A History of the Adirondacks

The Adirondack region is the most mountainous, wild, and natural area in New York State. It is a special and unique geological formation that was created millions of years ago. The Native Americans, except for occasional hunting forays, generally avoided it. This area has been a focus of intense interest for the residents, developers, and politicians since the 1850s. The purpose of this article is to describe its history, natural resources, and the efforts of the conservationists and the state to protect the area from exploitation and maintain its wild and scenic values.

Geology

The Adirondack region is located in the northeast quadrant of the state. It is elliptical in shape. The long axis extends along a slightly northeast-southwest line from the Mohawk River watershed to the St. Lawrence River drainage basin. The shorter axis measured along an east-west line from the western shoreline of Lake Champlain extends westerly to a point about 33 miles from Lake Ontario. The actual dimensions are 144 by 93 miles, encompassing an area of 13,392 square miles or 8,570,880 acres. This is about 26 percent of the entire land area of New York State. This region is shown in relief in Figure 1. Figure 2 shows the physiographic divisions of the entire state.

Geologically the region is an uplifted dome about a mile high with 46 separate mountain peaks from 3,820 to 5,344 feet high, the highest of which is Mt. Marcy. These mountains are listed in Table 1. This region is commonly thought of as an extension of the Appalachian chain extending down the eastern coastal region. It is not. It is part of the Precambrian Shield that underlies much of Canada. The rock forming the Adirondack region is millions of years old. Apparently it was formed underneath 15 miles of overlying rock and gradually uplifted over the eons and is still uplifting two to three millimeters per year. The rock itself is gneiss, a granitic rock that resists erosion and does not store water, as do sandstone and carbonate deposits (limestone). It provides little or no buffering capacity for precipitation and runoff. Adirondack soils are geologically young and generally thin, sandy, infertile, acidic, and impacted by drought, particularly at the higher elevations. Soils at the lower elevation consist of glacial deposits and outwash plains much more suitable for plant and forest growth. The separate physiographic divisions of the Adirondack Province and the Appalachian Plateau are shown in Figure 2. The finger-like extension of the Appalachian Plateau northwest of the Mohawk valley constitutes the well-known Tug Hill area.

The successful conclusion of the Revolutionary War signaled the rapid growth of the new nation. Counties and towns within counties were established, covering the entire state by 1850, including the Adirondack region. Immigration increased rapidly, and development and the start of manufacturing got underway. Crown lands passed to New York State including most of the Adirondack region. In turn, the land was sold to developers to harvest the resources. This region was a cornucopia of natural resources. Timber and iron were at the top of the list. By 1850 the timber industry was booming. Between 1851 and 1871 the number of 13-foot logs harvested rose from 130 thousand to over one million. They were floated down the Hudson River to the paper mills at Glens Falls. By the 1890s hardwoods were also harvested for the paper industry, as well as for furniture manufacture. There was no clear cutting for these purposes. However, the iron industry needed charcoal to operate their forges. This led to devastating practices as vast areas were completely stripped to make charcoal. There was no such thing as sustained yield in those days. The general practice was to buy the land from the state for very low prices, harvest the wood, and then abandon the land and let it revert back to the state. Verplanck Colvin, the director of the state survey of the region, reported to the New York State Legislature in 1874,

Unless the region be preserved essentially in its present wilderness condition, the ruthless burning and destruction of the forest will slowly, year after year, creep onward . . . and vast areas of naked rock, arid sand, and gravel will alone remain to receive the bounty of the clouds and be unable to retain it.

Other voices were raised calling for the state to take action. The legislature responded in 1883 by withdrawing all state lands from sale and, in 1885, adopting legislation establishing the Forest Preserve (FP) stating that the land “shall be forever kept as wild forest lands.” This was just the start of protecting the Adirondack wilderness, and the battle would continue for the next one hundred years. The purpose was to preserve, renew, and improve the forests, the wildlife, and the landscape, and to safeguard water resources for future generations. It was thought necessary to protect and maintain the water resources of the region for canal and water supply purposes inside and outside the Adirondacks. Along with the FP, most of the Adirondack region was christened the Adirondack Park defined by a blue line boundary that included all the land generally defined as the Adirondacks. The FP was state land within the blue line. Land ownership within the blue line was about 20 percent state ownership and 80 percent private ownership. State land use control was limited to the state land in the FP. Local government had authority over the privately held lands. The population within the blue line was sparse and scattered in small hamlets with individual farms at the lower elevations. Private interests included lumber companies, commercial and private recreational facilities, and camps and hunting lodges owned by wealthy individuals.

