A Driving Tour of the First Wilderness

2 Glens Falls

Chepontuc is the name the Iroquois gave to the community we know today as Glens Falls. It meant the "Great Carrying Place." It's where the Hudson River drops so sharply that indigenous people would have to portage their canoes around it. Abraham Wing established a Quaker colony here in 1776 and so for a time this was called Wing's Falls. In 1788, Johannes Glen somehow attached his name to the falls. One legend says he won the naming rights in a game of cards. Another says he collected on a bet.

All of those mills that operated on the Hudson at Big Bend made Glens Falls the Adirondacks' industrial center and, for a time, one of the nation's wealthiest communities. Much of the lumber was sent via the Champlain Canal to Troy and Albany, then shipped west on the Erie Canal or south on the Hudson to New York City and the rest of the Atlantic Seaboard.

We still see evidence of this wealth in the stately homes built by industrialists on Ridge and Glen Streets. Lumber and paper magnate Samuel Pruyn built mansions for each of his three daughters on Warren Street. Charlotte Pruyn Hyde's home today houses the remarkable Hyde Collection Art Museum, where we can see works by Rembrandt, Renoir, Botticelli, and Picasso, among other great artists.

3 Queensbury

Queensbury was a favorite summer hunting and fishing site for the Iroquois and a stop for war parties on their way to Canada. The Colonial Army marched through here during the French and Indian War, creating the Military Road that led to the first settlement.

Queensbury derives its name from the 23,000 acre Queensbury Patent, which King George III awarded to Abraham Wing and 31 other Quakers in 1762. Their Quaker colony would soon include homes, a sawmill, a grist mill, and a meeting house.

In 1824, a major quarry was established to mine lime and marble. Samuel Pruyn and Jeremiah and Daniel Finch bought it in 1865. Their Finch Pruyn Company went on to become a major producer not only of lime and marble but of lumber and canal boats.

Black marble was their specialty. Many older Glens Falls homes feature black-marble mantels and you'll find black marble from this quarry incorporated in the Washington Monument.

Shortly after the end of World War I, the Glens Falls Chamber of Commerce opened the Miller Hill Landing Field not far from today's Queensbury School Complex. In 1928, this was renamed Floyd Bennett Field to honor the Warrensburg native who flew with Admiral Richard Byrd to the North Pole. Right after World War II, the airport was moved to its current location on Queensbury Avenue. Each September it's the site of the amazing Adirondack Balloon Festival.

4 Lake George

The first of six Lake George exits is coming up next. It will bring you out about three miles south of Lake George Village. You'll want this exit for Six Flags Great Escape, Warren County's administrative offices and dozens of outlet stores. This is also your exit for the Warren County Historical Society Museum, which showcases the country's history and heritage through the lens of its natural resources.

We're talking about history that goes way back. On loan from the New York State Museum is the giant tooth of the "Queensbury Mammoth" found in 1870 on Asa Harris's farm in northern Queensbury.

You'll also learn about Joseph Warren, for whom Warren County was named in 1813. Born in Massachusetts in 1741, Warren was a physician who assumed a major role in the fight against the British. Heroic at the Battle of Bunker Hill, he was killed shortly after at the Battle of Breed's Hill. The Museum is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. You'll find its hours on the app.

Joseph Warren is not to be confused with James Warren, for whom Warrensburg was named. We'll tell you the story of his tragic drowning in 1811. He was killed in the line of duty, so to speak, bringing ballots back to election headquarters, crossing the Hudson in a skiff.

Lake George is best viewed from the summit of Prospect Mountain, which will mark your entry to the Adirondack Park and loom before you as you approach Exit 21. That hike starts by crossing the Northway on a pedestrian bridge. There used to be a cog railroad that would take you right up it. Today you can drive it.

5 Adirondack Park

You know you're entering the Adirondack Park when French Mountain looms on your right. This vista is one reason why the next 23 miles of the Northway were honored in 1966 as the nation's Most Scenic Highway. That was right after the Northway was completed, as we'll tell you coming up next.

The creation of the Adirondack Park was a milestone in environmental conservation when it was established in 1892. With six-million acres, it covers one-fifth of New York State and is the largest park in the contiguous United States. It's the size of Vermont, and is nearly three times the size of Yellowstone National Park.

