The Adirondacks will be forever wild...
Created by the New York State legislature in 1892, the Adirondack Park covers 9,375 square miles, an area more than double the size of Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks combined. The Park is a mosaic of 2.5 million acres of state-owned Forest Preserve intermingled with 3.5 million acres of private land. The private holdings vary from the vast properties of lumber and pulp companies to the town lots of year-round residents and locally owned businesses. The Adirondack Park is the largest park, federal or state, in the United States outside of Alaska.
State-owned land in the Adirondack Park, comprising the Forest Preserve, enjoys a unique guarantee of protection against development. In 1894 a state constitutional convention agreed to an amendment to the New York State Constitution containing the "forever wild" clause."The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed, or destroyed." -visitnewyorkstate.net