Hadley, NY 12835
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Adirondack Facts

Bringing The Adirondacks Together

ADIRONDACK PARK

  • There are 101 Towns & Villages in the Adirondack Park. (Reduced from 103 because Keeseville dissolved 12/31/14 & Port Henry dissolved 12/31/16)  
  • There are 12 Counties that comprise the Adirondack Park. (acres) Essex (1,224,570)   Hamilton (1,156,172)  Franklin (736,691)   St Lawrence (623,076)  Warren(559,603)   Herkimer (558,869)   Clinton (326,832)   Fulton (203,240)   Lewis (164,862)   Saratoga (148,802)   Washington (101,949)   Oneida (16,617) 
  • The Adirondack Park is 50.55% privately owned land and 49.45% state owned land.
  • The 6 million acre Adirondack Park is the largest park in the contiguous United States.  Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier, and the Great Smokie National Parks would all fit into the Adirondack Park with room to spare.
  • The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) was created in 1971 by the New York State Legislature to develop long range land use plans for both public and private lands within the boundary of the Park. 
  • In 1894, a Constitutional Convention approved article VII (now article 14), bringing New York’s Forest Preserve under the state’s highest level of protection.  This proposal, along with other amendments from the Convention, was approved by the people at the 1894 general election and became effective January 1, 1895.   http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/55849.html    
  • The rocks making up the Adirondack Region are amongst the oldest rocks on the planet (around a billion years old).  However, the Adirondack Mountains are relatively young despite being composed of very old rocks.
  • The first hotel in the United States to have electric lights was the Prospect House in Blue Mountain Lake, where the Adirondack Museum is located.       

NEW YORK STATE:

  • New York State has over 70,000 miles of rivers and streams.
  • The Genesee River in Western NY is one of the few rivers in the world to flow south to north.
  • The Erie Canal, built across New York State in the 1820’s, opened the Midwest to development and helped New York City become a worlwide trading center.
  • The Seaway Trail covers 454 miles along scenic vistas of Niagara Falls and the Thousand Islands.
  • New York’s highest waterfall is the 215 foot Taughannock Falls in the Finger Lakes Region of Tompkins County. It is the highest single-drop waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains. 
  • Oneida Lake is the largest lake entirely within New York, with a surface area of 79.8 square miles.   
  • The 641 mile transportation network known as the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway is the longest toll road in the United States.
  •  There are more than 400 golf courses and 55 downhill ski areas in New York State. 
  • Joseph Gayetty of New York City invented toilet paper in 1857.
  • New York was the first state to require license plates for cars.
  • The “New York Post”, founded in 1803 by Alexander Hamilton, is the oldest running newspaper in the United States.
  • Union College in Schenectady is regarded as the Mother of Fraternities because Delta Phi is the oldest continually operating fraternity and Kappa Alpha and Sigma Phi Societies were started on Campus.
  • The first railroad in America ran a distance of 11 miles between Albany and Schenectady.
  • The first capital of the United States was New York City.  In 1789 George Washington took his oath as president on the balcony at Federal Hall.
  • It took 31 years, from 1867-1898, to build the State Capitol Building.  
  • The Catskills are the home of the legend of Rip Van Winkle.
  • The oldest cattle ranch in the US was started in 1747 at Montauk on Long Island.
  • Gennaro Lombardi opened the first US pizzeria in 1895 in New York City.