[4] The Adirondack Park contains 46 High Peaks, 2,800 lakes and ponds, 30,000 miles (48,000 km) of rivers and streams,[3] and an estimated 200,000 acres (81,000 ha) of old-growth forests.

[3] The inclusion of human communities makes the park one of the most successful experiments in conserving previously developed lands in the industrialized world.

As Romanticism developed in the United States, the view of wilderness became more positive, as seen in the writings of James Fenimore Cooper, John Muir, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The 1849 publication of Joel Tyler Headley's Adirondack; or, Life in the Woods triggered the development of hotels and stage coach lines.

William Henry Harrison Murray's 1869 wilderness guidebook depicted the area as a place of relaxation and pleasure rather than a natural obstacle.

In 1873 he wrote a report arguing that if the Adirondack watershed was allowed to deteriorate, it would threaten the viability of the Erie Canal, which was then vital to New York's economy.

[11] Further, the language of the article, and decades of legal experience in its defense, are widely recognized as having laid the foundation for the U.S. National Wilderness Act of 1964.

The State Conservation Department (now the DEC) responded by building more facilities: boat docks, tent platforms, lean-tos, and telephone and electrical lines.

This growing crisis led to the 1971 creation of the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) to develop long-range land-use plans for both the public and private lands within the Blue Line.

[12] In 2008 The Nature Conservancy purchased Follensby Pond – about 14,600 acres (5,900 ha) of private land inside the park boundary – for $16 million.

[13] The group plans to sell the land to the state, which will add it to the forest preserve once the remaining leases for recreational hunting and fishing on the property expire.

[35] Private organizations are buying land in order to sell it back to New York State to be added to the public portion of the Park.

[40] Although the reintroduction was marked as an ecological success, the elevated beaver population was found to have negative economic impacts on waterways and timber sources.

[40] This effort to control nature was also observed in the actions of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), work crews who established access roads and water-supply expansion.

[40] A negative result of the CCC coming to the Park was their trapping and killing of "vermin", which were animals such as hawks, owls, fox, and weasels that preyed on other species sought after by hunters and fishermen.

There are 53 known species of mammals that live in the park, including raccoons, moose, black bears, coyotes, opossums, beavers, porcupines, fishers, martens, river otters, and bobcats.

Other notable breeding birds include northern forest specialists like Canada jays, black-backed woodpeckers, boreal chickadees, spruce grouse, palm warblers, and yellow-bellied flycatchers.

Although the climate during the winter months can be severe, with temperatures falling below −30 °F (−34.4 °C), a number of sanatoriums were located there in the early twentieth century because of the positive effect the air had on tuberculosis patients.

[46] The Six Nation Indian Museum in Franklin has as a mission to provide education about Iroquois (also known as Haudenosaunee) culture, particularly environmental ethics, and to reinforce traditional values and philosophies.

[47] The 46 highest mountains in the park, known as Adirondack High Peaks, were thought to be over 4,000 feet (1,219 m) when climbed by brothers Robert and George Marshall between 1918 and 1924.

[49] The surface of many of the lakes lies at an elevation above 1,500 ft (457 m); their shores are usually rocky and irregular, and the wild scenery within their vicinity has made them very attractive to tourists.

Hundreds of lakes, ponds, and slow-moving streams link to provide routes ranging from under one mile (1.6 km) to weeklong treks.

Throughout the year visitors can partake of guided interpretive walks, regular outdoor activities, naturalist-led canoe paddles on Barnum Pond, and assorted workshops and programs.

Throughout the year staff conduct naturalist-led trail walks, guided paddles on Rich Lake, and assorted workshops and lectures.

[55] Management and ownership of the Newcomb center was assumed by the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) on July 1, 2010, with program responsibility beginning January 1, 2011.

Census towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants include: Interstate 87 or Northway, completed in the 1970s, runs north to south through the eastern edge of the park, connecting Montreal to Upstate New York.

[61] Some in the Adirondack Forest Preserve have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including those on the following mountains: Arab, Azure, Blue, Hadley, Kane, Loon Lake, Poke-O-Moonshine, St. Regis, Snowy, and Wakely.

[63] St. Regis Presbyterian church: designed by prolific Saranac Lake architect William L. Coulter and built on land donated by Paul Smith.

Saranac Village at Will Rogers: a Tudor Revival style retirement community, was constructed in 1930 as a tuberculosis treatment facility for vaudeville performers.

After sitting unused for twenty years, it was bought in 1998 by the Alpine Adirondack Association, LLC and reopened in January 2000 as a retirement community.