More than half of the Adirondack Park is private land; the remaining 45 percent is publicly-owned Forest Preserve, protected as "Forever Wild" by the New York State Constitution since 1894.

The Adirondack Park Agency was created in 1971 in response to concerns about the rapid development of the Adirondacks that were amplified by the opening of the Northway. Designed to balance environmental protection and economic development, the APA created a land use plan that designated areas for different types of development, including residential, commercial, and industrial. Today, the agency is responsible for ensuring that all development within the park is consistent with the land use plan and the state's environmental laws. Its staff of approximately 200 employees work in planning, enforcement, and nature resources management.

If it hasn't already, Prospect Mountain will soon appear massively before you. Now you'll know that you are truly in the mountains. At 2,000 feet in elevation, the peak became a major attraction for visitors to Lake George in the late 1800s, thanks in large part to a cog railroad that the Otis Engineering Construction Company built to its summit in 1895. It brought you to the elegant three-story Prospect Mountain House. While both the hotel and railroad are long gone, you can drive to the summit -- or you can hike to it on the route of the old railroad. The bridge that crosses the highway is part of the trail.

6 Warrensburg

If your goal is to complete this tour in North River, you'll want to get off at the next exit. At Exit 23, Warrensburg is your gateway to the Central Adirondacks, the point at which you'll leave this civilized, well-marked interstate and make your way toward wilderness.

It's a remarkable route, fully deserving its Scenic Byway designation. After passing through the town's historic business district, we'll skirt the Hudson along the Ice Meadows. Then onward to the land where John Thurman built on Mill Creek and the grand estate and enterprise he called Elm Hill.

We'll be surprised when the majesty of Gore Mountain suddenly appears before us. Still ascending, we'll again drive along the rapids of the Hudson to the far northwest corner of Warren County. In the midst of the Siamese Ponds Wilderness -- 114,000 acres that will always be wilderness, thanks to the New York State Legislature's addition of the "Forever Wild" clause to the state constitution in 1894.

The Schroon River drops 70 feet in its last three miles before meeting the Hudson two miles west of Main Street. That's why Harmon Hoffman built on the Schroon the first sawmill, which Dudley Farin bought in 1813. Seventy years later, the mill was running 70 saws and churning out three million feet of lumber annually -- all with the power of the Schroon's rushing waters.

Many sawmills, pulp mills, and woodworking factories sprang up here in the 1800s. The town became a center for trade, exporting lumber and other forest products via the Champlain and Erie Canals.

As I mentioned earlier, Warrensburg is names for James Warren, who played a major role in the life of the community until his tragic drowning stunned the town in 1811. Warren established the community's first store and with his wife Melinda ran Pitts' Tavern, its first public house. He and Melinda also built the Warren House, which went on to become an illustrious hotel. Alas, it was suspiciously destroyed by fire in 1921.

In the community's early days, elections had to be held at different parts of town on three consecutive days. In 1811, James Warren was bringing in the ballots from a farm in Thurman when the skiff in which he was crossing the Hudson overturned. Warren drowned, but his ten-year-old-son, Nelson, somehow survived. So traumatized was the boy it's said his hair turned white overnight. Two years later, the first town meeting was conducted in the Warren House by his wife Melinda and the town was named in memory of James.

The 400 historic properties in this town are best experienced on foot. If time allows, you'll find enlightening the three walking tours charted by Town Historian Sandi Parisi. We provide the link on our app.

You'll also want to visit the Warrensburg Museum of Local History, open every weekend through Columbus Day. Located in the building that the International Order of Odd Fellows constructed in 1926, it features exhibits from Glacial to Global.

You'll know you're approaching Warrensburg when you spy the distinctive summit of Hackensack Mountain up ahead. The peak has a storied past, including stints as both a quarry and a ski slope. If you're wondering why Hackensack bears the same name as the county seat of Bergen County, New Jersey, we can tell you in comes from the Lenape word for "land where two rivers meet."

7 Judd Bridge

Take a left up here to continue your journey into the First Wilderness. Keep going a quarter mile west and take a right at the light to head into downtown Warrensburg and beyond. It it's a clear day, you might see Crane Mountain looming in the distance. That's where you're heading.

