The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
By Explorer archives
I just read your column on the phantom cougars of the Adirondacks [July/August 2010]. Almost every year I see a similar article, and invariably human sightings are blown off as misidentifications or purely imagination. Three or four years ago in May I was headed to Lake Placid for our first hike of the year. Somewhere…
By Explorer archives
In response to your article on Fred Monroe of the Local Government Review Board (“Going against the green,” July/August): People like him are stuck in the 1950s. Does he think that any tourist is going to visit the Adirondacks and spend thousands of dollars to watch people slaughtering trees, digging mines, and letting the rich…
By Explorer archives
I suppose, since the “Thunder in Old Forge” motorcycle festival must be a big moneymaker for the village, my comments will fall on deaf ears, but I have to vent! We have a camp on Raquette Lake, and there must have been hundreds of very loud cycles going by there in a nearly constant stream…
By Explorer archives
In 1893, William Seward Webb sued the state of New York for damages he claimed to have suffered from the flooding of the Beaver River, after the original dam was enlarged by the state. The higher water, said Webb, interfered with his ability to remove standing timber from his lands that bordered the river. Central…
By Explorer archives
In Phil Brown’s good article on public-navigation rights, “A 20-Year Standstill,” in the May-June, 2010 issue, John Humbach’s concluding concerns about the bill that’s currently pending in the state legislature were right on the mark. If political compromises and the vagaries of the legislative process result in changes that diminish the public’s longstanding rights, it…
By Explorer archives
In the May/June issue of the Explorer there are several references to Upper Chateaugay Lake. This unspoiled and unpolluted lake has been threatened by the sale of properties on Parson’s “Hill” bordering the lake. This hill slopes from the village of Lyon Mountain to the lakeshore. It is a forested wetland with streams and beaver-dammed…
By Explorer archives
To many of us that live year-round in the Park, nothing symbolizes the need to protect the Forest Preserve more than the image of a fire tower on a mountain summit. This is especially true for those that recall the horrendous forest fires of the early 1900s. Not a day goes by that I am…
By Explorer archives
I’m glad to see the Explorer supporting turning the Adirondack railroad line into a bicycle/recreational trail. As bicyclists who take weeks-long bike trips in the Adirondacks, my riding buddy and I would love to see a stone-dust trail to Lake Placid originating in Remsen. That would be one of the most beautiful trails in the…
By Explorer archives
My brother and I spent many happy days rock climbing in the Adirondacks. We were lucky enough to have been around in the mid-seventies when relatively little had been done and we could not only put up new routes whenever we felt like it but be the first, or among the first, to open up…
By Explorer archives
It seems like a no-brainer. A rural area like ours, with much of it designated as “forever wild” or subject to regional development controls, has to be better off than other rural areas in the northern United States. Protected to the extent that it is, the Park’s environment provides the basis for the Park’s economy…