Long considered one of the most respected authorities on the history and geography of the Adirondack region, award-winning author and conservationist Barbara McMartin focuses on the uniqueness of the forty-four individual tracts that make up the two-and-one-half-million-acre Forest Preserve within the Adirondack Park. In The Adirondack Park McMartin has aptly likened the various wild forests, wilderness, recreation and primitive areas to a patchwork quilt, with landscapes connecting to jagged boundaries following rivers and narrow valleys. Sidebars of "views and visits" give readers an insider's advantage to making the most of any Adirondack expedition. With a storyteller's ease, McMartin provides a brief history and description of each area. She chronicles the preserve's unusual origins, people, politics, and economics that created what is now one of the most important wilderness areas in the eastern United States. Skillfully combining the results of meticulous research and her life-long passion and advocacy for the Adirondack region, she illuminates the story of how the land parcels were pieced together to become the most sought-after and protected acreage in the east. The book is generously interspersed with maps and vivid geographic descriptions of the forest cover, lakes, mountains, and natural and human history.