Fifty-five years ago Tad and Linda Sturgis’s Adirondack Store was featured in the winter issue of Adirondack Life. By then, the couple’s emporium had been thriving for more than a decade.
More Articles From
Annie Stoltie
The Adirondack Store
As you approach the rustic log and glass front of the Adirondack Store on Route 86, in Ray Brook, between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, a glance through the window promises memorable browsing.
Adirondack Reads 2025: New Books of Regional Interest
The Adirondack 46 in 18 Hikes: The Complete Guide to Hiking the High Peaks (North Country Books, 2025), by James Appleton, offers a strategic roadmap to tackling the High Peaks.
Malfunction Junction in the Adirondacks
Photograph by Johnathan Esper Malfunction Junction, Dysfunction Junction, Spaghetti Junction, Crazy Corners—or, often for first-timers, What the Hell. Those are a few of the epithets for the intersection of Routes 9 and 73, in New Russia, a head-scratching...
The River Fixers: How the Ausable Freshwater Center Is Healing a Critical Waterway
By the time Tropical Storm Irene moved on, the Ausable River’s rage had washed away portions of Au Sable Forks, Jay, Upper Jay, Keene and other hamlets. Roads and homes, businesses and roadside attractions, including the actual Land of Makebelieve, a former theme park in Upper Jay, were swamped. A total of $25 million in damages sat on the ledgers of hamlets whose combined annual budgets were a mere $4 million.
The Adirondack Roots of Our New Thriller
Twenty-five years ago, in Montclair, New Jersey, Anne walked into a bookstore for the launch of Christina’s second novel. We were both relatively new to town—Anne had just moved from Brooklyn; Christina was adjusting to suburban life after years on the Upper West Side. Within minutes, we discovered a creative kinship that would eventually lead us deep into the Adirondack wilderness, both literally and literarily.
About Orra
She rushed from her campsite at Marcy Dam to Lake Colden after being summoned in the deep of a September night. A man splitting wood for his party’s campfire had sliced his ankle to the bone with an ax.
The Adirondack Harvest Festival
On a September afternoon at Westport’s Essex County Fairgrounds, a farmers’ market on steroids is underway. People stroll booth to booth and table to table along a loop of growers and bakers and makers.
Postcards from the Edge
When I travel around the Adirondacks, I sometimes squint my eyes, trying to imagine how the landscape looked before it was settled: Wild, tangled woods. Unencumbered rivers.
The Jay Invitational of Clay
July in Jay—a hamlet that cradles the East Branch of the Ausable River—is postcard perfect. Families splash in the rapids below the covered bridge. On weekends, musicians perform by the gazebo on the village green. Every Fourth of July there’s a lively parade, followed by field games, then fireworks. And the past few years another summer event has added an artistic flair to this Rockwellian scene: the Jay Invitational of Clay.
On Sale Now
December 2025
Pulling back the curtain on the rough-and-tumble world of backcountry guides, plus Old Forge’s beloved Strand Theatre, the life of a master woodworker, Santas on the slopes and more!
Adirondack Life Magazine
Subscribe Today!
Latest Articles
Follow Us
Adirondack Life Store
for calendars, apparel, maps and more!