Hamlets To Huts to get land in Wells for developing lodge

Adirondack Land Trust also helped facilitate recent Baxter Mountain land deal, adding 107 acres to the state forest preserve

By Mike Lynch

It appears the nonprofit Adirondack Hamlets to Huts will get its first property and have the opportunity to build a lodge thanks to a donation and the efforts of a number of entities including the Adirondack Land Trust (ALT). 

The 18-acre property is located off Route 8 in the town of Wells in the southern Adirondacks. It is across the road from the Griffin Gorge and neighbors the Wilcox Wild Forest. 

“It just felt like the site had great frontcountry potential for lodging and access,” said Adirondack Land Trust Executive Director Mike Carr. He called the nearby river corridor on the East Branch of the Sacandaga “stunningly beautiful.” 

The property is part of a larger transaction involving 78 acres that had been owned by the estate and heirs of Fernando Sisto. The Sisto family donated 37 acres to the state in June 2024 for inclusion in the Forest Preserve and the remaining 41 acres were bought by ALT in September for $80,000. 

The land trust plans to sell 23 acres to the state for the Forest Preserve and donate the remaining 18 acres to Hamlets to Huts, once the state has secured a public recreation easement on the property. 

The land intended for the Forest Preserve is adjacent to the Siamese Ponds Wilderness and includes 1.1 miles along the East Branch of the Sacandaga River, including the Griffin Gorge. 

Hamlets to Huts Executive Director Joe Dadey said his organization was grateful to the Sisto family, ALT, state Department of Environmental Conservation and the partners that put together this project. The town of Wells, Hamilton County Industrial Development Agency and Adirondack leader Bill Farber all played a role in the transaction, according to ALT.

“It is exciting because this is our first donation of land, so we’re pretty psyched about that,” Dadey said. 

Dadey and former educator Jack Drury conceived the idea of for a community-based hut to hut system about a decade ago, and they helped spearhead the project into a nonprofit in 2017. Hamlets to Huts has been creating a series of self-guided and guided routes throughout the park, connecting people to communities, lodging facilities, and the park’s woods and waters.  

The nonprofit has an office, store and info center in downtown Saranac Lake and currently promotes four self-guided trips in the southwestern and central Adirondacks and is developing additional ones. 

Once it secures the new land and raises enough money, Hamlets to Huts plans to build a lodge that would accommodate between 36 and 42 people and would have private rooms and bunk rooms, a community kitchen, and an on-site caretaker overseeing the property, Dadey said. It would also establish a trailhead on the property.

The site is currently home to a hotel in disrepair that would be torn down next summer.

From there, the plan is to develop the property through a phased approach. The first phase would consist of having glamping tents on the property. Once the organization raises enough money, it would have the lodge built.  

The property would use a series of existing trails to connect the towns of Wells and Speculator, and have a spur trail to Piseco, Dadey said. He envisions both hikers and cyclists using the trails in the warmer months. 

Baxter Mountain donations

The deal was one of two the land trust announced recently. 

The nonprofit also gifted 107 acres on the western shoulder of Baxter Mountain to the state in October 2024 for inclusion in the Forest Preserve. That property came into ALT’s position from the Hyson family who donated it to them in 2022. 

“That scenic corridor was one of the prime conservation values that everyone involved – the Hysons, the state of New York and the land trust – ultimately felt like it was really worth doing,” Carr said. 

The forested land also protects steep slopes, connects to the existing Forest Preserve and contains 1.4 miles along the East Branch of the Ausable River. 

The project is one of three that the land trust has worked in the immediate vicinity of Baxter over the years. 

The Hysons also donated 79 acres in 1996 to ALT, which later donated the property to the state for the Forest Preserve. 

In addition, ALT protected 40 acres through a conservation easement to protect agricultural land and a scenic vista along Route 73 in 1994. 

Photo at top: From left, Hamilton County IDA Executive Director Christy Wilt, Hamlets to Huts Executive Director Joe Dadey, local government leader Bill Farber, and ALT’s Megan Stevenson at Griffin Gorge on the East Branch of the Sacandaga River in the town of Wells. Erika Bailey, courtesy Adirondack Land Trust