Lake Placid, nestling at the base of old Whiteface and elevated
eighteen hundred and sixty feet above the sea, is often called the
"Eye of the Adirondacks." Its mountain environment has made it almost
a rectangle, four miles long and two miles wide. Down its centre,
arranged in a row, are three beautiful islands, named respectively the
Hawk, Moose and Buck, two being large and high and the third smaller.
These divide it into alternating spaces of land and water much like a
chess-board. To the eastward is the pretty Mirror Lake, about three
miles in circuit. Both lakes have high wooded shores, and around them
are gathered the hotels, cottages and camps of a large summer
settlement. Surrounded by a grander galaxy of finer and higher
mountains than any other lakes of this region, here is truly the "Eye"
that views these dark Adirondacks in all their glory. These mountains
are all sombre, and some almost inky black; many are hazy in the
distance. To the northeast the Wilmington Pass, alongside Whiteface,
lets out the western branch of Ausable; to the southward, the Indian
Pass opening between McIntyre and Wallface is a source of the Hudson;
to the westward, on the spurs of lower ranges, are the forests
separating these lakes from the Saranacs. There are more than a
hundred peaks around, of varying heights and features, among them the
greatest of the Adirondacks. Embosomed within this wonderful
amphitheatre is the glassy-surfaced lake, protected from the winds and
storms, which is so attractive and so peaceful that it fully deserves
its name, Lake Placid.
Crossing again to the westward through the forests and over the
ridges, we come into the valley of the Saranac, with its lakes, and
the ancient village of Harrietstown under the long ridge of Ampersand
Mountain. Here on the Lower Saranac Lake is another summer settlement
of villas, hotels and camps. Behind the mountain there is a little
lake out of which flows a stream so crooked and twisted into and out
of itself, turning around sweeping circles without accomplishing much
progress, that its discoverers could not liken it to anything more
appropriate than to the eccentric supernumerary of the alphabet, the
"&." Thus the name of the "Ampersand" of the old spelling-books was
applied first to the stream, and then to the lake and mountain, the
latter being the guardian of the many lakes of this region. The Lower
Saranac Lake is at fifteen hundred and forty feet elevation, and the
Ampersand Mountain rises a thousand feet above it. A pretty church in
the village is appropriately named for St. Luke the Physician, and
here is located the Adirondack Sanitarium, this district being a
favorite refuge for consumptives. The Chateaugay railroad comes in
here, but the district beyond to the south and west has neither
railroads nor wagon roads. It is such a labyrinth of lakes and water
courses it can only be traversed in boats.
The whole western part of the Adirondacks is an elevated tableland,
containing many hills and peaks, but saturated by water ways.
Therefore "canoeing and carrying" is the method of transportation.
The Lower Saranac Lake is five miles long, and beyond it is Round
Lake, over two miles in diameter, beyond that being the Upper Saranac
Lake, nearly eight miles long and dotted with islands. There are
portages between them where the canoes have to be carried. The outlet
of the Upper Saranac is a magnificent cataract and rapid, descending
thirty-five feet in a distance of about one hundred yards. From the
Upper Saranac Lake other portages, or "carrys," as they are called,
lead over to the Blue Mountain region, the Raquette River and the
Tupper Lakes to the westward. The Adirondack ranges here are lower,
and the forests get denser, but all about are dotted the summer
settlements, some of them displaying most elaborate construction.
Every place has its boat-house and canoe-rack, and boats are moving in
all directions. At the head of the Upper Saranac is St. Regis
Mountain, and a long "carry" of about four miles through the forest
goes over to the Big Clear Pond, the head of the Saranac system of
waters. Crossing this lake, yet another "carry" takes us over the
watershed. This is a famous portage in the liquid district, the "St.
Germain carry" of over a mile between the Saranac headwaters and the
sources of St. Regis River, flowing out westward and then northward to
the St. Lawrence. It leads to the series of St. Regis Lakes, and
finally on the bank of the Lower St. Regis to the great hotel of the
woods--Paul Smith's--with many camps surrounding the shores of the
lake. Apollus Smith, a shrewd Yankee, came here many years ago, when
the locality was an unbroken wilderness, and built a small log house
in the forest as an abiding-place for the hunter and angler. It was
repeatedly enlarged, and with it the domain, now covering several
thousand acres, until the hostelrie has become an unique mixture of
the backwoods with modern fashion, and is everywhere known as the
typical house of the Adirondack region. Upon the hill behind the hotel
is the attractive little church of "St. John in the Wilderness,"
appropriately built of logs hewn in the surrounding forest.