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Adirondack Mountains

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The Adirondack Mountains ( / ˌ æ d ɪ ˈ r ɒ n d æ k / AD -i- RON -dak ) are a massif of mountains in Northeastern New York which form a circular dome approximately 160 miles (260 km) wide and covering about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km). The region contains more than 100 peaks, including Mount Marcy , which is the highest point in New York at 5,344 feet (1,629 m). The Adirondack High Peaks , a traditional list of 46 peaks over 4,000 feet (1,200 m), are popular hiking destinations. There are over 200 named lakes with the number of smaller lakes, ponds, and other bodies of water reaching over 3,000. Among the named lakes around the mountains are Lake George , Lake Placid , and Lake Tear of the Clouds . The region has over 1,200 miles (1,900 km) of river.

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62-594: Although the mountains are formed from ancient rocks more than 1 billion years old, geologically, the mountains are relatively young and were created during recent periods of glaciation. Because of this, the Adirondacks have been referred to as "new mountains from old rocks." It is theorized that there is a hotspot beneath the region, which causes continued uplift at the rate of 1.5–3 centimetres ( 5 ⁄ 8 – 1 + 1 ⁄ 8  in) annually. The Adirondack mountain range has such unusual characteristics compared to

124-574: A projectile point of red-brown chert found in 2007 at the edge of Tupper Lake. During an interval of roughly 11,000 years following the end of the Last Glacial Period, the climate of the Adirondacks gradually warmed, with the area's tundra being replaced by forests that were now able to grow. During the transition between the Archaic and Woodland (1000 BC – AD 1000) periods, multiple different groups replaced

186-426: A 10,000 feet (ca. 3,048 m) thick layer of ice to completely melt. Evidence of this period includes: Soils in the area are generally thin, sandy, acidic, and infertile, having developed since the glacial retreat. The climate is strongly continental , with high humidity and precipitation year-round. The Adirondacks typically experience pleasantly warm, rainy weather in the summer (June–August), with temperatures in

248-736: A Haudenosaunee council in Onondaga to discuss peace. At that meeting the western nations requested to be part of the Covenant Chain and to share hunting grounds in accordance with the Dish With One Spoon principle. That was followed by a meeting of chiefs from the Five Nations and 19 other nations at Montréal in September, at which a wampum belt described as "making one joint kettle when we shall meet", most probably

310-511: A few tens to exist. Hawaii , Réunion , Yellowstone , Galápagos , and Iceland are some of the most active volcanic regions to which the hypothesis is applied. The plumes imaged to date vary widely in width and other characteristics, and are tilted, being not the simple, relatively narrow and purely thermal plumes many expected. Only one, (Yellowstone) has as yet been consistently modelled and imaged from deep mantle to surface. Most hotspot volcanoes are basaltic (e.g., Hawaii , Tahiti ). As

372-509: A result, they are less explosive than subduction zone volcanoes, in which water is trapped under the overriding plate. Where hotspots occur in continental regions , basaltic magma rises through the continental crust, which melts to form rhyolites . These rhyolites can form violent eruptions. For example, the Yellowstone Caldera was formed by some of the most powerful volcanic explosions in geologic history. However, when

434-484: Is a law used by Indigenous peoples of the Americas since at least 1142 CE to describe an agreement for sharing hunting territory among two or more nations. People are all eating out of the single dish, that is, all hunting in the shared territory. One spoon signifies that all Peoples sharing the territory are expected to limit the game they take to leave enough for others, and for the continued abundance and viability of

496-576: Is caused by a hot spot in the Earth's crust . A recent study has revealed a column of seismically slow materials about 50–80 km deep beneath the Adirondack Mountains, which was interpreted to be the upwelling asthenosphere contributing to the uplift of the mountains. The occurrence of earthquake swarms near the center of the massif at Blue Mountain Lake may be evidence of this. Some of

