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Jan 1, 1000
Indians in Adirondacks
Paleo Indian hunters followed herds of caribou towards the inland Champlain Sea. This is when the appearance of people began in the Adirondacks. -
Period: Jan 1, 1000 to
Peopling the Adirondacks
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Seeking Land
Soldier settlers from England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland were looking for the aquisition of land. They took note of the Adirondacks during the French and Indian war (1754-1763). Afterwards they returned to try out their fortune as homesteaders and speculators in the Champlain Valley. -
Irish Refugees
The Great Famine was happening in Ireland in 1846 and lasted until 1849. The news of these new industries in the Adirondacks caused the Irish people to flee to the Adirondacks in search of jobs. They would call lumber camps or boomtowns home. -
Church in Irishtown
Father Michael Olivetti authorized the building of a church in an Adirondack settlement called Irishtown. Immigrants flocked to the hamlet which boasted a chapel. -
Loggers and Miners
French Canadian woodsmen and subsistence farmers became familiar with the Adirondack portion of the great Northern Forest as the commercerial loggers and miners were pushing deep into the New York wilderness. This caused the Canadians to push south and create a true migration. -
Settlement Abandoned
Father Olivetti's 1851 settlement at Tirrel Pond near Blue Mountain lake, was abandoned after 2 years for reasons unknown. The settlement provided impoverished Irish immigrants land, 16 log cabins, and a log church. -
Irish Dominence
Irish laboreres dominanted the Adirondack sole-leather tanneries. This would last up until about 1880. -
Shanty was built
St Regis Mohawk Johnny Leaf built a shanty for himself near West Canada Creek. He tanned, logged, guided and sold venison to lumber camps. -
Tuberculosis Sanatorium
Dr. Edward L. Trudeau was building a tuberculosis sanatorium in the 1880's at Saranac Lake, while other great camps were being established. It became an international destination for convalecing consumptives. -
Adoption of Adirondack Park
Since the legislative adoption of the Adirondack Park, the reputation of the region as a tourist destination was secure. Many getaways were built or bought by the New York City-based German Jewish families. These camps were prolific from the late 1800's until the Great Depression. Some camps still reamin in family hands today. -
United Leather takes over
United Leather took over ownership of an Adirondack tannery from long-distance investors. Within a year, the one-time boomtown of Griffin was out of business. -
Gilded Age Industrialists
Gilded Age Industrialists were attracted to the Adirondacks by the promise of privacy and county-sized estates. -
Padrones Recruiters
During the 20th century, immigrants were often recruited by their own kinsmen. Witherbee and Sherman Company, a mining enterprise in Essex County, sent Italian-born employees to New York City to assemble work crews from among the immigrant arrivals and hustle them north to start their new lives in the mines. -
Beth Joseph Synagogue
35 of Tupper Lake's Jewish families built the Beth Joseph Synagogue. The Synagogue is a community center today. -
First Party of Motorists
in 1906 the first party of motorists "wound its bumpy way to Blue Montain Lake." -
Tourism starts booming
The Adirondack region did not have alot of tourists come through until the introduction of the roads. It wasn't even just roads, it was auto-mobile worthy roads. The ease of access made it possible for people to visit more often. -
Japenese photographer
Japenese-born Itsuzo Sumy was a photographer that came to the Adirondacks from New York City and made the Town of Chester his life long home. -
Top of the Heap
Pulp Production magazine singled out Adirondack French Canadian woodsmen as the "top of the heap", citiing the expertise of Bureau brothers, Rene, Harvey, Norman, and Louis. -
Amish
In recent decades, a shift in the price of midwestern farmland triggered a small migration of Amish families to the western Adirondacks
