Your Adventure Awaits: There are around ten camps within the Adirondack State Park that are traditionally defined as the Adirondack Great Camps. However, there are numerous other camps within the Park's boundaries that could be considered Great Camps. The great majority of the Great Camps through this definition grew up around the small lakes of the Adirondacks as small hunting camps. These lakes were like the Blue Mountain Lake, where the Adirondack Museum is situated, but also includes lakes that are much smaller. The Great Camps were built by many of the rich and powerful people of the time in order to create a rustic getaway. J. P. Morgan and Vanderbilt were just a few of these people who searched for simpler living in the calming outdoors. These Great Camps were large, luxurious complexes, much bigger than normal houses. It's hard to believe that these designers could bring so much extravagance to the outdoors and still retain a rustic feeling within them. These were mostly used in the summer to get away from the city and interact with the nature around them. In the comfort of their grand buildings, the rich who owned the camps could enjoy the out of doors and engage in many recreational activities. The fundamental difference between the small hunting camps and the Great Camps that grew around them was that the Great Camps lived in luxury, not having to do things simply for survival in the woods. All in all, a Great Camp is a large building or collection of buildings built in the Adirondack Mountains, mostly around small lakes or other bodies of water, during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
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The camps in this tour are mapped out across the Adirondacks. Click on a point to learn more about that camp and its history. |
This Great Camp tour walks through the different types of rooms that can be in a Great Camp and talks about the types of objects that might be found there. These pictures were taken from several different camps, but are representative of the rooms that can be found in any Great Camp. |
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