By Charles Shack, Senior Reporter
Drive ninety minutes north of Syracuse on Route 28, past Utica and the last stoplights, and the road begins to climb. The pines thicken. The cell signal thins. Then, almost without warning, you arrive in a hamlet of 727 people that punches so far above its weight it has its own water park, its own fire tower, its own century-old movie palace, and 500 miles of snowmobile trail running out the back door. This is Old Forge, the western gateway to a six-million-acre wilderness, and for Central New Yorkers it is the closest thing to a backyard mountain town we have.
Where the Adirondacks begin
Old Forge is technically a hamlet, not a town. It sits inside the Town of Webb in Herkimer County, on the west edge of Adirondack Park, a state-protected wilderness of roughly 6 million acres. To put that in perspective, the park is bigger than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier and Grand Canyon combined. Nearly half of those acres are constitutionally protected as forever wild forest preserve, a phrase added to the New York State Constitution in 1894 to keep the lands from being logged or sold.
The hamlet itself was incorporated as a village in October 1903, then dissolved that incorporation in 1936 after residents decided the cost of village government was too high. It has carried on as a hamlet ever since, with a permanent population of 727 in the 2020 Census and a much larger summer population that swells with seasonal camp owners and day-trippers from Utica, Syracuse, Rome and Watertown.
The story of how it got the name Old Forge is older and stranger than most visitors realize. In 1798 a Rhode Island merchant named John Brown, no relation to the abolitionist, bought roughly 210,000 acres in northern Herkimer County and tried to settle eight townships. The land was too rocky and too cold to farm. The settlers gave up. Twenty-one years later, in 1819, Brown’s son-in-law Charles Herreshoff built a forge on the site to smelt local iron ore. That venture also failed. Herreshoff died that same year. The forge stayed. After his death the place became known as the Old Forge, and the name stuck through every other reinvention the village would attempt.
The Fulton Chain of Lakes
What saved Old Forge, and what still carries it, is water. The hamlet sits at the head of the Fulton Chain of Lakes, a string of eight lakes named First through Eighth that were created when the Moose River was dammed to power 18th-century mills. The dam at Old Forge holds back roughly 6.8 billion gallons of water. The chain is named for Robert Fulton, the inventor of the commercially successful steamboat, who proposed connecting the lakes into a long Adirondack canal. The canal never happened. The lakes did. From 1876 through the early 20th century, fleets of small wood-fired steamboats hauled tourists, mail and freight from First Lake all the way to Fourth Lake. The Fulton Navigation Company took over the route in 1901 with vessels named the Mohawk, the Uncas and the Nehasane, marking the height of the Fulton Chain steamer era before the railroad and then the automobile pushed the boats off the water.
Fourth Lake is the largest in the chain and is the one most visitors recognize, lined with summer camps and the long deck at Daiker’s. Old Forge Pond, the small body of water at the very head of the chain, is locally called Inlet Lake and is where the dock for Old Forge Lake Cruises sits. The cruise company runs two-hour narrated trips on the historic steamboat route, passing the Shoal Point Lighthouse, the Bald Mountain Fire Tower and the cove that once held President Benjamin Harrison’s summer camp. The cruises run from Memorial Day through Columbus Day. Lake trout fishing on Fourth Lake stays popular year-round, including ice fishing in the dead of winter.
The water park that was once a swamp
If Old Forge has a single recognizable landmark, it is Enchanted Forest Water Safari, the largest water theme park in New York. The park opened on July 7, 1956 as The Enchanted Forest of the Adirondacks. The founder was A. Richard Cohen, the same Cohen family that owned Old Forge Hardware, and the original park sat on 35 acres of swampland with 35 employees. Adult admission was one dollar. Children paid 25 cents.
The waterslide era arrived in 1984 when Wild Waters opened. The name changed to Enchanted Forest Water Safari in 1988 after a wave of new water rides. The Adirondack Expedition expansion in 1999 added eight more rides. In 2021 the park added Killermanjaro’s Revenge, Mamba Strike and Serengeti Stampede. The 2026 season opens June 10, marking the park’s 70th anniversary, and is scheduled to debut Paul Bunyan’s Log Haul, a spinning coaster that will continue the original Paul Bunyan theme of the 1956 park. The park now lists more than 50 rides and attractions and remains the single largest summer-season employer in the Town of Webb.
The hardware store that became a destination
One block from the water park sits a building that draws a different kind of pilgrimage. Old Forge Hardware bills itself as the Adirondacks’ Most General Store, and it has earned the title. Moses Cohen first arrived in Old Forge around 1900 as an itinerant peddler of hardware goods. In 1902 he bought a 75-by-150-foot lot on the corner of Fulton Street and Crosby Boulevard for $500 and built a $20,000 store. A May 10, 1922 fire wiped the original building off the map at an estimated loss of $150,000 to $200,000. Cohen, who said he had made his money in this small wilderness community and would not let a fire run him out, rebuilt immediately. The current store held its grand reopening on Memorial Day 1923 and has been continuously operated by four generations of the Cohen family since.