558-555: Is considered extremely fragile, and was damaged by hikers prior to a 1970s campaign by the Adirondack Mountain Club to preserve it. Hotspot (geology) In geology , hotspots (or hot spots ) are volcanic locales thought to be fed by underlying mantle that is anomalously hot compared with the surrounding mantle. Examples include the Hawaii , Iceland , and Yellowstone hotspots . A hotspot's position on

620-473: Is not anomalously hot, rather the crust above is unusually weak or thin, so that lithospheric extension permits the passive rising of melt from shallow depths. The origins of the concept of hotspots lie in the work of J. Tuzo Wilson , who postulated in 1963 that the formation of the Hawaiian Islands resulted from the slow movement of a tectonic plate across a hot region beneath the surface. It

682-666: Is not clear whether Tsaouenhohi was referring to it or to one of the earlier treaties in the mid 17th century. During a treaty gathering in 1840, Six Nations wampum keeper John Skanawati Buck presented four wampum belts, including one which commemorated the Dish With One Spoon. Buck stated it represented the first treaty, to share hunting grounds, made between the Anishinaabe and the Six Nations many years earlier in Montréal. Mississauga oral tradition differs, claiming that

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744-477: Is now closely linked to the mantle plume hypothesis. The detailed compositional studies now possible on hotspot basalts have allowed linkage of samples over the wider areas often implicate in the later hypothesis, and it's seismic imaging developments. Hotspot volcanoes are considered to have a fundamentally different origin from island arc volcanoes. The latter form over subduction zones, at converging plate boundaries. When one oceanic plate meets another,

806-492: Is now used to explain such observations. In 2020, Wei et al. used seismic tomography to detect the oceanic plateau, formed about 100 million years ago by the hypothesized mantle plume head of the Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain, now subducted to a depth of 800 km under eastern Siberia. Download coordinates as: Dish With One Spoon A Dish With One Spoon, also known as One Dish One Spoon,

868-671: Is probable that the Five Nations did that not only for the superior pelts, but also because they had almost rendered the beaver extinct in their home territory south of Lake Ontario . Five Nations raiding continued and intensified until the 1680s and 90s when the French mounted a serious military offensive against them. In the 1640s, the Mississaugas , an Anishinaabe Nation, in response to Haudenosaunee raiding and to avoid smallpox epidemics decimating sedentary agricultural tribes with whom they shared land, left their traditional territory on

930-561: The Algonquians who allied with the French. Another early use of the name, spelled Rontaks , was in 1729 by French missionary Joseph-François Lafitau . He explained that the word was used by the Iroquois as a derogatory term for groups of Algonquians who did not practice agriculture and therefore sometimes had to eat tree bark to survive harsh winters. The Mohawks had no written language, so Europeans used various phonetic spellings of

992-681: The sedimentary rock was changed into metamorphic rock . It is these Proterozoic minerals and lithologies that make up the core of the massif. Minerals of interest include: The Adirondacks are uplifted by a hot spot in the Canadian Shield in contrast to other mountain ranges in New York which are a part of the Appalachian chain (not to be confused with the cultural region of Appalachia). Around 600 million years ago, as Laurentia drifted away from Baltica (European Craton),

1054-540: The 1701 treaty at which the French governor had told the agreeing Indigenous Nations that "the Woods, and Hunting Grounds could be no otherwise than in common, and free to one Nation as to another." In 1793 Six Nations chief Joseph Brant wrote to Indian Affairs superintendent Alexander McKee explaining that the Indian Affairs Department's claim that some part of the country near Grand River belongs to

1116-477: The 20th century failed for numerous reasons, including poaching, vehicle collisions, and conservation incompetence. Nearly 60 percent of the park is covered with northern hardwood forest . Above 2,600 feet (790 meters), conditions are too poor for hardwoods to thrive, and the trees become mixed with or replaced by balsam fir and red spruce . Above 3,500 feet (1,100 meters) black spruce replace red. Higher still, only trees short enough to be covered in snow during

1178-552: The Adirondack Mountains as hunting grounds. According to Haudenosaunee historian Rick Hill, the region was considered a ' Dish with One Spoon ,' symbolizing shared hunting resources between the groups. A group of Algonquian people, known as the Mahicans, also occupied the region, particularly the Hudson River Valley. These were the groups that the first European explorers of the area encountered. European presence in