Warrensburg at first was known simply as "The Bridge" because that's about all it was - the only bridge that crossed the Schroon River and thereby afforded access to the central Adirondacks. Because of the Judd Bridge, which we'll soon pass but not cross, the stagecoach from Albany to Montreal stopped here. James Pitt built the first hotel here in 1789. By the end of the 19th century, Warrensburg had six operating hotels.

You'll be turning right on Route 9, which was built in 1911 to connect New York City was Rouse's Point, just south of Montreal. We have Warrensburg resident James Alfred Emerson to thank for it. It was Emerson who successfully persuaded his colleagues to fund construction of this route.

You'll cross the Plank Bridge. Then, a few hundred yards further on, look to your left and you'll see the Judd Bridge. The first version built in 1820 was a one-lane wooden toll bridge named for Samuel Judd, who owned a large farm on the other side.

The bridge has been rebuilt three times since. The existing two-lane steel structure was built in 1996.

8 Floyd Bennett Bandstand

To get to North River, you'll want to take Route 28. There are two ways to get to it. Continue straight, and you'll arrive at the intersection in just under four miles. Or, for the scenic route that we prefer, take a left up ahead at the octagonal bandstand you'll find on your left at the tricky intersection where three streets come together. You'll want to veery slightly left and head northwest on Hudson Street.

The bandstand is named for Floyd Bennett, who was mentioned earlier as the pilot who achieved international fame in 1926 when he and Commander Richard E. Byrd made the first flight over the North Pole. Calvin Coolidge awarded the Warrensburg native the Medal of Honor for this achievement. The bandstand was built as a memorial to Bennett in 1929. Floyd Bennett Day is observed annually on May 9th.

9 Ashe's Pub and Grill

In a half-mile on your left, you'll come to Ashe's Pub and Grill, which is believed to be New York State's longest continually operating hotel. This distinctive Italianate building is easy to spot. Henry Ashe and his father James bought the original six-room boarding house from Walter Baker in 1888. They expanded it and renamed it the Agricultural Hotel because it was adjacent to the county fairgrounds. Legend has it the Teddy Roosevelt stayed here in 1890.

10 Echo Lake

Warrensburg's first settler, William Bond, made his home on the shore of Echo Lake, which you can't see from here but is off to your left, just two-tenths of a mile down Beach Road.

11 Fish Hatchery

You can learn a lot about the breeding and stocking of fish at the county fish hatchery. Look for the sign coming up shortly. You'll find a visitor's center with interpretive displays, picnic area, and a boat launch. It's a nice spot, right on the Hudson.

12 Ice Meadows

You were on Hudson Street. Suddenly, you're now on Golf Course Road, heading toward Cronin's Golf Resort. Family owned and operated since 1945, this 18-hole par-70 coarse is spectacularly set right on the Hudson and surrounded by mountains.

Just beyond Cronin's entrance, you'll come to the Hudson River Recreation Area, which offers mostly flat, well-marked and highly scenic trails, one of which goes right along the Hudson in a section we call the "Ice Meadows" for its unique, Artic-like qualities.

When turbulent supercooled water freezes, it can create Frazil ice, which has the appearance of loose, needle-like crystals or grains. The interplay of light and these tiny crystals can create a glittering, ethereal effect that's both beautiful and fascinating. Frazil ice can last into April, shortening the growing season and creating a cooler climate that supports rare plant species, such as Ohio Goldenrod and the Dwarf Sand-cherry.

In warm weather, keep an eye out of the rare extra-striped snake trail dragonfly, which is a bit like a regular dragonfly, but meaner. A skilled hunter, it's carnivorous with strong jaws and big transparent wings that help it hover and zoom in on other insects for the kill. As its name suggests, it has a tail that's flexible and curved, just like a snake's. Look for yellow or greenish-yellow stripes on its abdomen.

Like other dragonflies, the extra-striped snake tail has a fascinating life cycle that includes an aquatic larval stage. The larvae, or nymphs, live underwater for several years before emerging as adults.

Due to its reliance on clean, unpolluted waterways, this dragonfly is especially sensitive to environmental changes and pollution.