The inventory ranges from snow shovels and stove pipe to handmade Adirondack baskets and locally printed books. It is the kind of place where you can buy a chimney brush and a watercolor of Big Moose Lake in the same trip.
The Strand, almost a hundred years on
A four-minute walk from the hardware store sits the Strand Theatre, a single-screen movie palace that opened in May 1923 as the Thomson Theatre. The original auditorium was built of brick, steel and tile, with a planned capacity of 700 silent-film seats. The name changed to the Strand in 1925 after a sale, and that name has stuck for a century. In 1991 it was bought by film buffs Bob Card and Helen Zyma, who reopened it on Memorial Day 1992 with the original 1920s seats restored, the dropped lobby ceiling removed, and a personal collection of antique cameras and Hollywood memorabilia mounted on the walls. After full renovation, the modern Strand seats roughly 350 across its main and additional screens.
The Strand has expanded to four screens and shows first-run movies year-round. It is, by some measures, the most famous movie theatre in the Adirondacks. The lobby still smells like old popcorn and floor wax. That is not an accident.
McCauley Mountain and the snowmobile capital
Winter is when Old Forge earns its other reputation. USA Today has called the hamlet the Snowmobile Capital of the East, and town streets are open to sledders. From a single bar stool at the Back Door it is possible to ride more than 500 miles of groomed trail without ever putting wheels on pavement, connecting Old Forge to Inlet, Eagle Bay, Big Moose, Forestport and points farther east. The local network feeds into more than 700 miles of trail across Herkimer and Hamilton counties and links every major snowmobile system in Central and Upstate New York. The 12.3-mile TOBIE Trail, also known as Town of Webb Trail Number 5, runs from North Street out to Eagle Bay and is one of the most-traveled segments. Two shifts of paid groomers work the trail system every day of the season, and a Town of Webb permit is required to ride.
The 48th Annual Snodeo, run by the Central Adirondack Association, opens the snowmobile season on December 11 and 12, 2026, with a vintage sled show, factory demos and a community raffle. A second event, SnoFest, is scheduled for March 6 and 7, 2026 at the George T. Hiltebrant Recreation Center, with model previews from Arctic Cat, Polaris and Ski-Doo and freestyle stunt riders. Fifteen feet of snow is not unusual by the time Snodeo starts. Old Forge averages 165 inches of snow a year, more than seven times the national average. The state record low temperature, minus 52 degrees Fahrenheit, was set in Old Forge on February 17, 1979.
For skiers, McCauley Mountain Ski Center sits two miles east of the village. The town-owned hill has 21 trails, a 633-foot vertical drop and lifts that include one triple chair, one T-bar, two rope tows and a beginner conveyor. The 2025-2026 season opened on December 7, 2025 for weekend operation. It is small by Killington standards. By Central New York standards it is a mountain.
Two trails worth the drive
Hikers come for two short, steep climbs that frame the village from above. Bald Mountain, sometimes called Rondaxe, sits north of Old Forge off Route 28. The trail is just under a mile each way, with about 500 feet of climb. At the summit stands a 35-foot steel fire tower that replaced the original 1912 wooden lookout in 1917. New York retired the tower from active fire spotting in 1990, and Friends of Bald Mountain began a multi-year volunteer restoration in 2002. The tower reopened to the public on June 18, 2005. From the top, on a clear day, you can count every lake in the Fulton Chain.
Black Bear Mountain, a few miles east toward Inlet, is the harder cousin. Its summit sits at 2,445 feet with about 660 feet of elevation gain. The standard route up the steeper blue trail runs about 1.9 miles each way; a gentler 3.1-mile route from the same trailhead and a 2.2-mile approach from Uncas Road give hikers three ways to the top. The open rock at the summit offers views southwest to the lakes and northeast all the way toward the High Peaks. Together with Rocky Mountain, the two summits form the Fulton Chain Trifecta, an unofficial Western Adirondack hiking challenge.
The food, by category
Old Forge does not have a celebrity chef. It has a few institutions that have outlasted owners, fads and pandemic shutdowns. Walt’s Diner on Route 28 has been the breakfast room for more than 25 years, and current owner David Aliasso has been in food service for more than 30. The pancakes are the size of dinner plates. The coffee is bottomless. There is no host stand.
Daiker’s, a quarter mile down on Daikers Circle, has sat on the shore of Fourth Lake since 1956. The wing menu and the deck band on summer nights are why people come back. The kitchen serves a full menu until 9 p.m., and the bar runs until 2 a.m. Reservations are not accepted.
The Pied Piper, on Route 28, is the burger and ice cream stand families default to after the water park. Hand-formed beef patties, fried clams, soft serve, and a slightly spicy house sauce called Pied Sauce. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The trains and the art
The Adirondack Scenic Railroad runs out of Thendara Station, two miles south of Old Forge village, on the former New York Central line. The volunteer-operated railroad carries more than 74,000 passengers a year on themed trips between Utica, Thendara, Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. Standard scenic rides last about an hour to 90 minutes; the High Peaks Limited is a 4.5-hour round trip from Thendara into the heart of the park, and the full Utica run stretches to about 11 hours. The most popular runs are the Polar Express in December and the foliage trains in October. There is also a Beer and Wine Train and a Rail and Cruise package that pairs the railroad with an Old Forge Lake Cruise.
