ADIRONDACKS The Adirondack Park, which is larger in land mass than the state of Massachusetts, was officially formed in 1892, and its eccentric and excessive character began long before that. Over half of its 6+ million acres remain in private hands, mostly as summer “camps”—the rustic masterpieces that blur the lines between civilization and wilderness—still owned by family trusts that bear the names of Morgan, Vanderbilt, Bixby, Depew and Rockefeller. Their cottages were most often constructed with barkcovered logs and twig trimmings, yet inside you might easily find gold plated faucets, sterling settings, and Tiffany lamps. The spirit of these camps remains stubbornly traditional and low key, and their most coveted quality is privacy—the perfect tonic for this post-COVID summer—in a fabled forest where social distancing has been the norm for well over a century. Adirondack camps are often passed down through four or five generations, complete with the beaten-up Victorian furniture, hard-backed Stickley chairs, and long-standing friendships between neighboring families. And the mishmash of a camp’s outbuildings, boathouses, and acreage create a natural setting for legendary family gatherings and house parties. But the height of this North Country paradise is its great out-of-doors, where the hunting and fishing, climbing and canoeing, skating and snowshoeing, sailing and swimming (and latenight skinny dipping) releases the inner soul of even the most uptight urban swell. Maybe its spell lies in the water, or in the crisp mountain air, but for the most authentic Adirondackers (Mohican Indian for “barkeaters”) their attachment to these mountains is based on the same two themes: “history and family…all that money cannot buy.”
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