Times Change

Some readers may know that I am originally from the Adirondack region of New York State. I don't remember living in Lake Placid, I was an infant. But I do remember Saranac Lake and the big house we lived in there. Well, it was bigger when I was small; I've seen it many times since I grew up and it shrunk. We moved away to Rochester, New York when my father was hospitalized in the Canandaigua Veteran's hospital. But my grandmother stayed there in Saranac and my older sister and I would get sent to visit her in the summers, riding unaccompanied on the Trailways bus. Times were different then.

I would also get sent to YMCA summer camp up at Camp Gorham every summer for a full month - courtesy of some charity or other. Mom certainly could not afford it (Dad was dead by then and my Mom was raising five kids alone on a secretary's salary.) We'd make trips and hikes all around the area. I canoed the Fulton Chain several times. Likewise Stillwater Reservoir and Blue Mountain Lake. I also visited the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake a number of times. (Both camping and on later trips to visit my Grandmother.)

Well, the Adirondack Museum has reached the 50 year mark, I see. The AP has a nice feature on it today.

BLUE MOUNTAIN LAKE, N.Y. - When mining magnate Harold Hochschild bought the Blue Mountain House resort in the middle of the last century, his vision was to create a place that would forever preserve the heritage of the Adirondacks.

Overlooking picturesque Blue Mountain Lake, Hochschild opened a modest museum in 1957 to celebrate the people of Adirondacks — how they lived, worked and played. This year, the Adirondack Museum celebrates its 50th season. But it's no longer just a roadside curiosity. Its gardens, scenic views, events and activities make it a worthy destination for a day - or two - spent wandering the grounds.

"Nobody can believe it's as big as it is, and they are always surprised that it takes them all day to see it, rather than the half-hour they thought," said museum director Caroline Welsh.

The museum has grown from nine buildings to 22, including a 19th century logger's hotel, an artist's cottage, a one-room cabin called the Sunset Cottage, a 1907 one-room school house that now serves as a family activity center, a fire tower, and the Marion River Carry Pavilion, which houses a 1901 steam engine and passenger car and a steamboat called the "Osprey". Each building, Welsh noted, is like its own small museum.

Last year, more than 90,000 visitors viewed the 32-acre museum's collections and exhibits on logging, boats and boating, mining, outdoor recreation, transportation and rustic furniture.

Visitors can tour the extensive grounds and gardens, ride a vintage Adirondack skiff on the boat pond, and dine in the glass-walled museum cafe, which offers "spectacular views of Blue Mountain Lake from halfway up the mountain," Welsh said.

It has certainly grown from the place I remember. Which is a good thing, I think. Too bad they didn't have "skiff" rides back in the day. One assumes they are actually referring to Adirondack Guide Boats, here. These are a very highly refined design - I once toyed with the idea of building one myself and actually have a set of schematics around here somewhere - I think.

I haven't been in the old stomping grounds for a number of years now, but its nice to hear that the museum is thriving.