Posts Tagged ‘Frontier Town’

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Questions Surround New Frontier Town Campground Trail System

The new Frontier Town state campground was opened to great fanfare just before the July 4th holiday this year. The campground is now fully developed with campsites, trails, and amenities such as showers, playgrounds, horse stalls, pavilions, and scenic lookouts on the banks of the Schroon River, among other features. Construction of the new Paradox Brewery is well underway.

The Frontier Town Campground is designed to pay homage to the western themes of the old Frontier Town wild west amusement park that was in its heyday in the decades after the Second World War. The amusement park had become dilapidated over the years and the new campground was a State intervention to help restore the site to some form of commercial use. The main gate has a western design and many of the shower and bathroom buildings have western saloon facades. » Continue Reading.


Friday, March 8, 2019

New Frontier Town Campground Taking Reservations

frontier town state campgroundReservations for the new Frontier Town Campground, Equestrian and Day Use Area in the Adirondacks began on March 1st.

The DEC-managed campground at the site of the former Frontier Town theme park includes 91 campsites to accommodate a range of camping and visitor experiences, including: » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Adirondack Council: Upcoming APA Meeting Comments

adirondack council new logoThe Adirondack Council has reviewed the agenda for the upcoming February 14-15 Adirondack Park Agency Board meeting. We offer the following comments and suggestions: » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, February 12, 2019

APA Agenda: North Hudson, Saranac Lakes Changes, More

APA Building in Ray Brook NYThe Adirondack Park Agency will hold its monthly meeting at its headquarters in Ray Brook on Thursday, February 14th and Friday February 15th, 2019. Thursday’s meeting will begin at 1 pm and Friday’s session will commence at 9 am.

The meeting will include discussion on the Frontier Town Campground, Equestrian and Day Use Area in the Town of North Hudson; a presentation on climate change in the Adirondacks; consideration of Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan conformance for the Saranac Lakes Wild Forest Unit Management Plan; and more. What follows is the agenda issued by the APA: » Continue Reading.


Monday, October 8, 2018

Frontier Town Campground, Paradox Brewery Update

frontier town equestrian campground and day use area planDEC Commissioner Basil Seggos and Office of General Services Commissioner RoAnn Destito joined local elected officials and other partners at a ribbon cutting event last week in North Hudson. They were there to unveil the first phase of the former Frontier Town theme park site development on the Schroon River at the corner of Route 9 and Blue Ridge Road, nearly adjacent to I-87 Northway Exit 29.

The completed project is expected to feature a 91-acre universally accessible state campground, an equestrian campground, along with two day-use areas (Riverside and Trail Side). The project’s official name is Frontier Town Campground, Equestrian and Day Use Area. The two day use areas are now open; the new campground is expected to open for the season in the spring. » Continue Reading.


Monday, January 22, 2018

State’s Frontier Town Plan Missing Key Transportation Piece

frontier townLast Thursday the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) approved New York State’s plan to build a 91-site camping, equestrian and day use area at the site of the former Frontier Town in North Hudson.

This is the first part of a multi-part strategy to develop the entire site into a gateway with a mix of private and public amenities, businesses and recreational assets. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, January 10, 2018

APA Agenda: Frontier Town Campground, ORDA Permits, More

APA Building in Ray Brook NYThe Adirondack Park Agency (APA) will hold its monthly meeting at its headquarters in Ray Brook, NY on Thursday, January 11th, 2018.

The meeting will address the proposed Frontier Town Campground, Equestrian and Day Use Area in North Hudson, the proposed amendments to the Whiteface and Gore unit management plans, and more.

What follows is the agenda issued by the APA: » Continue Reading.


Thursday, December 7, 2017

Frontier Town Campground Moves Forward, Meetings Set

North Hudson GatewayThe Adirondack Park Agency has announced that it has deemed DEC’s application complete for the Frontier Town Campground, Equestrian and Day Use Area along the Schroon River in North Hudson. State and local officials have been touting the proposed facility as a “Gateway to the Adirondacks.”

The plan proposes an accessible public campground at the site of the former Frontier Town theme park. The campground would include RV, tent, and equestrian camp sites and facilities, and trails connecting to the snowmobile trails leading to Schroon Lake and Ticonderoga, and a new trail to Newcomb being proposed in the yet unapproved Boreas Ponds Tract Management Plan. The campground is part of the Upper Hudson Recreation Hub Master Plan.

» Continue Reading.


Monday, May 1, 2017

Is Frontier Town ‘Gateway’ A $32 Million Boondoggle?

North Hudson Frontier Town Adirondack Gateway Vision DrawingThe plan to rebuild and reinvent the former Frontier Town wild west theme park site in North Hudson has not received much scrutiny, but it’s now being fast-tracked for planning and construction by the state. It’s short on details, but has a $32 million allocated in the new state budget. There are many questions around this project. Generally, the news following Governor Cuomo’s announcement to revitalize the former Frontier Town site has been greeted with great enthusiasm from local government officials and Adirondack leaders, but it has left me scratching my head.

My one clear thought among many questions is that it’s stacking up as one of the great boondoggles of all time. » Continue Reading.


Sunday, April 16, 2017

Big Plans For Adirondack Gateway In North Hudson

frontier townSince its closure in 1998, Frontier Town could be more accurately described as a ghost town, but parts of the moldering theme park would be granted new life in a $32 million plan by the state to establish a Gateway to the Adirondacks at Exit 29 on the Northway.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the plan in his State of the State Message in January and filled in some of the details later in the month. It will include an information center, day-use area, equestrian trails, and a campground along the Schroon River. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Origins of Adk Land Use Planning

After publishing “Robert Moses and the Lake George Park Commission” in this space a couple of months ago, several people asked me to explain a reference  I had made in that piece to a proposed  Adirondack Park-wide authority or commission modeled upon the original Lake George Park Commission.

It’s not surprising that few people remember it. After the legislative session of 1964, the enabling legislation was shelved, and by 1967, the public’s attention had shifted to  Laurence Rockefeller’s proposal for an Adirondack National Park and later, to Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s Temporary Study Commission on the Future of the Adirondacks and its most important recommendation, the formation of an Adirondack Park Agency.
» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Adirondack Wild West: Ned Buntline to Frontier Town

Earl Woodward, a school teacher from Ohio, decided that Warren County would be a good place to situate western style dude ranches. Art Bensen, a telephone company employee from Staten Island, was no less certain that North Hudson was a suitable location for an old west theme park, which he called Frontier Town.

If the relationship between the wild west and the southern Adirondacks strikes you as casual at best, a moment’s reflection will clarify matters.

There is, of course, as little connection between cowboys and the Adirondack native as there is between the guide-boat builder and Santa Claus and Mother Goose, sources of inspiration for other well-known Adirondack attractions. » Continue Reading.



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