Lake Placid, New York

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lake Placid is a village of 2,638 in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, USA. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 2,638. Lake Placid is named after an adjacent lake.

The Village of Lake Placid is near the center of the Town of North Elba and is southwest of Plattsburgh.

1 Olympic History
2 History
3 Location
4 Recreational Opportunities
5 Events
6 Education
7 Trivia
8 Transportation
9 Geography
10 Demographics
11 External links

[edit] Olympic History

While the village is a year-round resort, it is likely most known as the site of the 1980 Winter Olympics, and particularly the USA-USSR hockey game, the "Miracle on Ice," when a group of American college students and amateurs upset the heavily-favored Soviet national ice hockey team 4-3 and two days later won the gold medal. The victory is sometimes ranked as one of the greatest in American sports history.

The "Miracle on Ice" Arena today.

Olympic Ski Jumps

Another view of the Ski Jumps.

Lake Placid also hosted the 1932 Winter Olympics. Along with St. Moritz, Switzerland and Innsbruck, Austria, it is one of the three places to have twice hosted the Winter Olympic Games.

[edit] History

Lake Placid was founded in the early 1800s to develop a mining operation based on iron ore discovered nearby. By 1840, the population of "North Elba" (as the village was then known) consisted of 6 families. In 1845, Gerrit Smith arrived in North Elba. He not only bought up a great deal of land around the village, he also granted large tracts to his slaves, reforming the land law and reflecting his support of Abolitionism.

The abolitionist John Brown heard about Gerrit Smith's reforms, and left his anti-slavery activities in Kansas to buy 244 acres of land, which later became known as the "Freed Slave Utopian Experiment," Timbucto. Upon his execution in 1859, John Brown asked to be buried on his farm, which is preserved as John Brown Farm State Historic Site.

As leisure time increased in the late 19th century, Lake Placid was discovered by the rich and famous, drawn to the fashionable Lake Placid Club. Melvil Dewey, inventor of the Dewey Decimal System, designed what was then called "Placid Park Club" in 1895 and inspired a village name change, to Lake Placid. He is also sometimes credited with introducing recreational winter sports such as skiing and bobsledding to the United States, or at least helping to popularize them. The Lake Placid Club was also the headquarters for the International Olympic Committee which brought the 1932 and the 1980 Winter Olympics to Lake Placid.

Lake Placid became an incorporated village in 1900.

[edit] Location

Lake Placid is located inside the Adirondack State Park, the largest state park in the US, and one fifth of the total area of New York State. The six million acre park is a unique mix of private and public lands, containing the highest mountains in New York State and 2,000 miles of hiking trails. Legislation passed in 1885 conserved the park area and was followed by state constitutional protection in 1894, declaring the land to be protected forever, or "forever wild."

The Adirondack Park created the equally legendary Adirondack Guides. These versatile hunting and fishing guides were true "Renaissance Men of the Woods," capable of tracking anything, catching it for dinner, kindling a fire, and telling stories around it. They became Victorian era icons of the back-to-nature movement that surfaced in Europe during the nineteenth century.

View of Mirror Lake from town.

Another view of the lake.

Famous painters inspired by the scenic Adirondacks include Winslow Homer, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, Rockwell Kent, Alexander Helwig Wyant, and Harold Weston. They were a favorite subject of the Hudson River school. Many writers found the area conducive to inspiration and relaxation, from James Fenimore Cooper and Robert Louis Stevenson, to Theodore Dreiser and Russell Banks.

The Park was also the home of the United States' most famous hermit, Noah John Rondeau, who called himself the "Mayor of Cold River City (Population 1)" in the western Adirondack High Peaks.

A moneyed, grand style of nature enjoyment led to the building of Adirondack Great Camps, in which campers roughed it in style, with elaborate lodgings, recreational facilities, and social activities. Those without a Great Camp of their own would visit famous lodgings in the area, which duplicated for the public the Adirondack Great Camp experience.

Adirondack Chair in its natural habitat

The Adirondacks are perhaps most famous for the Adirondack Chair, a type of wooden chair featuring wide arms and a slanted back and seat. Its invention is often credited to Thomas Lee, who spent his summers in Westport, New York and used the input of his 22 member family to create the perfect chair for relaxation. First patented in 1904 as the Westport chair, subsequent versions have made only small adjustments to this classic design.

