Small towns, big outdoors, fascinating history
From the area's first settlements to logging villages and mountain exploration, Hamilton County has a long and storied history. Museums, historical societies and sites where remarkable events occurred are located throughout the region and welcome visitors of all ages to learn more about the people and events that helped shape the area into what it is today. There is much to explore and learn – did you know that the first hotel in the nation to have electricity was right here in beautiful Blue Mountain Lake?
The ADKX
Known as the "Smithsonian of the Adirondacks," the extensive campus of The Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX) is the beloved repository of some of the Adirondacks' most cherished stories, where historic artifacts and even entire structures are preserved here for all to appreciate for generations. From displays featuring guideboats, an Indigenous craft, to the cabin of famous Adirondack hermit Noah Rondeau, the collections are wide-ranging and endlessly fascinating.
The Adirondack Experience will be open for the season beginning May 24, 2024!
Great Camps
Hamilton County is fortunate to have been part of the early history of vacationing in the Adirondacks. The Adirondack Great Camp tradition began in the late 19th century soon after the publication of William H. H. Murray's Adventures in the Wilderness in 1869. This highly popular book was an account of Murray's various camping, hunting, and fishing trips in the Adirondack wilderness. Murray's book put the Adirondack Mountains and Hamilton County on the map as a tourist destination, inspiring men and women from cities downstate to "vacate" the city in the summer.
Grand hotels were soon built and the rich and famous from around the world were soon spending their summers here, building luxuriously rustic summer compounds. William West Durant was a designer and developer of camps in the Adirondack Great Camp style, including Camp Uncas, Camp Pine Knot and Great Camp Sagamore which are National Historic Landmarks.
In warmer weather, explore the waters and very special history of Raquette Lake onboard the W.W. Durant, a replica steamboat owned and operated by the Pohl family. During summer months, the Durant offers a variety of narrated history cruises, from evening dinner cruises to Sunday brunch to daily sightseeing tours.
