The Adirondacks are special. The central region rests on a dome of rock that pushes a large area above 1500 feet in elevation. Hundreds of mountains rise from this base. Significant amounts of rain and snow fill over 3000 lakes and ponds. Streams, ranging from the Hudson River to tiny rivulets, flow everywhere.
The elevation and prevailing weather patterns place the Adirondacks at an ecological crossroads. A place where Appalachian forests pushing up from the south run headlong into boreal forests more commonly seen far to the north. All of which is draped over a landscape that is still raw from the last ice age.
The human history of the Adirondacks is equally unique.
Native Americans apparently found little reason to push into the densely forested and swampy highlands of the central Adirondacks. And European colonists had barely penetrated the region by the start of the 19th century. But the great northern forest eventually attracted the attention of those who could turn trees into money and, in the later half of the 1800s, logging, mining, and agriculture pushed in from all sides.
A period of intense resource exploitation led to widespread environmental degradation with massive forest fires burning hundreds of thousands of acres. As the 19th century came to a close it was evident that the great rivers supporting New York's industrial base, and providing drinking water for rapidly growing cities, were at risk. In response, the people of New York State took an action that is likely unique in human history.
In 1894, New Yorkers voted to set aside land in the Adirondack region to be left "forever wild." Having seen how easily the public good could be pushed aside by powerful interests, those protections were included in the New York Constitution. That constitutional protection states that lands added to the preserve cannot be sold and the forests cannot be cut.
Today, the Adirondack Forest Preserve (and the Adirondack Park Agency managing it) represents a grand experiment in public policy. The vast and wild landscape, combined with the long-term protection of what is now over three million acres of publicly-held land, have resulted in a place that is unlike any other.
But maybe this fun fact is a better way to explain where the Adirondacks stand in our modern world. Hamilton County, where Long Lake is located, is one and a half times the size (area) of the state of Rhode Island. Rhode Island has a population of over one million people. The population of Hamilton County is less than 5000 people. There are thousands of traffic lights in Rhode Island. There are no traffic lights in Hamilton County. Not a single one.
Oh yes, the Adirondacks are special.