13 Logging Drives

In about a half-mile, you'll see why we call this the scenic route as the mighty Hudson bursts into view. Imagine looking to the opposite bank and see barreling down the tracks of the Adirondack Railroad the General Hancock pulling three yellow coaches and six freight cars. See the river filled with logs in springtime, all sliced in 13-foot lengths by lumberjacks working as far as 20 miles upstream. The logs are heading to the sawmills and paper mills of Glens Falls, where they'll be caught in the Big Boom, the system of stone piers and chains created by a consortium of mills to sort and process the logs.

Working mostly in winter, lumberjacks hauled the logs by sled and stacked by the river, waiting for the spring melt that would raise the river and increase its force. The logs often jammed on turns or got hung up on rocks. Lumberjacks would then climb onto them and pick, pry and even dynamite them loose. Many lost their lives, leaving families to grieve and figure out some way to support themselves.

At first, the lumbermen took only large, marketable spruce trees -- which were strong and light -- to be sawn into boards for construction. These planks were shipped all over the Eastern Seaboard via the Feeder Canal down the Hudson or west along the Erie Canal.

The expansion of railroad lines in the late 1800s created a huge demand for railroad ties -- 39 million in 1870 alone.

Later, a new form of paper-making from wood pulp rather than rags and vegetable matter created a demand for hardwoods as well as pine. Finch Pruyn completed its mill in Glens Falls in 1904.

Logging reached its peak on the Hudson in 1872 then entered a steady decline. The last drive logs used for construction took place in 1929, though Finch Pruyn continued to move shorter logs for pulp until 1950. Today, logs are delivered chiefly by truck.

You'll come to Route 28 shortly. Turn left and continue toward The Glen.

14 Glen Bridge

It was here in the Hudson River Corridor that American popular culture first confronted and embraced the idea of a permanent wilderness. Vacationers who came to the Adirondacks in the 1850s found just a scattering of hotels. Twenty years later, there would be more than 200. Such was the impact of books like Rev. William H.H. Murray's Adventures in the Wilderness and magazine accounts in The Atlantic, Scribner's, and The Saturday Evening Post.

Thomas Durant's Adirondack Railroad made it relatively easy for these early adventurers to enter the wilderness. Durant's main objective in building the railroad was to haul out iron ore from McIntyre Mine, which had been established in 1827 at Sanford Lake near Mount Marcy. Durant actually wanted to go all the way to Sacketts Harbor on the eastern shore of Lake Ontario, where iron and other goods and passengers could be placed on ships and transported to the nation's interior via the Great Lakes as an alternative to the Erie Canal.

Starting construction in Saratoga Springs following the Civil War, Durant made it as far as North Creek by 1871, laying just enough track -- 60 miles -- to earn the 800,000 acres of prime forest that New York State had promised in return. Then the Financial Panic of 1873 nearly wiped Durant out.

Though Durant never made it as far as the McIntyre Mine, he did a good business with Henry H. Barton, who used the railroad to haul garnet ore from his mine on Gore Mountain. Durant's railroad also supported the many tanneries that located on rivers along the route. They brought in cattle hides from South America and shipped out leather to be used in shoes, gloves, and saddles.

While North Creek was as far as vacationers could go by train, Durant took them more deeply into his empire via stagecoaches and small steam-powered boats. His son William innovated the Adirondack "great camp" -- fabulous lodgings on Indian Lake, Blue Mountain Lake, and Raquette Lake.

Shorter trips would bring vacationers to equally impressive locations on Friends Lake and Schroon Lake, so Durant put a station at The Glen, where a 300-foot wooden covered bridge built in 1816 for the first time connected the towns of Chester, Johnsburg, Thurman, and Warrensburg. We can only surmise that James Warren's drowning must finally have forced the question. What a mammoth undertaking this must have been with hand tools and horses.

In 1843, an ice jam swept away the greater part of this first bridge but left the ends intact. When it was reconnected, the middle section was made into a double track, and in 1858 the ends were rebuilt so the structure was symmetrical throughout. In 1903, the bridge was destroyed by a log jam that lifted it three feet off of its foundation and carried it several hundred feet downstream. The current bridge was built in 1959.

As you cross the bridge and then the tracks of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, reflect on the fact that two miles south of here the Adirondack Branch had its worst crash in history when a regular northbound train collided with a special southbound train returning 318 summer campers to their homes. The engineer, Frank Keenan, was killed and a dozen more were injured.

