The Adirondacks:
Past, Present & Future

The Past

Adirondack History

The history of the Adirondacks is documented in several sites on the web. Follow these links to see how time has passed in these mountains.

Greg Smith's Adirondack History Page

The History page at Adirondack Net

History of the Town of Keene, New York

Adirondack Realty is pleased to bring you James Bailey's History of the Town of Keene. Written in 1980, history has progressed beyond some of the information cited here, but the bulk of this text is a fascinating exploration into the development of the town Adirondack Realty calls home. We'd like to hear from any of you who would like to illuminate a part of Keene's history on this web site- write us!

Historic Photos

The Library of Congress has mounted the fabulous American Memory site which has a digital collection of media on thousands of topics. The Detroit Publishing Company's archive is contained within this site. Visit them for some historic photos of the Adirondacks and of the Town of Keene. Several of the photos of boarding houses in this collection have been linked to from the History of the Town of Keene pages in our site.

Tales of the Valley

Adrian Edmonds, founder of Adirondack Realty, was born in Keene Valley in 1909. During the course of his lifetime he has had the opportunity to hear a great many tales about life in the town of Keene, and has for the past few years been working to record these stories for posterity. We've placed a few of our favorites here in hopes that you will enjoy them as much as we do.

The Present

General Information

The Adirondacks are the largest state park in the contiguous 48 states. Among the oldest mountains in the nation, they are reknowned for their stunning vistas, crystal waters, and vast wildernesses. Following the links below should suffice to give anyone a sense of what qualities embody the park today.

The Adirondack Regional Tourism Site
Official regional tourism site with info on each Adirondack County, although focuses on Lake Placid in Essex County.

Greg Smith's Adirondack Site
The mother site for the history page linked to in the above history section.

Adirondack Information from the University of Vermont

Adirondack Net
Again, you may have visited this site already if you followed the Adirondack History links.

Photographs

We won't give you any promises as to download time but click on any of the sites below for some color stunners of various Adirondack Regions!

Mark Doser's Photo Gallery
Mark teaches history and maintains the web site for Keene Valley's own Keene Central School

The Virtual Adirondacks website has some nifty arial photos as well as some other pictures.

High Peaks Bob has some good pics at his backpacking site. Check out the view from Summit Rock or the view from Indian Falls.

And finally, a few more Adirondack Pics.

Land Use: The Adirondack Park Agency

The Adirondack Park Agency (APA), a New York State agency which regulates the use of all private lands within the Adirondack Park, came into being in 1973. You can view their mission statement online, as well as the APA Budget Summary. Unfortunately, the APA does not as yet have a web site although there are steps to improve the APA's level of technology. Adirondack Realty cannot adequately represent this agency on this site, although if you write to us at information@adkrealty.com we'll gladly mail you what printed matter we have.

While the APA is directly responsible for guiding the future of land use within the park many other organizations address specific land use concerns. The links that follow lead to both government agencies and public interest groups who have something to say on this topic.

The New York State Senate on Land Preservation

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

The Blue Line Council

The Adirondack Council

That's all for now...