Former Explorer Publisher Dick Beamish interviewed longtime Newcomb supervisor George Canon for the November/December 2007 issue. Canon died Sunday, June 18, at the age of 77.
Big plans for North Hudson
State wants to replace moldering Frontier Town at Exit 29 with $32 million Gateway to the Adirondacks By Rick Karlin Since its closure in 1998, Frontier Town could be more accurately described as a ghost town, but parts of the moldering theme park would be granted new life in a $32 million plan by the state to establish a Gateway to the Adirondacks at Exit 29 on the Northway. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the plan in his State of the State Message in January and filled in some of the details later in the month. It will include an >>More
The master trail builder
Retired Forest Ranger Steve Ovitt aims to connect North Creek with the wild lands around the community. By BILL MCKIBBEN To really understand this story, you have to bear in mind two distinctive things about North Creek. One, it butts up against the mountains much tighter than most Adirondack communities. Start on the path that runs beside Town Hall (within sight of the Hudson), and within minutes you’re climbing steeply up Gore Mountain, entering one of the largest wilderness complexes in the Park. Two—and this negates the first advantage— North Creek is one of the few Adirondack hamlets bypassed by >>More
Building on tradition
Guideboat makers carry on a craft born in the Adirondacks in the mid-1800s. By MIKE LYNCH Building a traditional Adirondack guideboat is a complex task, with ribs carved from spruce-tree roots and with thin hull planks held in place with several thousand tiny tacks. It can take many weeks to complete one. “I grew up working with wood one way or another, and these are by far the most complex, demanding things, by a long shot, I’ve ever built,” said Rob Davidson, who started building guideboats a few years ago after moving to the Adirondacks from Oregon. Most builders spend about three >>More
Deluges in forecast
Climate change is expected to bring heavy rains, more floods, and more damage to communities. By Mike Lynch A few years ago, Paul Smith’s College scientist Curt Stager came across a rare find that he says helps tell the story of climate change in the Adirondacks: the journal of Bob Simon, a retired engineer and longtime resident of Cranberry Lake. Simon, who died in 1991, kept a meticulous journal with entries for temperature, wind direction, barometric pressure, water level, ice cover, when loons arrived, and when thunderstorms occurred. He made entries twice a day, morning and night, for the last >>More
APA approves rail trail
Despite agency’s vote, train supporters say the long battle over the state-owned rail corridor is not over. By Phil Brown The Adirondack Park Agency voted 9-1 in February to approve a controversial proposal to split a state-owned rail corridor into a rail segment and a trail segment, but the debate over the best use of the corridor is not over. The proposal calls for removing thirty-four miles of track between Lake Placid and Tupper Lake and fixing up forty-five miles of largely unused track between Tupper Lake and Big Moose. If implemented, Adirondack Scenic Railroad will have to discontinue a seasonal tourist train >>More
White stuff = green stuff
Warmer climate bodes ill for Adirondack businesses that rely on winter tourism. By Mike Lynch The most profitable months for the tourism-based businesses in the Adirondacks are without question July and August. This is when families take their summer vacations, the weather is warm, and the bugs are tolerable. But while summer is crucial for small businesses, a successful winter season can mean the difference between making money or not for the year. Vinny McClelland, owner of the Mountaineer in Keene Valley, knows this as much as anyone. His business depends on customers who recreate in the outdoors. In winter, they include >>More
Oil in them thar hills
Iowa Pacific’s plan to store empty tanker cars on tracks near the High Peaks alarms environmentalists and sets state lawyers to scrambling. By Phil Brown The Iowa-Pacific rail company took state officials and environmental activists by surprise in July when it unveiled a plan to store hundreds of drained oil-tanker cars on its tracks near Tahawus on the edge of the High Peaks Wilderness. Ed Ellis, the president of Iowa Pacific, says revenue from storing the cars will help keep afloat its tourist train, the Saratoga & North Creek Railway, which has been losing money. Critics contend Iowa Pacific is >>More
ACR awaits first sales
Developers say Tupper Lake project remains on course, but big things won’t happen overnight. By Brian Mann Last winter, the massive Adirondack Club and Resort proposed for Tupper Lake cleared its final major hurdle. After more than a decade of debate and controversy, environmental activists and a handful of local property owners who fought to block the project were dealt a sweeping defeat by the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court. The December 2014 ruling, upholding permits issued by the Adirondack Park Agency two years earlier, appeared to open the way for the $500 million project to move forward. It was hailed as a historic moment for the community. “I think the pieces >>More
A push for clustering
Environmentalists lobby for stricter development controls in wake of subdivision of Woodworth Lake property. By Phil Brown Environmentalists say the approval of a housing development at a former Boy Scouts camp underscores the need for tighter regulation of privately owned backcountry lands in the Adirondacks. All four of the Adirondack Park’s major environmental groups opposed a plan to subdivide 1,119 acres in Fulton County into twenty-four building lots, most of them bordering two water bodies, Woodworth Lake and Hines Pond. Nevertheless, the Adirondack Park Agency board voted unanimously to approve the subdivision in January. APA officials said the project had >>More