Research


Scope and Content Note

The series consists primarily of the legal and administrative files of the Adirondack Mountain Authority dealing with the two major recreational ski areas in Warren and Essex counties. The authority worked closely with the Conservation Department, and the records relate to the authority's continuation of development begun under preceding authorities and commissions and new development financed by a succession of legislative appropriations.

The bulk of the files are contracts and agreements with various companies engaged to construct facilities at Adirondack Mountain skiing sites. The records include correspondence, memoranda, contracts, agreements, claims, reports, proposals, annual reports, rules and regulations, meeting minutes, and a few maps and photographs produced by the Adirondack Mountain Authority and the Conservation Department. There is also an occasional copy originating from the Department of Audit and Control's Contract Approval Section.

The records include: annual reports of the Adirondack Mountain Authority, including some agendas and minutes of meetings; financial and operational reports on expenses and income; general correspondence of the Adirondack Mountain Authority (from as early as 1957); resolutions of the Adirondack Mountain Authority regarding the appointment of officers and authorization to acquire additional acreage; counsel's memoranda on legislative authority and history, copies of rules and regulations, and lists of members of the Adirondack Mountain Authority; memoranda on recommendations for disposition of buildings acquired in the land acquisition program at Gore Mountain; Adirondack Mountain Authority files on souvenir and concession stands at the Whiteface Mountain Memorial Highway and Ski Center, including requests to submit bid proposals to cover various operations, copies of proposed licensing agreements, profit and loss statements, and weekly reports on receipts from chair lifts, ski school, restaurant, etc.; proposals for promotion programs for the Gore Mountain-Warren County region, including reports on advertising and public relation budget breakdowns; winter analysis of the Whiteface Ski Center, including analysis of snow making operations, comparisons of labor, facility use, snow conditions, operational days and income;

contract agreements for study of construction and maintenance programs at Whiteface, Prospect, and Gore mountains, including recommendations to speed construction and to cut costs; agreements on repayment of state advances made pursuant to various appropriations laws; and contracts and agreements entered into by the Conservation Department.

The few maps found in the series are whiteprint copies or photocopies found with reports, or print maps found within booklets. A few are annotated. Title, legend, and scale information is usually present. They range in size from 22 x 28 cm to 107 x 142 cm.

Examples include: print maps found in a feasibility study booklet for the Gore Mountain Ski Center, showing location of mountain, distance from regional population areas, elevations, property lines, and initial/future construction areas; a photocopy of a map showing approximate location of buildings, included as an exhibit in a request for approval of design additions; a whiteprint copy of a map of lands acquired by the Adirondack Mountain Authority in connection with the Prospect Mountain Scenic Highway and Recreational Area, including two insert maps of specific acreage, annotated to show proposed leases by a radio firm; and vicinity maps of various mountains, found in an economic feasibility report for building a proposed observation tower at a recreational facility at Old Forge, New York.