Number of deer-vehicle accidents per year in the US: approximately 1.5 million
Months when deer-related accidents are most likely to occur: October and November
Number of people in the US killed in crashes involving animals (mostly deer) in 1993: 101
That number in 2007: 223 » Continue Reading.
Year Pope Julius I and other religious leaders specified December 25th as the official date of the birth of Jesus Christ: 320 AD
Year in which the Christmas Tree is introduced at Strasbourg Cathedral: 1539
Year Alabama became the first state in the US to make Christmas a legal holiday: 1836
Estimated number of copies of Bing Crosby’s version of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” – the best selling single of all time – has sold: in excess of 50 million copies worldwide
Probability of one inch or more of snow on the ground on December 25th in Old Forge: 97%
Year in which F. M. Chapman proposed the first a Christmas bird census: 1900
Number of Christmas Bird count participants in 2000: 50,000
Year in which Santa’s Workshop theme park in Wilmington, NY opened: 1949
Approximate number of daily newspapers who reported on the opening of Santa’s Workshop: over 700 dailies in the U.S. and Canada
Approximate number of movie theater-goers introduced to Santa’s Workshop via a Pathe Newsreel: 30 million
Number of visitors on opening day, July 1, 1949: 212
Number of visitors on September 2, 1951: over 14,000 perhaps as many as 20,000
Year Robert Reiss closes Santa’s Workshop, Wilmington, following a failed business deal: 2001 (it was reopened the following year by Northpole Associates who purchased the facilities in 2005
Year in which Arthur Gillette opened Christmas City, USA theme park on Rt. 9 near Lake George: 1963
Year in which Christmas City, USA changed its name to Magic Forest: 1965
Photo: ABC Sportscaster Jim McKay with Santa at Santa’s Workshop in 1980.
Sources: Adirondack Chronology (pdf), Santas.Net, Guinness Book of World Records, Northeast Regional Climate Center, Santa’s Workshop.
Year of the first known winter ascent of Mount Marcy: 1893
Number of recorded “Winter” 46ers as of May 2010: 467
Year volunteers cut the first trails on Gore Mountain: 1931
Approximate number of ski facilities, downhill and cross-country in the Adirondacks today: 30
Year in which Jim Goodwin and Bob Notman made the first ascent of the Chapel Pond Slab: 1936
Approximate number of ice climbing routes today: 100 on 13 major cliffs
Year in which Polaris Industries’ introduced the “Pol-Cat,” the first modern snowmobile: 1954
Approximate number of miles of groomed snowmobile trails on state land today: 800
Year of the first winter sports festival in Lake Placid: 1914
Amount of state taxpayers money ORDA received in 2010: $5.6 million
Amount ORDA contributes to the local economy: about $300 million
Estimated number of people employed by the winter economy in the Old Forge area: 500 to 1,000
Sources, Press Republican, Climate Change in the Adirondacks, ORDA, Lee Manchester, “Santa’s Historians” [pdf], John Warren “Adirondack Snowmobile History”.
Amount of ice per year consumed by New Yorkers in 1850: 300,000 tons
Amount of ice consumed per person in American cities in 1880: 2/3 of a ton
Months during which ice was typically harvested: January, February, and sometimes March
Minimum favorable thickness of ice at harvest time: 10-12 inches
Approximate number of men employed harvesting ice from Lake Champlain in 1890: 5,000
Approximate amount of “natural ice” harvested each year in the 1920s by the Meagher Ice Company of Saranac Lake: 10,000 tons
Tons of ice harvested in 1932 by the Lake George Ice Company for use by the Delaware and Hudson Railroad: 20,000 tons
Decade in which the Adirondack ice industry came to an end: 1930s
Approximate number of ice blocks harvested by Jim Dillon (owner of Raquette Lake Supply Co.) and about two dozen volunteers in 2009: 1,000
Year in which New Bremen began harvesting ice again: 1964 (their ice house was built in 1971)
Cost of an 18-inch square block of New Bremen ice: $4.00
Sources: Tissot’s Adirondack Ice
Average height and weight of a mature male (tom) wild turkey: About 2.5 feet tall and 18 to 20 lbs (up to about 25 lbs)
Average weight of a mature female (hen): 9 to 12 lbs
Decade in which the last original wild turkeys disappeared from New York: 1840’s
The year wild turkeys from a small remnant population in northern PA crossed the border into western NY: 1948 » Continue Reading.
Approximate number of active farms in New York State in 1960: 88,000
Number of active farms in New York State today: roughly 36,000
Number of New York State farms in 2007 that had commodity sales below $1,000 during the previous year: about 10,000 (27% of all NYS farms)
The number of farms that sell directly to the consumers in the six Northern New York counties in 2007: 619 » Continue Reading.
The year the first New York State law went into effect to limit deer hunting to a restricted “season”: 1788
Number of Game Protectors appointed in 1880, their first year: 8
The per person bag limit for deer established in 1886: 3
The year jack-lighting (taking a deer at night using a light) was outlawed: 1892 » Continue Reading.
Acres of Adirondack Forest Preserve acquired by New York State before 1900, largely through tax sales: 1.2 million
Percentage of the Adirondack Park affected by either fires, moderate to severe storm damage, or both in the past 100 years: 39.5%
Percentage of the Adirondack Park damaged during the Great Storm of November 1950, known as the Big Blow: 13.6% (800,000 acres) » Continue Reading.
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