area. The center has been run since 1999 by the Whiteface Whiteface Veterans Preservation and Resource Association. On display are exhibits highlighting area geolo- gy, flora and fauna, along with Memorial Highway maps, aerial and satellite images, and historic photographs depict- ing the planning and construction A 5-mile drive to the top of the world of the Memorial Highway and its associated buildings. Unfortunately, the WPRA has Words and pictures by Lee Manchester, Lake Placid News, June 10, 2005 had trouble finding enough volun- teers to keep the visitors center open every day. WILMINGTON — It’s been 70 The tollhouse, and the history A road up the mountain was years since President Franklin D. Just ahead, you’ll see what first suggested over 100 years ago Roosevelt drove up to Wilmington looks like a Swiss alpine chalet. by a Lake Placid entrepreneur, but in an open car to inaugurate the That’s the 1934 tollhouse that it was not until the 1920s that a new Veterans Memorial Highway marks the beginning of the 5-mile- highway up Whiteface was pro- in 1935. long Veterans Memorial Highway. moted with real vigor — after a You, too, can drive to the top of It’s more than just a toll gate road was paved up Pike’s Peak in Whiteface, New York’s fifth high- where you’ll pay your part for the Colorado. est mountain. upkeep of this amazing feat of The prospect of constructing a civil engineering — it’s also a vis- new road through the Wilmington The toll road has been open itors interpretive center, with Wild Forest split the membership since the middle of last month, exhibits highlighting the historic of the Adirondack Mountain Club and will continue to welcome vis- and natural significance of the and was opposed by other leading itors through the Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. From Lake Placid, the trip up Whiteface Mountain starts with the 10-mile drive north on Route 86 to the little hamlet of Wilmington. At the Wilmington stop sign (yes, there’s only one), take a left — you’ll see the mark- er pointing you up the mountain to the Memorial Highway. Climb past Santa’s Workshop, America’s oldest theme park, on your right, and past the road to the Atmospheric Sciences Research Station on your left. When you get to a fork in the road, bear left (there’s another sign, so you’re not likely to lose your way). The chalet-style tollhouse at the highway’s entrance. conservationists, but it won sup- port from one highly influential group of Empire State voters: the network of American Legion members all across New York. The owner of the four acres at the peak of Whiteface contributed them to the project with the provi- so that the road be dedicated to the memory of America’s Great War veterans. It was later rededicated to the memory of all American veterans. Built in the 1930s, the highway itself and its associated buildings have been nominated for listing on the National Register of Historic Places by the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic The entrance to the tunnel leading to the elevator Preservation. that takes Whiteface visitors to the mountain’s summit. “It was really an amazing feat of engineering to put this road up the mountain,” observed Steve Engelhart, executive director of Tips for visitors Adirondack Architectural Dress for the weather — On one driveway, or take the elevator to the Heritage, “and there’s a certain of the days when our reporter drove top of Whiteface, stop at the Castle aesthetic to the road, to the retain- up the Memorial Highway, the temper- first. In addition to the grill and gift ing walls, that sort of thing, that’s ature was in the upper 70s in shop upstairs, it has the only rest- Wilmington, but close to 40 degrees rooms you’ll find on the mountaintop. of the era. Even the very idea that Fahrenheit at the top of Whiteface Elevator up, staircase down — there should be an aesthetic ele- Mountain. Just because it’s summer Once you get to the parking lot at the ment to a road-building project down here doesn’t mean it’s summer top of the Veterans Memorial Highway, up there! To check weather conditions you have a choice as to how you’ll get was a reflection of the time.” before you set out, call 946-7175. to the summit of Whiteface. Our sug- The construction project was Observe highway signs — You’ll gestion: Take the elevator up, and take dedicated in 1929 by New York see several signs on the Veterans the staircase down. Neither is to be Memorial Highway: the 25-mph speed missed, but the steep, rocky staircase is Governor