FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 395 



The Adirondack Park, as defined by the Act of 1893, has an area of about 3,000,000 

 acres, of which the State had possession from tax titles, etc., in 1897, °f about 

 661,000 acres. Governor Black, recognizing the importance of adopting a definite 

 and comprehensive plan which should conserve the future water and timber supply of 

 the State as contemplated in Adirondack Park Act of 1893, recommended in his 

 annual message to the Legislature of 1897 the passage of "An act to provide for the 

 acquisition of land in the territory embraced in Adirondack Park, and making 

 an appropriation therefor." Under this act $1,000,000 was appropriated in 1897 and 

 $500,000 in 1898. It is expected that the Legislature of 1899 will appropriate 

 $300,000. 



This act also created the Forest Preserve Board, to consist of three persons selected 

 from the Commissioners of Fisheries, Game and Forest and the Commissioners of the 

 Land Office. This board may enter upon and take possession of any land, structures 

 and waters in the territory embraced in Adirondack Park, the appropriation of which 

 in its judgment shall be necessary for the purposes specified in the act of 1893. The 

 first Commissioners appointed were Timothy L. Woodruff, Lieutenant-Governor; 

 Campbell W. Adams, State Engineer and Surveyor; and Charles H. Babcock, 

 member of the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission. The Commission still 

 remains as originally constituted, except that E. A. Bond, State Engineer and 

 Surveyor, has succeeded Campbell W. Adams, whose term expired December 31, 1898. 



The old timber dam at foot of Indian Lake being badly in need of repair the 

 owners thereof proposed, in the spring of 1897, to rebuild the same. While making 

 arrangements looking toward such rebuilding it was found that Forest Preserve 

 Board desired to acquire Township 15 and 32 in the Totten and Crossfield purchase, 

 within the limits of which Indian Lake is situated. The reason for this purchase 

 was that the State already had considerable holdings in that vicinity and bordering on 

 these two townships, and in consequence their purchase would make a very extensive 

 body of State lands in that vicinity. In its first annual report, transmitted to the 

 Governor on January 29, 1898, Forest Preserve Board makes the following 

 statements in regard to purchase of the lands at and about Indian Lake: 



The largest acreage bought of any one party was that in Townships 15 and 32, Totten and 

 Crossfield purchase, Hamilton county, which was purchased from The Indian River Company. 

 This purchase included, with the exception of a few small lots previously sold to other parties, 

 all of Township 15, and three-fourths of Township 32; in all, 42,000 acres. The price paid 

 was $164,000, or $3.90 per acre. These lands include the shores of Indian Lake, and the dam 

 at its outlet. The lake is over eleven miles in length. Originally it was much smaller, about 

 three miles long; but a dam, built at its outlet, raised the water until the backflow extended its 

 surface to its present area. As the dam was built many years ago, the trees around the shore 

 of the lake which were then killed by the overflow, had gone out over the dam. The wooded 



