Jay—Wilmington—Lake Placid—Saranac Lake—Lake Clear Junction; 36.5 m. State 86.
Two-lane macadam, open throughout the year; icy in winter.
Hotels in villages; cabins between Wilmington and Lake Clear Junction; campsites between Wilmington and Saranac Lake.
Delaware & Hudson R.R. parallels route between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake; New York Central R.R. between Saranac Lake and Lake Clear Junction.
State 86 passes through farmland and conifer forests, past mountains and lakes, and crosses swamps where the dead trunks of trees rise skeletonlike, their gray-bleached knees deep in fern and moss-green stagnant water. The entire region is a grand vacation resort with every resource and device for summer and winter recreation, the principal centers being Lake Placid and Saranac Lake.
From the crest of a small hill west of JAY, 0 m., (644 alt., 350 pop.), at the junction with US 9 (see Tour 21), is a glimpse of the grandeur of the high Adirondacks: Whiteface Mountain (4,872 alt.) towering in the foreground; Wilmington Mountain (3,458 alt.) rising to the northwest; and the peaks of Mount Marcy and Mount McIntyre cutting off the horizon to the south and west.
In WILMINGTON, 5.3 m. (1,020 alt., 574 pop.), is the junction with the NEW YORK STATE WORLD WAR MEMORIAL HIGHWAY (open all year; tolls, adults $1, children 50¢).
Right here up a serpentine mountain road to the parking area on WHITEFACE MOUNTAIN (4,872 alt.), 5 m. At the parking area, a few hundred feet below the summit, is the entrance to the elevator (ascent 15¢, descent 10¢) that rises through a giant shaft cut through the core of the mountain to a stone lookout tower at the summit, which can also be reached on foot over stairs and rock trails. The tower with a circle of windows is perched like a skull cap on the brow of the white mountain face.
Unlike Mount Marcy and the other high peaks, Whiteface is isolated, so that on clear days almost the entire northern part of the State is visible from its summit. To the south rises the humpy McIntyre Range; on the east stretches the irregular, gleaming spread of Lake Champlain, with the Green Mountains beyond; to the north is Mount Royal in Canada, marked by the pall of smoke over Montreal; and to the west is the St. Lawrence, and the rolling ridges that flatten out toward Lake Ontario. Weather instruments are anchored to knobs of rock on the eastern slope, and a radio station in the tower reports temperatures and atmospheric changes.
A State constitutional amendment was passed to permit construction of this $1,250,000 road over State-owned forest land.
South of Wilmington State 86 proceeds along a comparatively level stretch where both the valley and the stream become broader.
WILMINGTON NOTCH STATE CAMPSITE (R), 8.4 m. (open, free, May 30–Sept. 15; 75 campsites; trout fishing), is in a white birch grove overlooking the West Branch of the Ausable River.
HIGH FALLS GORGE (R), 9.5 m., in Wilmington Notch, is a narrow defile between the precipitous slopes of Whiteface Mountain and the Sentinel Range which allows scant passage for river and highway. The gorge at the narrowest part of the pass has a falls with a 100-foot drop, access to which is controlled by a private concession (adm. 35¢).
NORTH AND SOUTH NOTCH TRAILS (L), 14 m., for novices, are units in the Lake Placid ski trail system.
CONNERY POND STATE CAMPSITE (R), 14.4 m. (open, free, May 30–Sept. 15; 8 campsites), is a base for hikers climbing the trail to Whiteface Mountain.
From the campsite the Connery Pond Trail leads, by the shortest route, to the summit of Whiteface Mountain, 5.8 m.
At 17.2 m. is the junction with State 86A (see Tour 16A).
LAKE PLACID, 17.7 m. (1,880 alt., 2,930 pop.), built around Mirror Lake and surrounded by the highest Adirondack peaks, is a year-round sports community that has developed the surrounding natural resources for winter and summer activities: skiing, skating, bobsledding, ski-joring; golf, tennis, boating, swimming, fishing, and mountain climbing. Almost every sport has its annual competition, and the seasons merge in the midsummer indoor ice carnival. Exclusive clubs and large hotels provide city comforts for those who can afford them; tourist homes, cabins, cottages, and campsites accommodate vacationists who rough it on limited budgets.
The LAKE PLACID CLUB, on the east shore of Mirror Lake, was founded in 1895 by Melvil Dewey, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system for library classifications and advocate of phonetic spelling. A sports community in itself, this expensive club has its own post office, shops, and water supply, and complete recreational and sports facilities. Membership is by invitation; and it is said that even after they are in, members are classified according to degree of desirability. Forest Clubhouse, the main building, is the central unit for about 60 cottages, each containing as many as 10 rooms and renting for as much as $3,000 for the summer season.
The OLYMPIC ARENA, Main St., erected for the 1932 Olympic winter sports games, is 238 feet long and 143 feet wide. The ice rink, surrounded by seats for 3,360 spectators, is the scene of winter and summer ice carnivals and skiing contests. In summer the arena houses the Lake Placid horse show, flower shows, boxing matches, and special exhibits.
