New York State World War Memorial Highway - Wilmington, NY
N 44° 24.136 W 073° 52.639
18T E 589399 N 4917165
New York State World War Memorial Highway winds its way up Whiteface Mountain from NY Route 431 west of Wilmington, NY.
Waymark Code: WM9Q7W
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 09/18/2010
Views: 17
In WILMINGTON, 5.3 m. (1,020 alt., 574 pop.), is the junction with the NEW YORK STATE WORLD WAR MEMORIAL HIGHWAY (open all year; tolls, adults $1, children 50c).
Right here up a serpentine mountain road to the parking area on WHITEFACE MOUNTAIN (4,872 alt.), 5 m. At the parking area, a few hundred feet below the summit, is the entrance to the elevator (ascent 15c, descent 10c) that rises through a giant shaft cut through the core of the mountain to a stone lookout tower at the summit, which can also be reached on foot over stairs and rock trails. The tower with a circle of windows is perched like a skull cap on the brow of the white mountain face.
Unlike Mount Marcy and the other high peaks, Whiteface is isolated, so that on clear days almost the entire northern part of the State is visible from its summit. To
the south rises the humpy McIntyre Range: on the east stretches the irregular, gleaming spread of Lake Champlain, with the Green Mountains beyond; to the north is Mount Royal in Canada, marked by the pall of smoke over Montreal; and to the west is the St. Lawrence, and the rolling ridges that flatten out toward Lake Ontario.
Weather instruments are anchored to knobs of rock on the eastern slope, and a radio station in the tower reports temperatures and atmospheric changes.
A State constitutional amendment was passed to permit construction of this $1,250,000 road over State-owned forest land.
The Highway and the summit of Whiteface Mountain still exist, although it will cost you $9.00 to get to the top. The elevator ride is now free, but it is much more fun to climb the trail from the Castle to the summit. The views are astounding from the top, but the Highway offers many a sweeping panorama and informational signs describing the area.
The waymark location is the tollgate at the start of the ascent.
Book: New York
Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 505-506
Year Originally Published: 1940
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