1240-491: The Adirondack mountains. Because local Iroquoian and Algonquian tribes had been decimated first by smallpox and measles in the 1600s, then by wars with encroaching European settlers, there likely were very few people living in the region by the time Pownhall wrote his description. It is only relatively recently that numerous archaeological finds have definitively shown that Native Americans were indeed very present in

1302-439: The Adirondacks before European contact, hunting, making pottery, and practicing agriculture. The European impression of a wild region devoid of human connection set up a narrative about wilderness that would persist through the next 200-some years of the region's history. While society's perception of the Adirondacks' value changed, they were always seen as a land of natural resources and physical beauty, not of human history. First

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1364-673: The Adirondacks were Paleo-Indians who arrived around the 14th millennium BC following the end of the Last Glacial Period . The earliest migrants arrived from the St. Lawrence River Valley to the north, and settled along the shores of the Champlain Sea . During the Archaic Period (8000–1000 BC) this semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer Laurentian culture inhabited the Adirondacks; evidence of their presence includes

1426-616: The Dish With One Spoon belt, was presented by the Haudenosaunee. All parties agreed to a larger meeting in Montréal the following year at which the Great Peace of Montreal was signed on August 4. A couple of weeks earlier on July 19, the Haudenosaunee had concluded an agreement with the British at Albany where, in an attempt to ensure the protection of the British, they conveyed the entire territory to them. Scholars argue that

1488-467: The Dish With One Spoon wampum. The treaty territory includes part of the province of Ontario between the Great Lakes and extends east along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River up to the border of Quebec . Some claim it also includes parts of New York and Michigan . Indigenous Nations made agreements with neighboring nations to share hunting grounds since time immemorial, however

1550-405: The Earth's surface is independent of tectonic plate boundaries , and so hotspots may create a chain of volcanoes as the plates move above them. There are two hypotheses that attempt to explain their origins. One suggests that hotspots are due to mantle plumes that rise as thermal diapirs from the core–mantle boundary. The alternative plate theory is that the mantle source beneath a hotspot

1612-493: The European goods available in trade, so they were almost continually fighting nations in those territories. Montagnais, Algonquin and some Haudenosaunee nations negotiated a peace in 1624 at Trois-Rivières and Québec to share the area for hunting. French and Dutch colonial authorities did not like this peace that did not involve them because it portended a lessening of their economic power. Hence they fostered distrust among

1674-533: The Indigenous Nations which succeeded in breaking the peace within a few years. In September 1645, Wendat , Kichesipirini , Montagnais, and Mohawk negotiated another peace at Trois-Rivières to share the area for hunting, and renewed it in February 1646. This peace broke down almost immediately when Five Nations warriors raided north and westward into Wendat territory in the fall of 1646. It

1736-702: The Laurentian culture—including the Sylvan Lake, River, Middlesex, Point Peninsula, and Owasco cultures. By the time of the Owasco culture c.  1 AD , maize and beans were being cultivated in the uplands of the Adirondacks. The first Iroquoian peoples, the Mohawk (or Kanyengehaga) and the Oneida (or Oneyotdehaga), arrived in the Adirondack region between 4,000 and 1,200 years ago. Both groups claimed

1798-400: The Six Nations is in error, because about a hundred years earlier there was an agreement to share the lands with other Indigenous Peoples for hunting purposes, and there is a Dish With One Spoon wampum which supports his position. Brant's claim is supported by Mississauga oral tradition which states that the land north of eastern Lake Erie , all of Lake Ontario, and the western north shore of

1860-532: The St. Lawrence River has been Mississauga territory since time immemorial and they agreed to share it in the Dish With One Spoon treaty. In 1824, Wendat chief Tsaouenhohi told the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada that about two hundred years earlier seven nations had concluded a treaty to eat with the same spoon from the same bowl. Given that only 123 years had elapsed since the Montréal treaty, it