[edit] Recreational Opportunities

Lake Placid is well-known among winter sports enthusiasts for its skiing, both Alpine and Crosscountry, one of only three actual bobsled rides in the North and South American continents, the open skating on the Olympic Oval where Eric Heiden won his five Olympic Gold Medals, and one of the few places in the contiguous United States which offers dogsled and sleigh rides.

The Olympic Cauldron

[edit] Whiteface Mountain

Located on Route 86 in Wilmington, NY, it is about 13 miles from Lake Placid.

Whiteface Mountain's summit is at 4,867 feet, with lift-serviced terrain from 4,386 ft. and hike-to terrain from 4,650 feet. With a base elevation of 1,220 feet, Whiteface boasts the greatest vertical drop in the east at 3,430 feet. Its neighbor, Little Whiteface, tops in altitude at 3,676 ft. Whiteface has a total of 18 miles of ski terrain spread out over 76 trails. 220 acres of skiing area include the "The Slides", 35 acres of true expert extreme adventure terrain. A new 13 acre terrain park was added in 2000-1 with ramps, rails, and pipes.

Another view of the Lake Placid bobsled run.

Whiteface features some of the most difficult skiing and snowboarding terrain in the United States, made even more enjoyable by the lovely weather that the mountain usually experiences for most of the winter. Subtle breezes often blows snow onto the trails and ice is never a problem. As a result, the mountain is commonly known as "the Rockies of the East". There is a also a separate area for beginners known as Kids Kampus.

In summer, Whiteface Mountain also features gondola rides, mountain biking, and the Veteran's Memorial Highway, which allows vehicle access almost to the top of the mountain, for a panoramic view as far as thirty miles. An elevator can take even those with mobility challenges to the very top. Franklin Delano Roosevelt guided this WPA project from his personal experience dealing with polio.

[edit] Hiking

Lake Placid is an excellent base from which to tackle the forty six High Peaks in the Adirondack Mountains, the successful completion of which enables the hiker/climber to join the Adirondack Forty-Sixers.

[edit] Golf

The Barons of the Gilded Age who loved to play in Lake Placid brought their favorite game with them. Lake Placid built its first golf course in 1898, one of the first in the United States. Because of this history, Lake Placid still has the most golf courses of any area in the Adirondacks, many of them designed by famous golf course architects such as John Van Kleek, Seymour Dunn, Alexander H. Findlay, and Alister MacKenzie. The geographic features of the Adirondacks were considered reminiscent of the Scotland mountains where the game was invented, and thus a fitting canvas for original play, or "mountain golf."

[edit] Fishing

Lake Placid is near the West Branch of the Au Sable, a well-known stretch of river for fly fishing. Over six miles of the West Branch is year-round catch-n-release artificial lures-only water.

[edit] Events

Since 1998 it has been a site for the annual Ironman Triathlon, one of only 6 official Ironman Triathlons to be held in the continental US.

2006 Ironman - Lake Placid, NY
ESPN's Great Outdoor Games were inaugurated there in July of 2000.
The Lake Placid and I Love New York Horse Shows have been held at the North Elba Showgrounds for the past 37 years.
It is also the location of sports training facilities, especially those for winter events.
Each year, (in nearby Saranac Lake, New York) there will be the Annual Winter Carnival, one of the oldest Winter Carnivals in the country complete with an Ice Palace.
Lake Placid is also home to the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, a professional summer chamber orchestra that has existed since 1917 and offers concerts lakeside.

[edit] Education

Post-Secondary Education

North Country Community College

Primary & Secondary Education

In Lake Placid, public education is administered by the Lake Placid Central School District.

Lake Placid is home to five private schools:

Mountain Lake Academy
National Sports Academy
North Country School
Northwood School
St. Agnes School

[edit] Trivia

The Olympic Bobsleigh run from the air

Lake Placid was the first location in North America to host two Olympic games. Los Angeles became the other when it hosted the Summer Olympic Games for the second time in 1984.

The famous singer Kate Smith, winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, spent her summers in a camp on Lake Placid, in which one of the rooms was equipped as a radio studio. She converted to Roman Catholicism at the local St. Agnes Church and although she died in North Carolina, it was her wish to be buried in the St. Agnes Cemetery in Lake Placid, where her mausoleum stands today.