15 Mill Creek

Let's go way back now to the Adirondacks' first humans. We think these were Paleo-Indians who crossed the Bering Land Bridge 13,000 years ago as the great Laurentide Glacier was melting in a period of global warming.

The Adirondacks were a treeless tundra laid bare by the glacier. The Champlain Sea -- twice the size of Lake Michigan -- emerged to the north and west, populated by icebergs and Atlantic sea creatures. In 1949, railroad workers were surprised to find the bones of a beluga whale while laying track in a swampy area near Charlotte, Vermont.

Archaeologists have found no evidence that indigenous people made permanent, year-round settlements in the Adirondacks. Iroquois and Mohicans had fuzzy territories through which they moved in hunting, fishing, collecting shellfish, and quarrying stone for tools and weapons. Following the Revolutionary War, many Native American tribes faced displacement and loss of land due to treaties favoring the new American colonies, leading to forced migrations and significant cultural upheaval.

Around 1788, an influential land speculator named John Thurman decided at the age of 60 to relocate from New York City to the Adirondacks, where he ultimately would own more than 100,000 acres.

The son of a wealthy Dutch merchant, Thurman had started as a dry goods merchant in what today is the heart of New York's Financial District. He traded in deerskins and beaver and raccoon pelts from the north and dress goods, brandy, and cotton stocking from overseas. Then he started speculating in Adirondack real estate, starting with a vast parcel that on a map produced in 1775 by British Army engineers was described as "impassable and uninhabited" by reason of "mountains, swamps, and drowned lands."

Thurman introduced farming here and created an industrial complex that ultimately supported a hamlet of 700 people. He built a road from Lake George to Johnsburg. Then he built a road from Chester to Schroon Lake. Then he cleared the land for the Champlain Canal, running from Half Moon near Albany to Wood Creek, near Whitehall. He ultimately owned so much land in Warren County that both Thurman and Johnsburg are named for him.

When one of his surveyors told Thurman about Mill Creek, which you'll soon cross, Thurman relocated north and built a home on the plateau he called "Elm Hill." Its foundation is still there along with a historic marker you'll find on the South Johnsburg Road.

In Thurman's day, Mill Creek was known as Beaver Brook. He first built a sawmill to produce lumber required for permanent dwellings. Next came a grist mill that encouraged farmers to clear land to extend their fields and plant more crops. Then the first framed barn in the region. Then a store with a distillery. Then a woolen factory that soon was changed to a cotton factory and then a calico printing works, one of the first in America.

At the age of 79 in 1809, Thurman was having lunch at his farm at Trout Lake when he received word that a newly purchased bull had gotten loose. Thurman immediately rushed out and attempted to restrain the animal, but the bull charged and gored him.

Thurman died the next day -- but what a legacy he left. At the age of 38, Thurman co-founded the first New York City Chamber of Commerce.

With Zephaniah Platt, he built a road from what we today call Lake George to Schroon Lake and then on to Plattsburgh. The first section of that road was called the John Thurman Road. Today we call it New York State Route 9.

16 Johnsburg Historical Society Museum

You can learn more about John Thurman at the Johnsburg Historical Society's Waddell Museum in Wevertown, which you're rapidly approaching at the Route 8 intersection. You can't miss it on the left. It's Johnsburg's most stately home, built in 1870 by lumber baron Robert Waddell from planks cut in the sawmill he operated on Mill Creek.

As you'll see, it's a 14-room cube of a mansion that's been repainted, restored with sturdy floors, and turned into the Historical Society's new home, thanks to a generous gift of Apple stock by Glenn Pearsall, who has written several highly regarded histories of this region.

Old photos are among the society's most prized possessions. Hamlet by hamlet, the rooms are filled with them. Logging camps. Stagecoaches. Barton Mine. The Adirondack Hotel in North Creek. Cunningham's General Store. They go on and on, each giving us a different window into history and helping us to imagine the way things were.

17 North Creek

You're about five miles from North Creek. It's known for skiing today, but nearly two centuries ago it was known first for logging and then tanning. In 1852, Milton Sawyer and Wheeler Meade built a tannery there that employed 40 men.

Then came Thomas Durant with his Adirondack Railroad. That made it the gateway to the great camps of the Adirondacks and an important center for freight and commerce.