Water Resources

The Adirondack region receives upwards of 50 inches of precipitation per year as compared to the state average of 36 inches. This is the result of orthographic lifting as the clouds moving over Lake Ontario pick up moisture and, moving west to east, rise due to the higher elevation of the Adirondack terrain, become colder, and dump their moisture load. Runoff from the area flows in all directions, to the east to Lake George and Lake Champlain via the Ausable River and the Saranac River, to the south to the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, to the west to Lake Ontario via the Black and Salmon Rivers, and to the north to the St. Lawrence River via the Indian, Oswegatchie, Grasse, Raquette, and St. Regis Rivers and other tributary streams. This is illustrated in Figures 3 and 4. The characteristic stream flow of the region is seasonally extreme. High and low flows have ratios of 50 to 1, or greater. There are nearly 30 thousand miles of streams and brooks feeding into one thousand miles of major river systems. There are hundreds to thousands of ponds and lakes, as well as extensive wetlands. The most notable lakes are Lake George, Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Tupper Lake, Long Lake, Blue Mountain Lake, Indian Lake, Cranberry Lake, and the Fulton Chain of Lakes.

Fish and Wildlife

The fish and wildlife resources were extensive and varied including beaver, moose, lynx, osprey, black bear, white-tailed deer, and peregrine falcon. A number of these species were extirpated by loss of habitat, disease, overhunting, competition, and predation by the 1850s. This added to the pressure to take effective action to preserve and protect the region.

Constitutional Protection

The Forest Preserve law proved to be inadequate. The lumber interests continued to push for opening up the forest for harvesting. Amendments were proposed to do this with strong support from some governors. The issue came to the fore in the 1894 New York Constitutional Convention when an amendment was proposed to give the Forest Preserve constitutional protection. This meant that a constitutional amendment would be required to make any changes. Instead of simply passing a bill in the legislature as then required, a constitutional amendment required that an amendment must be passed by two successive legislatures with an intervening election and then be presented to the people for approval or rejection. The constitutional protection would be formidable. The supporters of the amendment argued that it was necessary to preserve the waters of the state. A supporter advanced this argument:

Now if you wish to preserve the waters of this state, if you wish to preserve the waters of the Hudson river, and if there are any friends of the canal system of this State in this convention, if they wish to preserve the canals, it seems to me they must vote for this amendment, which may eternally preserve the Adirondacks.

The proposed amendment read as follows:

The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall timber thereon be sold, removed, or destroyed.

The amendment was adopted by the convention and then approved by the people on November 6, 1894, by a vote of 410,697 to 327,402 going into effect on January 1, 1895. The forest preserve covered only state lands, and early on they constituted less than 20 percent of the property in the region. Part of the program was for the state to continue to acquire additional lands on an incremental basis by purchase from legislative appropriations and by gift.

Constitutional Amendments

Attempts to change and open the Forest Preserve (FP) continued:

Year	Ammendment	Status
1895	Allow sale and exchange of FP land and lease land for camps	Defeated
1912	Allow use of FP land for Revolutionary War memorial	Passed
1915	Relax logging restrictions in certain areas	Defeated
1927	Allow Whiteface Memorial Highway	Passed
1930	Allow use of FP land for shelters and cabins	Defeated
1940	Allow Whiteface ski slopes	Passed

In 1913 the Burd amendment was adopted to allow up to three percent of FP land to be flooded for reservoirs constructed to regulate stream flow, to provide for water supply, and to provide water for canal uses. In 1915 the Machold Storage Law was passed to permit the creation of river regulating districts. Creation of the districts was subject to review and approval by the Water Power and Control Commission in the conservation department. Two districts were created, the Black River Regulating District (BRRD) and the Hudson River Regulating District (HRRD) in 1920.

The Black River plan called for the inclusion of a number of existing facilities, a larger dam on the Beaver River creating the Stillwater Reservoir, and a number of other facilities that fell by the wayside with two exceptions: Higley Mountain and Panther Mountain dams both on the Moose River. Conservationists led by the Adirondack League Club mounted the opposition and the battle was joined and continued for more than 30 years with many ups and downs. In the interim, the expanded Stillwater Reservoir was constructed with little opposition in 1924. In 1951 the FP constitutional provision was amended to disallow any river regulating dam in the FP. It was approved by the people on November 3, 1953. The BRRD pushed another constitutional amendment to allow the Panther Mountain dam in 1954; it was defeated by the people.