1922-705: The area around it that it is divided into its own province within the Appalachian Highlands physiographic division. It is bounded by three other provinces: the St. Lawrence (Champlain) on the north, northeast; the Appalachian Plateau to the south, southwest; and the Valley and Ridge to the southeast. The entire region lies within Adirondack Park , a New York state protected area of over 6,000,000 acres (2,400,000 ha). The park

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1984-525: The area began to be pulled apart forming the Iapetus Ocean . Faults developed, running north to northeast which formed valleys and deep lakes. Examples visible today include the grabens Lake George and Schroon Lake . By this time the Grenville mountains had been eroded away and the area was covered by a shallow sea. Several thousand feet of sediment accumulated on the sea bed. Trilobites were

2046-421: The area began with a battle between Samuel de Champlain and a group of Mohawks, in what is now Ticonderoga in 1609. The Jesuit missionary Isaac Jogues became the first recorded European to travel through the center of the Adirondacks, as the captive of a Mohawk hunting party, in 1642. The early European perception of the Adirondacks was of a vast, inhospitable wilderness. One map of the area from 1771 shows

2108-510: The area was an inhospitable tangle, then a lucrative store of lumber. After the American Revolutionary War , New York State gained ownership of most of the land in the region. Needing money to discharge war debts, the government sold nearly all the original public acreage about 7 million acres for pennies an acre. Lumbermen were welcomed to the interior, with few restraints, resulting in massive deforestation . Later,

2170-537: The concept of a hotspot has been used to explain its origin. A review article by Courtillot et al. listing possible hotspots makes a distinction between primary hotspots coming from deep within the mantle and secondary hotspots derived from mantle plumes. The primary hotspots originate from the core/mantle boundary and create large volcanic provinces with linear tracks (Easter Island, Iceland, Hawaii, Afar, Louisville, Reunion, and Tristan confirmed; Galapagos, Kerguelen and Marquersas likely). The secondary hotspots originate at

2232-509: The current state of Georgia , in the mid 18th century, the Creeks and Cherokee agreed to a peace treaty on Dish With One Spoon terms with the small difference that it specified a dividing line between their hunting territories with some parts being dedicated to each nation. The fur trade generated a huge demand for beaver furs and specifically ones from northern climes which were more desirable because they were thicker. Haudenosaunee wanted

2294-474: The denser plate is forced downward into a deep ocean trench. This plate, as it is subducted, releases water into the base of the over-riding plate, and this water mixes with the rock, thus changing its composition causing some rock to melt and rise. It is this that fuels a chain of volcanoes, such as the Aleutian Islands , near Alaska . The joint mantle plume /hotspot hypothesis originally envisaged

2356-616: The earliest documented reference to the concept occurs in the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace , which one may call the founding constitution of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Haudenosaunee oral tradition states this founding was in time immemorial. However, scholars Barbara Mann and Jerry Fields tie a number of oral history stories to the dates of solar eclipses and conclude the Confederacy

2418-545: The earthquakes have exceeded 5 on the Richter magnitude scale . Starting about 2.5 million years ago, a cycle of Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods began which covered the area in ice. During the most recent episode, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of northern North America between about 95,000 and c. 20,000 years ago. After this the climate warmed, but it took nearly 10,000 years for

2480-802: The event is taking place on territory which was and may still be Indigenous territory . The Dish With One Spoon has been incorporated into many territorial acknowledgements for organizations and institutions in the Toronto area, including the Council of Ontario Universities and ministries of the Toronto Conference of the United Church of Canada . Today, some see the treaty as a covenant that applies to all those living in Southern Ontario , including Indigenous Peoples not party to

2542-509: The feeder structures to be fixed relative to one another, with the continents and seafloor drifting overhead. The hypothesis thus predicts that time-progressive chains of volcanoes are developed on the surface. Examples are Yellowstone , which lies at the end of a chain of extinct calderas, which become progressively older to the west. Another example is the Hawaiian archipelago, where islands become progressively older and more deeply eroded to

