The Adirondack Story 

People first arrived in the area following the settlement of the Americas around 10,000 BC. The Algonquian peoples and the Mohawk nation used the Adirondacks for hunting and travel but did not settle. European colonisation of the area began with Samuel de Champlain visiting what is now Ticonderoga in 1609.

In 1664 the land came under the control of the English when New Netherland was ceded to The Crown. After the Revolutionary War, the lands passed to the people of New York State. Needing money to discharge war debts, the new government sold nearly all the original public acreage about 7 million acres for pennies an acre. Lumbermen were welcomed to the interior, with few restraints, resulting in massive deforestation.

In 1884, a commission chaired by botanist Charles Sprague Sargent recommended establishment of a forest preserve, to be "forever kept as wild forest lands." and in 1885, New York State Legislature designated particular counties in the state as places where Forest Preserve could be acquired in the future. State land in these areas was to be conserved and never put up for sale or lease.

In 1894, Article VII, Section 7, (renumbered in 1938 as Article XIV, Section 1) of the New York State Constitution was adopted, which reads in part:

The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed.

In 1902, the legislature passed a bill defining the Adirondack Park for the first time in terms of the counties and towns within it. In 1912 the legislature further clarified that the park included the privately owned lands within as well as the public holdings.

The restrictions on development and lumbering embodied in Article XIV have withstood many challenges from timber interests, hydropower projects, and large-scale tourism development interests. Further, the language of the article, and decades of legal experience in its defense, are widely recognized as having laid the foundation for the U.S. National Wilderness Act of 1964. As a result of the legal protections, many pieces of the original forest of the Adirondacks have never been logged and are old-growth forest.

The Adks Today

Today, the Adirondack Park is the largest park in the continental United States, but it is not an isolated wilderness. The park is home to some of the best fishing, hiking and camping on the eastern seaboard. The fall brings world-renowned foliage that peaks in September, and in winter you can enjoy world-class skiing and snowboarding at Whiteface Mountain or snowmobile on the thousands of miles of trail available across the park.

Read more about the Adirondacks at Wikipedia, or visit the Adirondack Museum or Tupper Lake Wild Center near Camp Beside the Point to learn more!