The Adirondack Park A Political History

by Frank Graham

An account of the establishment and importance of the nation's largest park describes its attractions and resources

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

332 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1978

Reviews

[Mary Diegert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written - good attempt to summarize the history of the park and the endless conflicts over how it should be administered up to 1978. There are a lot of blow-by-blow descriptions of legislative actions and lots of people who have been involved are introduced. The Adirondack park is unique because more than half of it is private. The author is definitely biased in favor of the arguments for using regulation, planning, and oversight to restrain development.
The essential feature of any discussion of the Adirondacks is the language in the NY State constitution that says that the state-owned land is to remain "forever wild." This will be a source of litigation until the end of time.

[Jay Dewey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Adirondacks, particularly the area around Chestertown where I was a counselor at a summer camp. Unfortunately for me, this book was more focused on the big lakes and better know attractions. Not too helpful to me, but still interesting.

[Aldafan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got it at a used book store. The beginning is very good, a history of the park and parks in general. There is also some good New York state history. The second half goes more into the "politics" of protecting the park and involves a lot of names of never heard of and zoning issues, etc.