Adirondack Scenic Railroad, Adirondack Park, and Lake George, NY - Road Trip 2000, Part 4

All Photographs Copyright © 2007 by Robert E Pence

 

Adirondack Scenic Railroad

 

 

 

The Adirondack Scenic Railroad runs from Utica to Lake Placid, and operates excursions out of Utica, Thendara and Lake Placid.

The line was originally built to carry the rich and famous in their private railroad cars to their "Great Camps" in the Adirondack

Mountains.

 

 

I rode the twenty-two mile round trip between Thendara and Otter Lake in the cab of an immaculate, sweet-running 2000-

horsepower 1964 Alco C-420 locomotive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, NY

 

 

The Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake consists of twenty-some buildings on more than twenty acres of land. It

features exhibits on boats, hunting, fishing, logging, mining and farming, as well as examples of the summer "camps" of the

wealthy and homes of the people who made their living in the area. The art gallery features a permanent collection and

seasonal exhibits. The reason for my visit was an exhibit of Rockwell Kent's Adirondack paintings. They are beautiful and

powerfully moving.

 

 

Rockwell Kent's Clover Fields.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Adirondack Park consists of a patchwork of public and private lands. Efforts are ongoing to purchase private parcels and to

obtain easements in order to facilitate the use of hiking trails and ensure access to scenic, historic and nature preservation

areas. Scattered throughout the park are the remains of former summer homes that have burned or become derelict.

 

 

 

Lake George, New York

 

 

 

Mist rises from Lake George on an icy-crisp, crystal-clear autumn morning.

 

 

 

 

 

Built in 1969 on Lake George, Lake George Steamboat Company's Minne-Ha-Ha is an authentic steamboat whose engine room

is glass-enclosed so passengers can see the engine working. Her hull was designed by the H.M. Tiedermann Company of New

York City, and her engines and paddle wheel were designed and built by Frederick H. Semple of St. Louis. Her boiler was

manufactured by the International Boiler Works of East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania and produces about 200 horsepower.

 

 

 

Lac du Saint Sacrement's keel was laid in 1979 at the Lake George Steamboat Company's Baldwin Shipyards. Her hull was

launched in 1987, and she entered service in 1989. Her name is the name given to the lake in 1646 by a Jesuit priest. She is

190 feet long and her design retains the character of 19th-century lake steamers.

 

 

Lake George Steamboat Company's Mohican was launched in 1907. She was powered by Fletcher steam engines and fueled by

coal until 1945, when her owner converted her to diesel power for greater efficiency and passenger space on the second deck.

Her superstructure was updated from wood and canvas to steel in the 1970s.

 

Stunning stuff.