WELCOME TO TUPPER LAKE
The Tupper Lake community shows a resilience unmatched anywhere in the Adirondack Park.
When the softwood stands of pine, spruce and hemlock were exhausted in the early 20th century, village leaders attracted the Michigan-based Oval Wood Dish Corporation to build a hardwood products factory here, opening in 1918. While the hardwood stands were being depleted, Tupper Lake enticed the federal government to open the Veterans Mountain Camp on Big Tupper Lake and the VA Hospital No. 96, known as Sunmount, in the 1920s.When the VAhospital closed in the 1960s, they lobbied the state to open a developmental disabilities center, Sunmount DDSO, in its place. When the state failed to locate the APA Visitor Interpretive Center here in the 1980s and decided not to construct a prison here in the 1990s, Tupper Lakers built the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks (The Wild Center), opening in 2006.
Now, as environmentalists have helped stall the Adirondack Club and Resort project on Mount Morris, Tupper Lakers are once again taking their economic destiny into their own hands; they have created ARISE (Adirondack Residents Intent on Saving Their Economy) of Northern New York to support the project and are now working together to reopen the Big Tupper Ski Area, which closed in 1999.
This is a locally initiated, volunteer-based, not-for-profit venture to benefit the business community of Tupper Lake. The ski center has a base elevation of 2,000 feet and a 700-foot vertical. About two-thirds the mountain’s trails will be open now that Chair 2 is operational.
We urge you to ski Big Tupper this winter. The center will open on Dec. 26, 2009 and run through Jan. 4, 2010. From January through March, it will be open Friday, Saturday and Sunday (and Monday on holiday weekends) depending on snow conditions. There are no snowmaking capabilities this season. The ticket office is located at 95 Park St. For tickets and more information, call (518) 359-3730.
Andy and Dawn Flynn, Publishers