The Hudson River Regulating District proposed the construction of a dam and reservoir at Conklingville, on the Sacandaga River. This project proceeded with little opposition and created the largest reservoir in the FP, the Great Sacandaga Lake, one of the greatest recreational resources in the state. In addition, this facility has eliminated the annual flooding of the upper Hudson at Albany, and has generated significant hydropower to pay all the costs of construction, operation, and maintenance. The most significant reservoirs in the AFP are shown in the following table.

These actions signaled the end of successful attempts to construct more reservoirs in the FP. Failed attempts were made in the early fifties and in the late 1960s.

Table 2. Adirondack Reservoirs Built from 1867 to 1930

Reservoir	Date Built	Drainage Basin	Flooded Area (acres)	Capacity (billion cubic feet)
Cranberry Lake	1867	Oswegatchie	6,700	2.5
Old Forge	1881	Black	3,140	0.9
Sixth Lake	1881	Black	735	0.3
Indian Lake	1898	Hudson	6,000	4.5
Canada Lake	1913	Mohawk	1,600	0.6
Redfield	1913	Salmon	3,550	2.3
Stillwater	1924	Black	6,700	4.7
Sacandaga	1930	Hudson	26,700	33.1

The 1960s Drought

In the 1960s, the state experienced the most severe drought in its history. There were precipitation deficits for five consecutive years. The state was hit hard with water shortages. New York City’s upstate water supply sources were in a crisis, and the city had to adopt draconian conservation measures. An old Hudson River water supply intake at Chelsea, north of New York City in Dutchess County, was reactivated and the city used Hudson River water as an emergency supply, up to 100 million gallons per day, throughout the drought, which eased by 1967. Consultants for New York City undertook a water supply study and recommended that a reservoir be built on the upper Hudson River, within the FP, to provide increased low flows in the river in order to allow the city to draw up to 500 million gallons per day for water supply purposes. The proposed site was called Gooley #1. This was a bombshell to the guardians of the FP, since the Water Resources Commission, the sponsor of the project, had consulted with no one. The Society for the Protection of the Adirondacks swung into action and mounted a successful campaign to prevent the project. The legislature passed a bill prohibiting construction of a dam in this area unanimously, which was immediately signed by Governor Rockefeller. It was an almost exact rerun of the Panther Mountain dam controversy and had a like result.

The situation was complicated by the fact that the Water Resources Commission had sponsored a statewide study to come up with recommendations to prepare for any future droughts. The recommendations proposed a number of new reservoirs across the state. These proposals were met with immediate rejection by local and state officials. These results signaled the emergence of a new environmental sensitivity and led to the demise of the Water Resources Commission.

The Adirondack Park Agency

In the late sixties, the Rockefeller administration tackled the issue of the future of the Adirondacks, including the FP. This came about because of the development pressure on the area for increased recreational use. Some major developers had purchased large tracks of privately owned land and were preparing plans for marketing recreational lots and camps and the like. This was accompanied by greatly increased recreational use and demand for hunting, winter sports, and vacation homes. A number of New England states were struggling with the same issues. The construction of the Adirondack Northway, Interstate 87, opened up access to the region and accelerated and exacerbated development efforts. In addition, any number of commercial ventures were being built, many with little thought of, or sensitivity to, the nature of the area.

The first Rockefeller proposal to protect the region was to create a national park. This idea was rejected since it meant that the locals would lose total control. Rockefeller then appointed, in 1968, the Temporary State Commission on the Future of the Adirondacks, chaired by a long supporter of preserving the Adirondack region, Harold Hochschild, the founder of the Adirondack Museum. The commission recommended, in 1970, that the FP article in the constitution be left as is, and that the national park suggestion be dropped. These recommendations were expected and were noncontroversial. The major recommendation was very controversial and read as follows:

An independent, bipartisan Adirondack Park Agency should be created by statute with general power over the use of private and public land in the Park.