West from Lake Placid the route passes the PETTIS MEMORIAL FOREST (R), 19.8 m., a 3,000-acre area of white, red, Scotch, and yellow pine and Norway spruce, which was planted between 1906 and 1909 and named for Clifford Robert Pettis (1877–1927), a leader in New York State forestry.
The MEADOWBROOK STATE CAMPSITE (open, free, Memorial Day to Labor Day) is (L) at 23.1 m. on a seven-acre evergreen tract.
At 23.5 m. is the junction with a macadam road.
Right on this road to the RAY BROOK SANATORIUM, 0.8 m., a New York State institution for the treatment of incipient tuberculosis. The sanatorium accommodates 300 patients.
The WILL ROGERS MEMORIAL SANATORIUM (open 9–10, 2–4), 25.6 m. (R), on 48 acres of ground, is a three-story fireproof structure in the Norman style, with wings radiating from a central tower. Built in 1930 by the National Variety Artists Club for its tubercular members, the sanatorium is now open to radio and screen actors, who are rapidly supplanting the old vaudeville troupers in the show business. It was named for Will Rogers, the cowboy philosopher from Oklahoma.
SARANAC LAKE, 27.5 m. (1,540 alt., 7,132 pop.), on Flower Lake and about one mile northeast of the lake from which it gets its name, is a world-famed health resort for tubercular people. Sanatoria and houses have an air of being ready for the painter with their scaffoldlike sun porches.
Although classified as a village, Saranac is virtually an independent city of stores, banks, motion picture theaters, newspapers, hospitals, and churches run by the people who have settled here because their dormant tuberculosis becomes active in less beneficial climates. There is a carefree gaiety here typical of such resorts that makes the town a popular winter and summer recreational center for healthy people.
In its early days Saranac was a center for Adirondack guides and lumbering. Jacob Smith Moody, the first settler in the region, came here in 1819 and cleared 16 acres of land; while all of his sons became guides, Martin Moody, or Uncle Mart, guided the most distinguished list, including Governor Horatio Seymour, Presidents Chester A. Arthur and Grover Cleveland, and the members of the Philosophers’ Camp (see Tour 17).
Captain Pliny Miller erected a sawmill here in 1827, and Saranac developed slowly as an isolated lumbering settlement. In 1876 Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau (1848–1915), a New York physician who had contracted tuberculosis, came to Saranac to die, but was so benefited by the climate that he established here the first outdoor sanatorium (see Tour 17) for the treatment of tuberculosis, and also the first laboratory for the scientific study of the disease.
The SOCIETY FOR THE CONTROL OF TUBERCULOSIS, 64 Main St., was organized in 1907, with Dr. Trudeau as its first president, to educate the community in the proper sanitary care of tubercular patients, to inform the public on methods of controlling the disease, and to discourage the sending of indigent, hopeless consumptive cases to the Adirondacks.
The SARANAC LABORATORY FOR THE STUDY OF TUBERCULOSIS, 7 Church St., founded in 1894 by Trudeau in a small cottage where he first isolated the bacillus, is a modern stone, glazed brick, steel, and cement building with a white tile interior. The John Black Memorial wing contains the most comprehensive library on tuberculosis in the country. The staff of this privately financed laboratory, which makes approximately 5,000 examinations a year, has developed a bacteriological technique that has been widely adopted in the study and treatment of the disease. In the College for Physicians, under the management of the Trudeau Foundation, doctors are trained in methods of diagnosing and treating tuberculosis.
The STEVENSON MEMORIAL COTTAGE (adm. 25¢; Wed. free), Stevenson Lane, maintained by the Stevenson Society of America, is a simple two-story, white-painted, clapboard cottage with a large porch extending around three sides, the yard enclosed by a low white fence. During the six winter months of 1887–8, when Robert Louis Stevenson lived here under the care of Dr. Trudeau, he wrote a number of essays, including Pulvis et Umbra, The Lantern Bearers, and Christmas Sermon, finished the Master of Ballantrae, and revised the manuscript of The Wrong Boy.
The CLUBHOUSE OF THE SARANAC LAKE CURLING CLUB, 122 Beaver St., built in 1930 to replace its outgrown predecessor, is equipped with six ice sheets, a skating rink, and a heated spectators’ balcony. Teams from eastern Canada and the United States compete here annually for the Patterson Memorial Trophy and the Mitchel Medal; the Gordon International Curling Match, the outstanding event in the sport, was played here in connection with the winter Olympics in 1932. With the growth of interest in winter sports, this national game of Scotland, which is much like bowling on ice, is spreading in the United States and Canada. The origin of the game is uncertain, but for more than three centuries it has been played in Scotland, where the Grand Caledonian Curling Club, established in 1838, formulated the rules that now govern the game.
Saranac Lake is at the junction with State 3 (see Tour 17).
In the STATE FOREST NURSERY, 35.3 m., 28,000,000 trees are being grown for use in reforesting denuded areas and controlling erosion.
LAKE CLEAR JUNCTION, 36.5 m. (1,630 alt., 348 pop.), is at the junction with State 10 (see Tour 18).