February 28, 2013
There was a time when, to the city dweller in America, the mere mention of a winter vacation in the wilderness brought an involuntary shudder to the spine and disagreeable visions of chilblains. Wasn't Old Boreas bad enough anyway? Why attempt to court his rigors and discomforts far from the steam heat, the hot water, the storm windows, and all the other appurtenances of our very modern urban civilization?  How different the attitude of the European in times of peace over there! To him winter is one long season of outdoor enjoyment, and he flocks to the mountain resorts of Switzerland, which are bright with color and life then as at no other time of year.

Fortunately, Americans have begun to discern the possibilities of their own country in this direction, and to realize that not only are the natural conditions unequaled, but that a greater variety of winter sports and amusements are possible here than anywhere else. Indeed, many of the most popular winter sports had their beginnings in America and are rank aliens to Europe, hockey and snowshoeing to wit.

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Hockey at the Club

Perhaps no other great winter resort in the world offers a wider range of attractions, combined with the highest degree of comfort, than Lake Placid. It is somewhat difficult, we admit, for the summer visitor here to realize the magic charm of this vast winter wonderland, its rare beauty and its resources for health and amusement, without the actual experience of a visit. One looks out over a rolling landscape of white, relieved here and there by a patch of green where some pines have cast off their snowy burden. The sun comes up huge and red over Mirror Lake, a burnished glistening mirror now, casting a rose sheen along the snow carpeted reaches of the mountainside and Valley and touching the tree-tops with fire; and at dusk, long blue shadows creep out of the woods and lie athwart the fields, until the white moon comes up and, riding high in the heavens, turns the landscape into shimmering silver and black velvet.

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Skating in Lake Placid

Lake Placid has now right generously and justly earned the reputation of being the cenre of winter activity in the Adirondacks, with its organized conduct of sports and games and its unlimited general amusement. Baseball on the ice, and for the less vigorous, the old Scottish game of curling, are among its features.

The winter visitors to Lake Placid find no time for "porch-squatting" or gossip-those old standbys of the summer vacationist. You are here to get outdoors from the first toboggan slide after breakfast until the stars begin to blink and the dinner horn comes sounding over the hills. A royal time, a good time, a healthful time and a bountiful welcome will await you.

Lake Placid News, 1915

Aurora Ramsay works in the Brewster Research Library at the Adirondack History Center Museum in Elizabethtown.

ADIRONDACK HISTORY CENTER MUSEUM
ESSEX COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PO Box 428, 7590 Court Street
Elizabethtown, NY 12932
www.adkhistorycenter.org
Research Queries: research@adkhistorycenter.org
General Information: echs@adkhistorycenter.org

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Hockey at the Club
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Skating in Lake Placid

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