Dannemora escape story reads like fiction
By Explorer archives
May 23, 2017
Writer Michael Benson tells the story of the 2015 prison breakout in the northern Adirondacks by inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt in his book, "Escape from Dannemora."
Biking the Barns in the Champlain Valley
By Explorer archives
May 12, 2017
Champlain Valley’s many quiet, country roads are ideal for cycling, so it’s no surprise that the Adirondack North Country Association chose the region for a new annual event called Bike the Barns.
Beds at Boreas Ponds?
By Explorer archives
May 12, 2017
Environmental groups are alarmed by a conceptual proposal floated by the Cuomo administration to establish lodging facilities near Boreas Ponds—in an area they believe should be classified as “untrammeled” Wilderness.
American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of New York
By Explorer archives
May 1, 2017
High praise for bird book Beautifully produced and lavishly illustrated, the American Birding Association Field Guide to Birds of New York covers 285 of the 485 bird species recorded in the state, and it includes a complete checklist of all the species ever seen, including those that have gone extinct or are sighted extremely…
New York’s Broken Constitution
By Explorer archives
April 15, 2017
The New York State Constitution is a mess. So it’s no surprise that New York’s machinery of governance—legislation, the judiciary, the formulation and enforcement of policy, state finances, the separation of powers, and so much more—is also a mess. In New York’s Broken Constitution, a (mostly) well-researched and well-written book, ten experts (a good mix…
Big plans for North Hudson
By Explorer archives
April 12, 2017
State wants to replace moldering Frontier Town at Exit 29 with $32 million Gateway to the Adirondacks By Rick Karlin Since its closure in 1998, Frontier Town could be more accurately described as a ghost town, but parts of the moldering theme park would be granted new life in a $32 million plan by…
The wild is near to their hearts
By Explorer archives
April 5, 2017
Bucking the region’s aging demographic, young adults who love wilderness choose to settle in the Park. By Mike Lynch In 2015, Old Forge native Tyler Socash decided to take the money he had been saving for a car and spend it on something more experiential: three long-distance hiking trips. Starting in August, he ended up…
Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering
By Explorer archives
April 1, 2017
In 1642, Darby Field, a resident of what is now New Hampshire, climbed White Hill, known by local Indians as Agiocochook and by moderns as Mount Washington, the highest mountain in New England. Others in the Massachusetts Bay Colony thought Field daft for climbing a mountain. It just wasn’t something people did. “Following his death…
Gateway proposal is a winner
By Explorer archives
March 13, 2017
Even as debate over how the state should classify newly acquired lands continues, creative ideas from state and local officials point to exciting ways for local communities and the Park as a whole to benefit from the expansion of the Forest Preserve. The state’s phased purchase of sixty-five thousand acres of former Finch, Pruyn and…
Murder in the Adirondacks
By Explorer archives
March 10, 2017
Infamous murder revisited By Betsy Kepes It’s been over one hundred years since a search party found Grace Brown’s body in the bottom of Big Moose Lake, an overturned rowboat floating nearby. In 1906 the face of the man who walked away from that remote bay would become familiar to many Americans as he sat…