Mountains form a circular dome rather than an elongated range of mountains such as the Rockies and the Appalachians.
The calamity of Calamity Brook and Calamity Pond was the accidental death of David Henderson at what is now known as Calamity Pond in 1845.
Vermont is about the same size as the Adirondack Park.
England is about 5.3 times the size as the Adirondack Park.
California is about 17.5 times the size of the Adirondack Park.
About 18.6 Adirondack Parks can fit in the state of Texas.
Portugal is about four times as large as the Adirondack Park.
Japan is about 15.5 times the size of the Adirondack Park.
Madagascar is about 24 times the size of the Adirondack Park.
The Island of Sicily has approximately the same land area as the Adirondack Park.
New Zealand is about 11 times as large as the Adirondack Park.
Panama is about three times the size of the Adirondack Park.
The Adirondack Park is three times the size of Puerto Rico.
The State of New Hampshire has about the same area as the Adirondack Park.
Four areas of the state of Delaware could fit inside of the Adirondack Park.
About 1,562 Adirondack Parks could fit on the surface of the moon.
There are 46 high peaks in the Adirondacks, which were originally surveyed to be over 4,000 feet each. The tallest is Mt. Marcy at 5,344 feet. If all of the 46 peaks were stacked on top of one another, they would reach 202,643 feet. In comparison, the height of Mt. Everest is 29,029 feet, which means that the height of all of the high peaks is about 7 Mt. Everests.
The Peak of Mt. Marcy is at an elevation of 5,344 feet, which is just over a mile. A mile is 5,280 feet.
Lake Placid hosted the third Winter Olympics in 1932. In 1980, Lake Placid became the first site to host two Winter Olympic Games. Today, only two other locations have hosted two Winter Olympics: Innsbruck, Austria and St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Approximately 137,000 people live in the Adirondacks year round. This means there are about 15 people per sq. mile in the Adirondack Park. In comparison, the population density of New York City is about 27,000 peoploe per square mile.
It takes about 11-30 trees to build an average home. In the 1800s, an experienced axe man could cut enough trees in one day to build 2 -6 homes.
A good axe man in the 1800s could cut 70 trees a day. One tree makes approximately 16.67 reams of paper (500 sheets per ream). In the 1800, a good axe man could cut enough trees each day to make 1167 reams, or 583,500 sheets of paper.
If a good axe man in the 1800s could cut enough wood each day to produce 583,500 sheets of paper, the paper would make it about .004 of the way around the 131,472,000 foot (24,900 mile) circumference of the Earth. It would take 250 days of cutting to have enough paper to make it around the earth one time.
A good axe man in the 1800s could cut enough wood each day to produce 583,500 sheets of paper. If laid end to end, the paper from one day of cutting could make it 0.0365 of the way from New York City to Los Angeles. With about 28 days of cutting, there would be enough paper to go the 14,663,088 foot (2,777 mile) distance.
The source of the Hudson River is Lake Tear of the Clouds on the southwest slope of Mt. Marcy. The source was discovered in 1872 by Verlpank Colvin, the first person to survey the Adirondack Park.
Verplanck Colvin surveyed the Adirondacks between 1872 and 1900, creating 440 field books describing the region. The Lewis and Clark Expedition lasted for only about two and a half years (1803-1806).
The Great Fire of 1908 destroyed over 350,000 acres of forest in the Sabattis and Long Lake areas of the Adirondacks.
The Great Fire of 1908 destroyed every structure in Long Lake including storehouses, lumber yards, and the schoolhouse.
The first fire tower was constructed in 1909 on Mount Morris. By 1916, timber fire towers were reconstructed with steel, and Forest Rangers became the fire watchmen of the Adirondacks. In 1918, each tower was supplied with a properly oriented circular map table attached to an alidade, which was a fire sighting tool.
The first forest ranger in Tupper Lake was John Timmons; his job description was to “patrol the woods and stop fires before they started or spread.”
There are still four trees on the former A.A. Low property that pre-date the Great Fires of 1903 and 1908. These trees are commonly known as “Virgin Timber” and can be accessed by foot from Virgin Timber Landing on Low’s Lake in Long Lake, NY.
1909 saw the first in a long series of policy and practice changes that led to the suppression of forest fires.
The soil near the virgin timber landing was so badly burned due to the high heat of the Great Fires of 1903 and 1908 that even today, if one digs an inch or two into the soil, they will easily find soot and ash.
The Great Forest Fires of 1903 and 1908 devastated nearly one million acres of forest in the Adirondacks.
Whiteface Mountain Ski Resort located 13 miles from Lake Placid, is consistently ranked as one of the top ski resorts in the Northeast united States.
Whiteface Mountain’s highest lift unloads passengers at about 4,386 feet, which has a vertical drop of 3,166 feet all the way to the base. After reaching the summit of whiteface, there is an unmaintained wilderness area known as The Slides that is rarely open, due to safety hazards. With the addition The Slides, which are 264 feet higher and require hiking to get to, Whiteface Mountain has the greatest continual vertical drop in the Northeast United States at about 3,430 feet.
All six of the alpine ski competitions in the 1980 Winter Olympics were hosted at the Whiteface Mountain Ski Resort. Other major alpine ski events, such as the United States Alpine Championships in 2010, are regularly hosted at the ski mountain as well. It is known as a U.S. Olympic Training Site.
Carl Schaefer built the first rope tow pulley system used for downhill skiing near what is now the Ski Bowl on Gore Mountain in North Creek.
The word Adirondack comes from the Mohawk Indian word ratirontaks, which means “tree eaters.” This name was given to the neighboring Algonquin-speaking tribes as an insult because when food was low, the Algonquins could be seen eating buds and bark of trees.
The Adirondack Museum opened on August 4, 1957 with initial collections from the local Blue Mountain Lake area. Today, the exhibits at the museum incorporate over 30,000 object, 70,000 photographs, 9,511 books and 800 pages of original manuscript materials.
The Adirondack Museum is the largest museum in the Adirondacks.
The original exhibits shown at the Adirondack Museum included the Marion River Carry Railroad engine and passenger car, a stagecoach, several horse-drawn vehicles, the steamboat Osprey, a birch bark canoe and dioramas showing the different ways of life and history of the Adirondacks.