Whiteface Mountain - Wilmington, NY
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NorStar
N 44° 21.946 W 073° 54.177
18T E 587412 N 4913084
From its summit, accessible by going up a serpentine road - the New York State World War Memorial Highway - then either an elevator or trail, almost the entire northern part of the State is visible.
Waymark Code: WMTQQ0
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 12/31/2016
Views: 5
In Wilmington, in the Adirondack Mountain range, is Whiteface Mountain, listed in the American Guide Series book for New York State.
The book has the following about the mountain, and the auto road built on it:
In WILMINGTON,, 5.3m (1,020 alt., 574 pop.), is the junction with the
NEW YORK STATE WORLD MEMORIAL HIGHWAY (open all year; tolls, adults $1, children 50 cents).
Right here up a serpentine mountain road to the parking area on WHITEFACE MOUNTAIN (4872 alt), 5m. At the parking area, a few hundred feet below the summit, is the entrance to the elevator (ascent 15 cents, descent 10 cents) 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 of State-owned forest land.
-- American Guide Series: New York - A Guide to the Empire State, p. 506
Generally, little has changed save the tolls to drive up the mountain. The toll was $15 for car and driver plus $8 per additional person [2016]. The drive is pleasant the incline is moderate but steady. The elevator still exists, but it wasn't operating when we were there. The summit now has an observatory for the weather instruments - run by the State University of New York, Albany. The highway has had extensive reconstruction work done and has been rededicated to veterans of all wars in 1985.
Book: New York
Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 508
Year Originally Published: 1940
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