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2604-450: The game roaming about in the hunting grounds, as well as requiring its sharing. It also contains a promise to share equally in the harvests of the fields. In the late 18th century, Ojibwe and Dakota , traditional enemies, agreed to meet each year at the beginning of winter, smoke a peace pipe, and then throughout the hunting season exchange friendly visits, and hunt in the common territory without harming each other. Further south in

2666-694: The hunting grounds into the future. Sometimes the Indigenous language word is rendered in English as bowl or kettle rather than dish. The phrase "Dish With One Spoon" is also used to denote the treaty or agreement itself. In particular, a treaty made between the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee nations at Montréal in 1701 as part of the Great Peace of Montreal is usually called the Dish With One Spoon treaty, and its associated wampum belt

2728-495: The more recent human history of the Adirondack region, see Adirondack Park . The rocks of the Adirondack mountains originated about two billion years ago as 50,000 feet (ca. 15,240 m) thick sediments at the bottom of a sea located near the equator . Because of plate tectonics these collided with Laurentia (the precursor of modern North America) in a mountain building episode known as the Grenville orogeny . During this time

2790-524: The north shore of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River and fled north and west. In the 1670s, with help from the Odawa and Chippewa , they returned and contributed to the growing pressure from the French against the Haudenosaunee. New York colonial documents show that various tribes met in their hunting grounds in the late 1690s to start discussing peace, and in the summer of 1700, representatives of various Anishinaabe and other western nations met with

2852-539: The northwest. Geologists have tried to use hotspot volcanic chains to track the movement of the Earth's tectonic plates. This effort has been vexed by the lack of very long chains, by the fact that many are not time-progressive (e.g. the Galápagos ) and by the fact that hotspots do not appear to be fixed relative to one another (e.g. Hawaii and Iceland ). That mantle plumes are much more complex than originally hypothesised and move independently of each other and plates

2914-592: The principal life-form of the sea bed, and fossil tracks can be seen in the Potsdam sandstone floor of the Paul Smiths Visitor Interpretive Center. About 10 million years ago, the region began to be uplifted. It has been lifted about 7000 feet (ca. 2,134 meters) and is continuing at about 2 millimeters per year, which is greater than the rate of denudation . The cause of the uplift is unknown, but geologists theorize that it

2976-565: The range of 66–73 °F (19–23 °C), cooler than the rest of New York State due to the higher elevation. Summer evenings in the Adirondacks are chilly, with temperatures ranging on average between 45–54 °F (7–12 °C). Winters (December–March) are long, cold, snowy and harsh, with temperatures ranging from 18 to 23 °F (−8 to −5 °C). Winter nights are frigid, with temperatures between −2 and 4 °F (−19 and −16 °C). Spring (April–May) and fall (September–November) are short transitional seasons. The Adirondack Mountains form

3038-712: The region as a blank space in the northeastern corner of New York. In 1784, Thomas Pownhall wrote that the Native Americans referred to the area as "the Dismal Wilderness, or the Habitation of Winter," and that the area was "either not much known to them, or, if known, very wisely by them kept from the Knowledge of the Europeans." He clearly had the impression that native people did not live within

3100-552: The restrictive game laws of the province of Ontario were making it impossible for his people to get enough sustenance from hunting and asking the King to send to them a picture of himself holding the treaty document so they could use it to challenge those laws. The Indian Affairs Department intercepted the letter and it was not delivered. For some organizations, it is now customary in Canada to acknowledge at meetings and other events that

3162-531: The rhyolite is completely erupted, it may be followed by eruptions of basaltic magma rising through the same lithospheric fissures (cracks in the lithosphere). An example of this activity is the Ilgachuz Range in British Columbia, which was created by an early complex series of trachyte and rhyolite eruptions, and late extrusion of a sequence of basaltic lava flows. The hotspot hypothesis

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3224-649: The southernmost part of the Eastern forest-boreal transition ecoregion . They are heavily forested, and contain one of the southernmost distributions of the taiga ecotype in North America. The forests of the Adirondacks include spruce , pine and deciduous trees. Lumbering, once an important industry, has been much restricted by the creation of state forest preserve. The mountains include many wetlands , of which there are three kinds: Breeding birds include northern forest specialists not found anywhere else in

