Camp Pine Knot, also known as Huntington Memorial Camp, on

Raquette Lake Raquette Lake is the source of the Raquette River in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. It is near the community of Raquette Lake, New York. The lake has of shoreline with pines and mountains bordering the lake. It is located in the t ...

in the

Adirondack Mountains The Adirondack Mountains (; a-də-RÄN-dak) form a massif in northeastern New York with boundaries that correspond roughly to those of Adirondack Park. They cover about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2). The mountains form a roughly circular ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

State, was built by

William West Durant William West Durant (1850–1934) was a designer and developer of camps in the Adirondack Great Camp style, including Camp Uncas, Camp Pine Knot and Great Camp Sagamore which are National Historic Landmarks. He was the son of Thomas C. ...

. Begun in 1877, it was the first of the "Adirondack

Great Camps __NOTOC__ The Great Camps of the Adirondack Mountains refers to the grandiose family compounds of cabins that were built in the latter half of the nineteenth century on lakes in the Adirondacks such as Spitfire Lake and Rainbow Lake. The camp ...

" and epitomizes the "Great Camp" architectural style. Elements of that style include log and native stonework construction, decorative rustic items of branches and twigs, and layout as a compound of separated structures. It is located on the southwest tip of Long Point, a two-mile long point extending into Raquette Lake, in the Town of Long Lake in

Hamilton County, New York Hamilton County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,107, making it the least populous county in New York. With an area nearly the size of Delaware, it is the least densely populated county ea ...

. The camp consists of some two dozen buildings, including a seven-room "Swiss Cottage," four "Log Cottages" of one to three rooms, two frame cottages of three and five rooms, a "Glass Dining Room," and a five-stall horse barn and wagon shed. Covered walkways connect many of the buildings. There was also the "Barque," a 20 by 60 foot four-room bark cabin built on a log raft, used to escape from the dreaded

black fly A black fly or blackfly (sometimes called a buffalo gnat, turkey gnat, or white socks) is any member of the family Simuliidae of the Culicomorpha infraorder. It is related to the Ceratopogonidae, Chironomidae, and Thaumaleidae. Over 2,200 speci ...

in the spring; it was fully equipped, with a kitchen, bath, and running water.

History

Pine Knot was started by Durant's father, railroad developer

Thomas C. Durant Thomas Clark Durant (February 6, 1820 – October 5, 1885) was an American physician, businessman, and financier. He was vice-president of the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) in 1869 when it met with the Central Pacific railroad at Promontory Sum ...

, as a showplace to draw investors to Durant's holdings, but it was William West Durant who would develop it into the remarkable model for Adirondack Great Camps to follow. In 1895, William West Durant sold the camp to wealthy industrialist

Collis P. Huntington Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who invested ...

. The camp went unused from the start of the 20th century until 1947, when it was sold to the

State University of New York at Cortland State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

for 1 dollar, for use as their Outdoor Education center. Due to the soundness of its construction, despite its long disuse, the buildings required little repair. The ''Barque'' is being rebuilt. The camp was included in a multiple property submission for listing on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1986, was in fact listed in 1986, and was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 2004. an
''Accompanying 5 photos, undated''
/ref> File:William West Durant at Camp Pine Knot.jpg,

at Camp Pine Knot, 1890,

Seneca Ray Stoddard Seneca Ray Stoddard (1844–1917) was an American landscape photographer known for his photographs of New York's Adirondack Mountains. He was also a naturalist, a writer, a poet, an artist, and a cartographer. His writings and photographs helped ...

File:Camp Pine Knot, Raquette Lake, NY.JPG, Durant Cabin, 2009 File:Chalet, Camp Pine Knot, Raquette Lake, NY.JPG, The Chalet, 2009

References

Sources

* Gilborn, Craig. ''Durant: Fortunes and Woodland Camps of a Family in the Adirondacks''. Utica, NY: North Country Books, 1981. * Kaiser, Harvey. ''Great Camps of the Adirondacks.'' Boston: David R. Godine, 1982.

External links

SUNY Cortland Outdoor Education, "Cortland's Raquette Lake Camp Becomes First National Historic Landmark in SUNY", by Peter D. Koryzno, Winter 2004

* ttp://www.greatcamps.com/tour.htm Camp Pine Knot - The Origin of the Adirondack Great Camp
St. Hubert's Isle - Adirondack Great Camps - Pine Knot, Uncas & Sagamore - Photos

{{National Register of Historic Places in New York Adirondack Great Camps National Historic Landmarks in New York (state) 1877 establishments in New York (state) Buildings and structures in Hamilton County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Hamilton County, New York Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)

History

See also

References

Sources

External links