Jack Shea, a resident of the village, became the first person to win two gold medals when he doubled in speed skating at the 1932 Winter Olympics. His Grandson won gold in the Skeleton at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Jack Shea carried the Olympic torch through Lake Placid in 2002 shortly before his death as a victim of a drunk driver. His grandson competed in the Olympics that year in his honor.

The Olympic Center in Lake Placid boasts the greatest amount of ice surface in the world.

Ted Keizer, the hiking ultramarathoner better known as "Cave Dog," set the current record for climbing all 46 Adirondack High Peaks in June 2002, with a time of 3 days, 18 hours, and 14 minutes.

Santa's Workshop (in nearby Wilmington, New York) at the North Pole has been in operation since 1949. It was one of the first theme parks in the United States, and featured the world's first petting zoo. On December 16, 1953, The U.S. Postal Service awarded the North Pole "Rural Postal Station" status and Santa started getting his mail home delivered.

The 1950 Nordic skiing World Championships were the only time the event was held in the United States in a non-Olympic year, and one of only three to ever held outside of Europe (1995 in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada and the upcoming championships in Sapporo, Japan are the others.).

Alfred Hitchcock's only screwball comedy, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941 film), takes place partially in Lake Placid. It is where Carole Lombard flees to when she wants to make Robert Montgomery jealous. Lake Placid Serenade was a 1944 musical starring Vera Hruba Ralston, William Frawley, Roy Rogers, and his horse Trigger.

Lake Placid is home to one of the last remaining Howard Johnson's restaurants.

The town of Lake Placid, Florida is where Melvil Dewey died in 1931, after suffering bitter losses in the stock market crash of 1929. The city renamed itself after his favorite place in his honor, and is also known as "Caladium Capital of the World." Dewey was also a fervent advocate of Spelling reform and his influence can be seen in Lake Placid to this day. The home of the Adirondack Mountain Club is officially Adirondak Loj.

There is no 30 foot crocodile in Lake Placid, the lake. Lake Placid (film), the 1999 movie, was filmed mainly in the town of Shawnigan Lake, BC, Canada, which was pretending to be in Maine.

On November 20th, 1995, Two-time Olympic Gold medalist Russian figure skater Sergei Grinkov collapsed and died from a massive heart attack while he and his wife were practicing in Lake Placid for their upcoming performance in the 1995-1996 Stars on Ice tour.

[edit] Transportation

Lake Placid is served by nearby Adirondack Regional Airport in Saranac Lake, 16 miles from the village. Other relatively nearby airports include Albany International Airport and Burlington International Airport. Lake Placid is also served by an Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach connection through Westport via Ground Force 1 Limousine Service. In addition, Lake Placid is served by Adirondack Trailways of the Trailways Transportation System.

Lake Placid is not located at any interstate highway. It is connected to Interstate 87 to the east by New York State Route 73, New York State Route 86, and New York State Route 9N. County Roads 21, 31 and 35 also service the community.

Lake Placid Airport (LKP) is south of the village.

[edit] Geography

Lake Placid is located at 44°17′8″N, 73°59′7″W (44.285691, -73.985404)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 3.9 km² (1.5 mi²). 3.6 km² (1.4 mi²) of it is land and 0.4 km² (0.2 mi²) of it (9.87%) is water.

The village is located near the south end of a lake called Lake Placid. More immediate to the village is Mirror Lake, which lies between the village and Lake Placid.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 2,638 people, 1,303 households, and 604 families residing in the village. The population density was 738.1/km² (1,913.2/mi²). There were 1,765 housing units at an average density of 493.8/km² (1,280.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the village was 95.75% White, 0.68% African American, 0.45% Native American, 0.91% Asian, 0.57% Pacific Islander, 0.19% from other races, and 1.44% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.91% of the population.

There were 1,303 households out of which 22.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.1% were married couples living together, 8.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 53.6% were non-families. 45.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.02 and the average family size was 2.93.

In the village the population was spread out with 22.4% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 33.2% from 25 to 44, 19.3% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 92.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.3 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $28,239, and the median income for a family was $43,042. Males had a median income of $26,585 versus $21,750 for females. The per capita income for the village was $18,507. About 8.5% of families and 13.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.3% of those under age 18 and 17.8% of those age 65 or over.