Adirondack Life

It’s incredibly important and incredibly unsexy.” After Sean O’Brien said it, I looked at the group of Adirondackers gathered around—mostly concerned citizens and scientists. If ever there was a crowd that thinks biodiversity is sexy, this was it. O’

A lbert Alletag—a New York City butler who dabbled in photography—captured this early-20th-century Whiteface Mountain resident with “keep out” and “hands off” scrawled on his cabin. The photo—perhaps cheekily titled Camp Welcome—appears in Adirondack

Mildred Riley Greb took up residence on Park Avenue in Saranac Lake in late 1921. Her husband, Harry, and two-year-old daughter, Dorothy, joined her there the following spring. The family spent much of the next two years at this home, known at the ti

Later that afternoon I suggest we go on a hike. Explore the surrounding area and get a start on Seth’s research. “Why don’t you go ahead?” he says, stirring the last of the powdered creamer into another cup of coffee. Maybe I should go to town instea

Last spring we launched the My Adirondacks Project with our friends at the Adirondack Land Trust (ALT) because we were curious about what kids who live in or visit this place see and feel when they turn their attention to the natural world. We asked

Samuel Champlain’s map of New France had traced his namesake waterway by the early 17th century, but the interior reaches of the Adirondack region remained a mystery well into the 1700s. Early cartographers left a blank space for much of the region,

ON CHRISTMAS DAY, 1964, Colonel Richard Stewart was on high alert as he almost always was. Commander of the 820th Strategic Aerospace Division in Plattsburgh, Stewart’s arrival at the air base a year prior had come as North Country residents were wra

LAST SUMMER, when Gerry Delaney spoke at a public forum about the future of the Adirondack Park, the conservative councilman from the town of Saranac laid out a vision that’s become a startling new normal. He acknowledged deep policy divides while in

Sleigh bells ring—literally—at Hohmeyer’s Lake Clear Lodge in the wintertime. The retreat is an iconic Adirondack destination in all seasons; after all, it’s been welcoming guests since the 1880s, when it operated as a stagecoach inn and trading post

Adirondack chronicler and biographer Maitland De Sormo described Seneca Ray Stoddard as “gentle, easy-going, (and) unassuming.” He was not above poking fun at himself; even when a life-threatening mishap was the subject of his humor. One of the emerg

Maybe it’s just a whisper of woodsy that your family and friends prefer—representations of the natural world, earthy colors, materials that come from the forest. This season, if you’re searching for presents for your Adirondack-loving crew, read on f

It’s easy to get tongue-tied at the beauty of the Tongue Mountain/Northwest Bay loop, a challenging, 15-mile trek with dazzling views of Lake George. Tackling it makes for an epic outing, especially on a sunny November day. Just don’t underestimate i

Only male gobblers actually gobble, using the distinct call to attract dates during mating season or to run off other toms. Yes, turkeys can fly—at least the wild, not overly stuffed ones—and at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. Wild turkeys were extir