Great Camp Sagamore, in the Heart of Hamilton County

Sprawled across a peninsula that juts into Sagamore Lake, the 27-building complex that comprises Great Camp Sagamore features no televisions, private telephones or cell service, providing an opportunity to get back to nature and connect with the environment and culture of the Adirondacks.

It was between 1895-1897 that William West Durant built the lakeside wilderness retreat. Durant’s father, Dr. Thomas C. Durant, was vice-president of the Union Pacific Railroad. Thomas Durant formed the Adirondack Company in 1863, and by 1871 had laid tracks from Saratoga to North Creek, with the goal of crossing the Adirondacks to Canada (the line currently operates as the Upper Hudson River Railroad, running 8.5 miles from North Creek to Riparius). Financial setbacks prevented the senior Durant from reaching his goal, and at the age of 24, William West Durant gave up the nomadic life of his youth to help his father develop the Adirondacks for tourism.

In 1876, Thomas Durant built a camp at Long Point on Raquette Lake in the hopes of attracting investors for the Adirondack Railroad Company. Raquette Lake was made up almost entirely of farmers, but the Durants hoped to capitalize on the surge of Adirondack tourism prompted by the publication of W.H.H. Murray’s hugely popular Adventures in the Wilderness in 1869. At the age of 26, William spent the winter living in a tent at Long Point to oversee the project. He constructed cabins that were influenced by Swisss chalet-style buildings from his travels in Europe. The style, which became known as “Great Camp,” also featured self-sufficient multi-building complexes, log and stone work construction, and decorative twig and branch touches. Eventually known as Camp Pine Knot, it would contribute greatly to the tradition of summer vacationing in the Adirondacks.

The tourist economy that William Durant helped to create allowed for the continued success of the small Raquette Lake settlement. To make the remote area more accessible, Durant formed a stagecoach line from North Creek to Raquette Lake and ran steamboats northward from Blue Mountain Lake on the dammed Marion River. A telegraph service was also established at the Raquette Lake settlement.

Durant began work on his second Adirondack camp, Camp Uncas, in 1884 and on his third, which is now Camp Sagamore, in 1895. The third undertaking was far grander than the others, with a three-story multiple veranda building as its centerpiece. Unfortunately, bankruptcy forced Durant to sell Sagamore just after its completion to Alfred G. Vanderbilt, who at the time was the richest man in America.

The bulk of Vanderbilt’s wealth was inherited, through his father, from his grandfather, Cornelius, the American shipping and railroad magnate. Alfred’s wealth allowed him to hold prestigious positions in several of the large and lucrative railroad companies at the time.

When Alfred bought Camp Sagamore in 1901, at the age of 24, Raquette Lake still lacked electricity, paved road access and telephones. Vanderbilt’s private oasis was expanded and modernized with running water, a sewer system, a bowling alley, croquet lawn, tennis courts and a fully functional farm. After he married in 1911, Camp Sagamore became the Vanderbilt family retreat and a haven from relentlessly prying reporters and photographers. The camp also served as a vacation home for large parties of guests eager to escape the crowds of New York City.

When Alfred died in the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 (he couldn’t swim and had given up his life vest to save a young woman and her child), his wife Margaret retained the camp in her husband’s memory. By this time, Raquette Lake had become a thriving tourist destination with a paved highway, municipal water system and electricity in private homes. Margaret often filled the camp with family and friends, especially to escape summer polio outbreaks in the Northeast. Among the many notable visitors to the camp over the years were movie stars George Tierney and Gary Cooper, aviator Howard Hughes, Nobel Prize-winner General George Marshall and Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the famous Chinese nationalist leader.

In 1954, Margaret offered the property to her children. When they declined, the camp passed into the hands of Syracuse University. Over the 20 years of the University’s ownership, the camp fell into disrepair. The University logged the land and sold the camp furniture and much of the farmland and many of the outbuildings and greenhouses were lost to the encroaching forest.

Camp Sagamore was finally put up for auction and purchased by the Sagamore Institute of the Adirondacks, a not-for-profit educational organization. The Institute has striven to maintain it and keep it in harmony with its environment. The camp was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000.

The Sagamore Institute continues its dedication “to the enjoyment of education, interpretation & historic preservation”–the institute’s offerings include seasonal guided tours, weeklong retreats, volunteer weekends, private and group accommodations and participation in the Road Scholar program. Great Camp Sagamore, a National Historic Landmark located in the Adirondack Forest Preserve, is open to the public each year from Memorial Day to mid-October.

For more information, visit www.greatcampsagamore.org, or email info@greatcampsagamore.org.

–Jessica Nicosia is an Assistant Editor of The Free George. 

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