Photos from the Archives: Adirondack Splendor

The 6 million-acre Adirondack Park was declared a forever wild area by the New York legislature in 1882. Over the last 30 years, we’ve canoed many of its serene streams, hiked its rocky peaks, and reluctantly fed millions of its black flies. The businesses in the small towns throughout the park remain mostly family-owned giving it an old-timee feel I find irresistible. You see quaint lakeside cottage villages with names like Journey’s End and Offtrack Bedding. Great lodges welcome travelers with tree trunk porch columns, moosehead trophies and snarling black bears standing on their hind legs. Many of the buildings have a rough-hewn siding I call Adirondack because I’ve never seen it anywhere else.