Adirondack Historical Resorts

An architectural study of the large Adirondack hotels that focuses on the cultural history of travel and tourism.

Northern New York’s Adirondack Park is a naturalist’s wonderland of high peaks, plunging chasms, pristine waters, and stunning vistas. In this collection of columns from the popular series the Adirondack Almanack, author John Warren reveals another side of this charming land. Stories of bank robberies, the Ku Klux Klan, gambling, buried treasure, rattlesnakes, and earthquakes abound. Showing careful research and a panache for storytelling, Warren takes the mountain path less traveled, where locals and visitors alike will be surprised by the hidden gems of the Adirondacks.

The essential companion to the Adirondacks and beyond Returning in its eighth edition, this fully updated guide provides details of Adirondack Park’s history and geography, as well as the cultural, lodging, dining, and recreational opportunities that abound here and in its gateway cities (including Saratoga Springs and Glens Falls). Complete with reviews and recommendations from authors immersed in the region, detailed maps and gorgeous photography throughout, this is an invaluable guide for your next trip.

The author does a thorough job in explaining the beginnings of rustic architecture and why it has a permanent place in the culture. The mix of social background and the history of the early Adirondack camps provides a designers guidebook.

While numerous books have been written about the great camps, hiking trails, and wildlife of the Adirondacks, noted anthropologist David R. Starbuck offers the only archeological guide to a region long overlooked by archeologists who thought that "all the best sites" were elsewhere. This beautifully illustrated volume focuses on the rich and varied material culture brought to the mountains by their original Native American inhabitants, along with subsequent settlements created by soldiers, farmers, industrialists, workers, and tourists. Starbuck examines Native American sites on Lake George and Long Lake; military and underwater sites throughout the Lake George, Fort Ticonderoga, and Crown Point regions; old industrial sites where forges, tanneries, and mines once thrived; farms and the rural landscape; and many other sites, including the abandoned Frontier Town theme park, the ghost town of Adirondac, Civilian Conservation Corps camps, ski areas, and graveyards.