Franklin Delano limit, for one, and the suggestion that best experienced as a downhill journey. Roosevelt. Six years later, you use your low gear to help save Essential equipment: map, com- Roosevelt returned as the your brakes on the downhill trip. Both pass, binoculars and camera — The signs are well worth observing. A cou- view from the top of Whiteface American president to cut the rib- ple of years ago, a tour bus burned Mountain is truly unique, because bon opening the highway. It was out its brakes on the way down the Whiteface stands apart from all the the suggestion of a wheelchair- mountain and tore out much of the other Adirondack High Peaks. To get bound FDR that led to the blasting tollhouse gateway before riding up a the most from the view you can only guard rail and coming to a stop. get atop this mountain, bring a good of an elevator tunnel to carry visi- Bring a picnic lunch — There are topographic map and a compass to tors from the parking lot to the plenty of tables on the drive up, or you help you identify the geographic fea- summit of Whiteface Mountain, can lay out a mountaintop luncheon at tures laid out below, and binoculars to the summit. The menu at the Castle pick out details. To bring home a rising 4,867 feet above sea level. grill isn’t especially pricey, but the record of the stupendous views you’ll selection is quite limited. see up there, make sure you take The memorial drive Visit the Castle first — Whether along a camera, too - even a dispos- you plan to climb the 26-story stair- able camera with a fixed-lense is bet- The drive up the Veterans case, which starts from the Castle ter than no camera at all. Memorial Highway takes visitors mile past the tollhouse, where the first big view springs up through the trees at the Union Falls over- look, elevation 2,700 feet. Given the right conditions, you’ll see Taylor Pond below you, lying like a dark blue blanket across a valley nestled against the next range of mountains north. Higher still, past the 3,300-foot elevation marker, Taylor Pond can be seen even more clearly below — and looking up over your shoulder, you should get your first glimpse of “the Castle” above, a cut-stone-and-concrete structure erected at the end of the Veterans Highway. Visitors have reported seeing fossil snow banks lying in the shaded curves of the Whiteface roadway as late as the Memorial Day weekend, becoming more common the higher they drove. Early season visitors have even reported seeing layers of ice draped like transparent curtains across northern rock faces cut into the mountain above 3,900 feet, the snow melting in the direct sunlight above it dripping down into the shade and freezing again. Interior of the tunnel leading to the summit elevator. At 3.7 miles along the moun- tain highway, just past a hairpin from 2,351 feet above sea level at by itself, with no other high peaks turn, drivers should slow down, the tollhouse to 4,602 feet at the nearby, it catches every bit of preparing for a big surprise: the Castle driveway, 5 miles away, an weather that passes through north- first fabulous view from increase in elevation of 450 feet western Essex County. One day Whiteface to the south and west, per mile. Besides the steady you’ll come, and the chalkboard where Placid Lake with its south- climb, the narrowness of the road, displayed on the tollhouse wall ern peninsula and three signature and the hairpin turns, there’s one will show clear skies at the sum- islands rests, the Olympic Village more good reason for the 25-mph mit, allowing for up to 80 miles of nestled just beyond it, the High speed limit: frost heaves, the visibility. Another day, it will be Peaks rising behind the village. washboard-like deformations left hazy, with just 1 mile’s visibility. by water freezing beneath the Yet another day, the summit will The Castle macadam surface through the be completely socked in. From there, it’s just 1.3 more long, cold Adirondack winter. Visitors will get a sense for miles to the parking lot at the top The weather at the top of themselves of likely summit con- of the Veterans Highway, just Whiteface is mercurial. Standing ditions when they’ve gone about a below the Castle, built in 1936. From the parking lot, the Castle markers along the trail describe 3) Remember that upward doesn’t look like much, but the some of the features you’ll find climbs are also downward climbs Moorish stone arches along its there. — it just depends upon where you driveway and inside, and the view Before you embark on the walk start from.