The fight was on. Land use control was one of the most jealously guarded prerogatives of local government. The fact was that the local towns, numbering about 100, had failed to meet the challenge, individually and corporately, of effective land use control with few exceptions, and something had to be done. A number of the towns had no effective land use control at all and lacked the resources to do the job. The bill to create the agency was introduced in the 1971 legislative session. After some hot and heavy negotiations, the opponents offered a compromise that would give the towns three months to adopt their own zoning ordinances. The proponents rejected this since they feared a hodgepodge of rules and regulations that would not meet the state goals or really protect the region. They countered with giving the towns three weeks to enact zoning ordinances, sure in the knowledge that this deadline was impossible to meet. The agency bill passed on June 7, 1971, including the towns’ deadline of July 1 for local control. Although the senators and assembly members from the region opposed the bill and led the fight in opposition, it was passed in the Assembly 123 to 24, and in the Senate 22 to 14. Rockefeller signed the bill and the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) was in business. This result demonstrated that this was not just a local issue but one of statewide interest. The APA did not cover the entire Adirondack region; it covered about 80 percent.

The APA had the immediate goal to produce two comprehensive land use plans, one for the public lands and another for the private lands. On June 1, 1972, the APA presented the state land master plan. It divided the areas into a number of categories based on the extent that man had affected land use ranging from wilderness to travel corridors. This plan only required the approval of the governor. It created little controversy and was signed by the governor. The controversial plan was the Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan. This was the private lands plan. Again, the plan divided the land into a number of categories ranging from least restricted to most restricted. There were six categories, namely industrial use, hamlet, moderate intensity use, low intensity use, rural use, and resource management. Proposed projects were divided into two categories, large-scale projects and small-scale projects. The large-scale projects required the formal approval of the APA. The small-scale projects would be approved at the local level (town and village). The Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor on May 22, 1973. The going was rough for the next decade as the locals challenged the APA. The law was amended to give the agency more discretion and flexibility. The APA had to learn to get along with the locals, tone down its rigidity, and improve its public relations. Things then simmered down as the agency improved its operational procedures and the public and local officials began to recognize its value to the region. By the turn of the century, they all had learned to accommodate each other even though the relationship at times was rocky.

The Adirondack Park

Over the years, the Adirondack Park has evolved. It has been expanded significantly in area by about 25 percent with the adoption of a new blue line boundary. The FP has doubled over time. The acquisition of additional state land continues as state policy. The parkland categories are shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Parkwide Acreage Totals as of August 2000

Ownership	Acreage	Percent of Total
Private	3,010226	51.7%
State	2,475,340	42.5%
Water	334,545	5.8%
Total	5,820,111	100.0%

The Adirondack Park includes portions of 12 counties: Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Oneida, Saratoga, St. Lawrence, Warren, and Washington. The population is about 126 thousand permanent residents and about 100 thousand seasonal visitors. The Adirondack Park and Forest Preserve lands for 1892 and 2002 are shown in Figure 5. Approximately 80 percent of the Adirondack region is within the Adirondack Park. The area covered by the Adirondack Park Agency is shown in Figure 5.

Conclusion

The struggle to reclaim and preserve the natural resources of wilderness, scenic vistas, aesthetic values, fish and wildlife, forest, and water of the Adirondack region over the past 120 years has come to fruition. The creation of the Forest Preserve and the Adirondack Park Agency has succeeded in accomplishing much of this goal. A reasonable balance has been struck between developmental and preservationist interests and between local and statewide interests. There are still problem areas and issues, the major one being acid rain. The state will continue to acquire additional land. Poor commercial development exists in some areas. The local economy is a sometime thing. This means that the effort to effectively manage land and resource use is a continuing thing and will be into the foreseeable future. The cooperative effort launched by local and state agencies and officials, the residents in the park area, the economic interests, and the many natural resource associations bode well for the future.

Sources

http://www.adirondack.net/maps
http://www.northnet.org/adirondackvic/adkhistory.html
http://northnet.org/adirondackvic/adkgeology.html
http://www.northnet.org/adirondackvic/adknature.html
http://northnet.org/adirondackvic/adkwildlife.html
http://www.adirondack-park.net/history/political/pre-const.html
http://www.adirondack-park.net/history/political/convention.html
http://www.adirondack-park.net/history/political/threats.html
http://www.adirondack-park.net/history/political/apa
http://www.apa.state.ny.us
http://www.global2000.net/protectadks
http://adkscience.org/adirondack3.htm
http://www.blm.gov/wildlife/pl_26sum
http://www.adk.org
USGS, Water-Supply Paper 2300
USGS, Water-Supply Paper 2425

—Robert D. Hennigan, Professor Emeritus, SUNY ESF

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