Half my life ago I spent summer weekends at a family camp on Lake Ozonia, with perch-catching extravaganzas, epic campfires and other multi-generational traditions. After that, while renting a place along Lake Placid’s Main Street, tourism—crowds, gift shops and parking tickets—dominated my surroundings. Next stop was a solitary farmhouse near Black Brook, not a neighbor in sight but Whiteface looming in my windows. From there I landed in Jay, a river-valley hamlet where the sun always seems to shine.
June 2016
Vanishing Acts
What do we know and how do we know it? For a naturalist documenting the Adirondacks in the 19th century, that job was as vast as the wilderness itself and systematic scientific inquiry was nearly as mysterious. Scrutinizing millions of acres to enumerate elusive creatures meant boots on the ground and also contact with hunters, guides and far-flung settlers for their impressions and experiences. Some men were unimpeachable sources of information, while others passed along nuggets of truth embedded in the bedrock of handed-down beliefs, tall tales and wild guesses.
Steven Kellogg
Due West Photography When the children’s book author and illustrator Steven Kellogg was a young boy living in Norwalk, Connecticut, his family used to vacation in Essex, on Lake Champlain. He remembers telling his three sisters as they drove along Lake Shore Road in...
On Sale Now
October 2026
Lost hikers, splintered bones and wildfires—a forest ranger reflects on more than two decades of coming to the rescue. Plus the oldest tavern in the Adirondacks, a trip through James Bond’s Lake George, and new energy in Schroon Lake.
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