The railroad also made it easy to get to Gore Mountain. That’s why the Schenectady Wintersports Club picked North Creek as the destination of its first Snow Train on March 4, 1934 — 90 years ago. It was here that Carl Schaefer in 1935 jerry-rigged an old Buick to create New York’s first rope tow. In 1946, town leaders built a 3000-foot T-bar, the longest in the East at that time. In 1964, New York State established the Gore Mountain Ski Area, which has been growing ever since.

It was the 1932 Lake Placid Winter Olympics that sparked Upstate New Yorkers' interest in winter sports. For the first time, they had the opportunity to witness world-class athletes competing in cross-country skiing, hockey, speed skating, ski jumping, figure skating, and the "bobsleigh." A half-dozen young men from North Creek who attended the games an hour up the road saw the possibilities of what they could do on Gore Mountain. They went to work clearing an old logging road when they came home and named it the Pete Gay Trail. It was a winding 4.5-mile channel through the woods that started on Barton Mine Road and ended on Route 28.

A larger group of 25 young people from Schenectady — many of whom were engineers at General Electric — attended the games while camping at nearby Heart Lake. Upon returning home, they launched a winter sports club and started organizing the "Snow Train" that, on March 4, 1934, would bring nearly 400 newly minted skiers to these new trails via the D&H Railroad.

If you haven’t already gotten your first good look at Gore, you soon will. You’ll pass Stewarts on your left and shortly after that Cunningham's Ski Barn, which started as a general store in 1908 and early on made skis from oaken barren staves and leather straps.

When New York State decided it was time to establish a major ski resort at Gore in the early 1960s, the project included the construction of a bypass on Route 28 around the downtown business area. You’ll get a great view of the Ski Bowl as you pass Gore but you won’t see any of North Creek’s downtown unless you make a point of visiting its most interesting places.

If time allows, you may want to explore North Creek, which on a per-capita basis probably offers more history than any other community in the Adirondacks. We’ve made an audio walking tour to help you get the most from your visit and it’s ready to go on your app. We’ll take you on a 1.5-mile route through what used to be Mill Pond to the Hudson River, then past the Hudson River Bridge to the North Creek Depot Museum, then back on Main Street. You’ll see the barns where the Waddells stabled their horses for their stagecoach lines, the sites of North Creek’s great old hotels, and the site of the old O’Keefe Opera House. You’ll also see the largest piece of public art in the North Country and Braley and Noxon’s original Hardware Store, dating back to the 1880s.

We’ll also tell you the story of Cunningham’s Ski Barn, the oldest continually operating ski shop in the country and the key role that people like P.J. Cunningham, Butler Cunningham, and Pat Cunningham played in the development of skiing at Gore Mountain.

To take this tour, make a right on Main Street at Cunningham’s Ski Barn, which will come up shortly on your right. Drive down to Main Street's intersection with Bridge Street, where you'll find lots of parking at Town Hall, across the street from the Tannery Pond Center.

18 North Creek Depot Museum

As you proceed on 28, you’ll pass the entrance to the Gore Mountain Ski Center and the Ski Bowl. The Ski Center is “new Gore” which New York State established in 1964. The Ski Bowl is “old Gore” which is where all of the action was in the 1930s for those coming in on the Snow Trains. This is where Carl

Schaefer rigged New York State’s first rope tow and Lois Perret established the first Ski Patrol.

You'll find an entire exhibit on the history of skiing at Gore at the North Creek Depot Museum. To get there, take either of the two right turns coming up.

The museum also has an exhibit on Teddy Roosevelt’s celebrated “midnight ride” in the early hours of September 14, 1901. That’s when he was summoned from the base of Mount Marcy to join a dying William McKinley in Buffalo. Roosevelt received the somber news of McKinley's death on this station’s platform.

You'll also find an exhibit on the Adirondack Railroad. The depot itself, painstakingly restored by the North Creek Railway Depot Preservation Association in 1993, can be regarded as its centerpiece. You'll also find a remarkably accurate model of North Creek at the time of the railroad’s completion in 1871.

To experience the railroad -- or at least its tracks -- first hand, consider rail cycling with Revolutionary Rail. You'll find its headquarters beside the museum at the rear of the building.