Tupper Lake is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in Franklin County,

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

, United States. The population was 3,282 at the 2020 census. The village is located within the boundaries of the

Adirondack Park The Adirondack Park is a park in northeastern New York (state), New York protecting the Adirondack Mountains. The park was established in 1892 for "the free use of all the people for their health and pleasure", and for watershed protection. At , ...

, west of Lake Placid. Along with nearby Saranac Lake, these three villages make up what is known as the Tri-Lakes region. The village of Tupper Lake is in the town of Tupper Lake, called Altamont before 2004. The town and the village are in the southwestern part of the county. It is named for 11,000-acre Tupper Lake, two miles south of the village. The Wild Center, a

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

center, is on a campus. The Adirondack Sky Center & Observatory is on the north side of town.

History

Settlement began ''circa'' 1844. The village was settled during the town's lumber production period and grew after it gained railroad service (see below). The early village was composed of two parts, Tupper Lake proper and Faust. The town, for a time, held the distinction as the top lumber producer in the state. The great fire of 1899 burned more than 169 structures in the village, two-thirds of them homes. The modern village grew out of this destruction and added all the amenities of a modern community earlier than many other villages in the state. Tupper had its own department store and synagogue, and its sprawling railway yards, driven by the lumber trade, made it a hub for the surrounding Adirondack communities. Railroad service from Herkimer, NY through Tupper Lake (to Malone, Montreal and Lake Placid) began in 1892 with the opening of the Mohawk and Malone Railway. (For the complete subsequent railroad history to 2021, see Wikipedia articles on this early railroad and on the Adirondack Railroad). After a total lapse of service from 1981 through 2021, the Adirondack Railroad resumed tourist passenger service between Utica and Tupper Lake (), its new northern terminus, by special train in fall 2022. Regularly scheduled passenger service over the entire route began in late spring 2023.

Geography

The village of Tupper Lake is located near the center of the town of Tupper Lake at , on the east shore of Raquette Pond, the northern end of the Tupper Lake water body. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the village has a total area of , of which is land and , or 2.06%, is water.

New York State Route 3 New York State Route 3 (NY 3) is a major east–west state highway in New York, in the United States, that connects central New York to the North Country region near the Canada–US border via Adirondack Park. The route extends for ...

and

New York State Route 30 New York State Route 30 (NY 30) is a state highway in the central part of New York in the United States. It extends for from an interchange with NY 17 (Future Interstate 86) in the Southern Tier to the US–Canada border in ...

intersect at the village. NY 3 leads west to Watertown, and NY 30 leads south to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

on the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson R ...

. The two highways lead east out of Tupper Lake together, with NY 30 eventually turning north towards Malone, from Tupper Lake, and NY 3 continuing east to Saranac Lake. The

Raquette River The Raquette River, sometimes spelled Racquette, originates at Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. long, it is the third longest river entirely in the state of New York. The river is a popular destinatio ...

flows past the south side of the village, entering Tupper Lake/Raquette Pond. The river continues northwest out of the Adirondacks through

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...

, eventually joining the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

northeast of Massena.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 3,935 people, 1,684 households, and 988 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 1,839 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 97.89%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.76%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.30% Native American, 0.05% Asian, 0.10% from other races, and 0.89% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 0.51% of the population. There were 1,684 households, out of which 31.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.1% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 13.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.3% were non-families. 34.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.31 and the average family size was 2.97. In the village, the population was spread out, with 26.5% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 28.9% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 17.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.1 males. The median income for a household in the village was $31,654, and the median income for a family was $40,152. Males had a median income of $30,169 versus $24,273 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the village was $15,567. About 7.7% of families and 11.7% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 14.0% of those under age 18 and 12.7% of those age 65 or over. Tupper Lake High School is the home of the Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks. Their mascot is a bearded Lumberjack wearing a red and black flannel shirt and black pants with suspenders holding an axe. The school colors are red and black.

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Tupper Lake has a warm summer,

Humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(''Dfb''). ''Dfb'' climates are characterized by a least one month having an average mean temperature ≤ , at least four months with an average mean temperature ≥ , all months with an average mean temperature < and no significant precipitation difference between seasons. Although most summer days are comfortably humid in Tupper Lake, episodes of heat and high humidity can occur with

heat index The heat index (HI) is an index that combines air temperature and relative humidity, in shade (shadow), shaded areas, to posit a human-perceived equivalent temperature, as how hot it would feel if the humidity were some other value in the Shade (s ...

values > . Since 1981, the highest air temperature was on August 3, 1988, and the highest daily average mean

dew point The dew point is the temperature the air needs to be cooled to (at constant pressure) in order to produce a relative humidity of 100%. This temperature depends on the pressure and water content of the air. When the air at a temperature above the ...

was on August 1, 2006. Since 1981, the wettest calendar day was on November 8, 1996. During the winter months, the average annual extreme minimum air temperature is . Since 1981, the coldest air temperature was on January 4, 1981. Episodes of extreme cold and wind can occur, with

wind chill Wind chill (popularly wind chill factor) is the sensation of cold produced by the wind for a given ambient air temperature on exposed skin as the air motion accelerates the rate of heat transfer from the body to the surrounding atmosphere. Its va ...

values falling below . The average annual snowfall total between September and May is between and .

Ecology

According to the

A. W. Kuchler August William Kuchler (born ''August Wilhelm Küchler''; 26 July 1907 – 17 June 1999) was a German-born American geographer and naturalist who is noted for developing a plant association system that has become widely used in the United Sta ...

U.S.

potential natural vegetation In ecology, potential natural vegetation (PNV), also known as Kuchler potential vegetation, is the vegetation that would be expected given environmental constraints (climate, geomorphology, geology) without human intervention or a hazard event ...

types, Tupper Lake would have a dominant vegetation type of Northern

Hardwood Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...

Spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

, (''108'') with a dominant vegetation form of Northern

s (''23''). The

plant hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most widely ...

is 4a, with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of . The spring bloom typically peaks on approximately May 11 and fall color usually peaks around October 2.

Transportation

Rail

Into the mid-20th century the New York Central railroad operated passenger trains from the south, through Tupper Lake, and to Lake Placid, Malone and Montreal. In spring 2023 the Adirondack Railroad again began operating passenger trains from Utica, New York to Tupper Lake as its northern terminus.

Roads

New York Route 3 and New York Route 30 serve the village.

Education

The school district is Tupper Lake Central School District.
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References

External links

Town and Village of Tupper Lake official website

Tupper Lake visitors' information

The Wild Center

Tupper Lake on NY Route 30: The Adirondack Trail Website
{{authority control Villages in New York (state) Villages in Franklin County, New York pt:Tupper Lake