3286-513: The state, such as boreal chickadees , Canada jays , spruce grouse , black-backed woodpeckers , common loons and crossbills . Mammals include raccoons , beavers , river otters , bobcats , moose , black bears , and coyotes . Extirpated or extinct mammals that formerly roamed the Adirondacks include the eastern cougar , eastern elk , wolverine , caribou , eastern wolf , and the Canada lynx . Attempted reintroductions of elk and lynx in

3348-643: The treaty was only made with the Mohawks. The belt was kept at Six Nations of the Grand River by Buck until his death in 1893, after which time the belts in his possession were dispersed, with some sold to traders and collectors. The belt was later recorded to be in possession of Evelyn H.C. Johnson who donated it to the Royal Ontario Museum in 1922. In 1915, Seth Newhouse , an Onondaga chief, wrote to King George V protesting that

3410-543: The two sides had differing understandings of the terms of the conveyance, with the Haudenosaunee expecting only British protection of the territory and the British expecting to be able to extend New York into it. The Montréal treaty proved to be long lasting, and there are many references to it and to the Dish With One Spoon wampum in the historical record. A few examples: In 1765, Daniel Claus, Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, wrote to Sir William Johnson, British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, reminding him of

3472-526: The upper/lower mantle boundary, and do not form large volcanic provinces, but island chains (Samoa, Tahiti, Cook, Pitcairn, Caroline, MacDonald confirmed, with up to 20 or so more possible). Other potential hotspots are the result of shallow mantle material surfacing in areas of lithospheric break-up caused by tension and are thus a very different type of volcanism. Estimates for the number of hotspots postulated to be fed by mantle plumes have ranged from about 20 to several thousand, with most geologists considering

3534-565: The wilderness character of the region became popular with the rise of the Romantic movement , and the Adirondacks became a destination for those wishing to escape the evils of city life. Rising concern over water quality and deforestation led to the creation of the Adirondack Park in 1885. In 1989, part of the Adirondack region was designated by UNESCO as the Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve . For

3596-434: The winter can survive. A small area on the highest peaks exists above the tree line and has an alpine climate . These areas are covered by plants which occupied a large lowland tundra following the most recent period of glaciation. The amount of area covered by this ecosystem changes from year to year due to local climate changes, and has been estimated to only cover between 65–85 acres (26–34 hectares). The alpine ecosystem

3658-468: The word, including Achkokx , Rondaxe , and Adirondax. Such words were strongly associated with the region, but they were not yet considered a place name; an English map from 1761 labels the area simply Deer Hunting Country . In 1838, the mountains were named Adirondacks by Ebenezer Emmons , the State Geologist for the northern New York State Geological District. The first humans to live in

3720-555: Was established in 1892 by the state legislature to protect the region's natural resources and to provide recreational opportunities for the public. It covers over 20 percent of New York state's land area. The word Adirondack is thought to come from the Mohawk word atirǫ́·taks meaning "eaters of trees". The earliest written use of the name was in 1635 by Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert in his Mohawk to Dutch glossary, found in his Journey into Mohawk Country . He spelled it Adirondakx and said that it stood for Frenchmen, meaning

3782-483: Was formed on August 31, 1142. In addition, they claim archaeological evidence of palisades built around villages and the earliest cultivation of corn supports a date between 900–1200 CE. In the Great Law of Peace there is a specific entreaty to have "no knife near our dish" so that the sharing is guaranteed to be without bloodshed. The Dish With One Spoon reference in the Great Law of Peace expressly mandates conserving

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3844-419: Was later postulated that hotspots are fed by streams of hot mantle rising from the Earth's core–mantle boundary in a structure called a mantle plume . Whether or not such mantle plumes exist has been the subject of a major controversy in Earth science, but seismic images consistent with evolving theory now exist. At any place where volcanism is not linked to a constructive or destructive plate margin,

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