One mile north of the village on Route 28 sits View Arts Center, the regional arts hub for the Central Adirondacks. View grew out of a 1951 lawn art show organized by founder Miriam “Mirnie” Kashiwa, who hung paintings on walls made of tree saplings and chicken wire in her own front yard. That show became the Central Adirondack Art Show, which celebrated its 75th edition in recent years and still runs every spring. Kashiwa also founded the Kinderwood Early Education Program, the area’s first preschool, which is still housed at the arts center today. The current building has a two-story timber-framed lobby and several large galleries. The annual Quilts Unlimited exhibition, juried and stocked with 70 to 80 quilts from across the country and overseas, runs from early October through late November and is one of the most-attended quilt shows in the Northeast.
The beach, the camping, the rest of it
The Old Forge Public Beach sits at the end of Lakeview Avenue on Old Forge Pond. Admission is free. Lifeguards are on duty in summer from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. There are changing rooms, a wooden playground and a webcam that has, for years, been the official temperature gauge for half of the lake-house owners in Onondaga County.
Behind the beach, Old Forge Camping Resort and a half-dozen smaller campgrounds stretch along the Moose River, putting tent sites and cabins within walking distance of Main Street. The campground was the launchpad for what became the Water Safari complex on the other side of the road.
How to get there from Syracuse
The drive from downtown Syracuse to Old Forge is 95 miles, a touch under two hours in summer traffic. The most direct route is east on I-90 to Utica, north on Route 12 for 24 miles, then a left onto Route 28 for the final 27 miles into Old Forge. Cell service holds for the first hour. After Forestport, plan on losing it. The road climbs gradually through hardwood forest for the last 20 miles, the lakes flash through the trees, and then a string of cabins, motels and ice cream stands appears along the right shoulder. That is Main Street. There is no other.
Why it matters to Central New York
For the people who live and work in Syracuse, Old Forge is the closest stretch of true Adirondack wilderness on the map. You can leave your driveway after breakfast, hike Bald Mountain by lunch, eat a Daiker’s wing platter on Fourth Lake at 4 p.m., and be back in your own bed before midnight. For the families who own camps on the Fulton Chain, many of them third- and fourth-generation, the hamlet is a kind of permanent summer postcard, a place that looks the same in 2026 as it did in 1986 because the forever wild clause says it has to.
Tourism is the engine. Without the visitors, there is no hardware store, no Strand, no Snodeo, no McCauley. With them, a hamlet of 727 keeps four restaurants, a movie palace, a ski mountain, a water park, an art center, a railroad and the largest groomed snowmobile network in the Northeast running year after year. That is not a small thing. It is, in fact, the entire model.
Drive up. Take Route 28. Bring layers. Tell them Charles sent you.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (2020); New York State Adirondack Park Agency; New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; National Weather Service Buffalo; Wikipedia: Old Forge, New York; Wikipedia: Enchanted Forest Water Safari; Wikipedia: Fulton Chain of Lakes; Wikipedia: Adirondack Park; Old Forge Hardware official history; Strand Theatre of Old Forge; McCauley Mountain Ski Center; Adirondack Scenic Railroad; View Arts Center; Central Adirondack Association; Experience Old Forge; Town of Webb. Photographs from Wikimedia Commons (public domain and Creative Commons).
Related on CNY Signal: every Central New York town and village we cover, Highland Forest, the Adirondacks of Central New York, and CNY Signal community coverage.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Old Forge, New York?
Old Forge is a hamlet in the Town of Webb, Herkimer County, on the west edge of Adirondack Park. It sits about 90 minutes north of Syracuse on Route 28. The hamlet had a permanent population of 727 in the 2020 Census, with a much larger seasonal population from camp owners and visitors from Utica, Syracuse, Rome and Watertown.
How big is Adirondack Park?
Adirondack Park is a state-protected wilderness of roughly 6 million acres. It is bigger than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier and Grand Canyon combined. Nearly half of those acres are constitutionally protected as forever wild forest preserve, a phrase added to the New York State Constitution in 1894 to keep the lands from being logged or sold.
How did Old Forge get its name?
In 1819, Charles Herreshoff, son-in-law of Rhode Island merchant John Brown, built a forge on the site to smelt local iron ore after Brown’s earlier 1798 attempt to settle eight townships failed. The forge venture also failed and Herreshoff died that same year. The forge stayed, and the place became known as the Old Forge.
What is the largest attraction in Old Forge?
Enchanted Forest Water Safari, the largest water theme park in New York, opened on July 7, 1956 as The Enchanted Forest of the Adirondacks on 35 acres of swampland. Today it lists more than 50 rides and attractions and remains the single largest summer-season employer in the Town of Webb. The 2026 season opens June 10, marking the park’s 70th anniversary.
What is the Fulton Chain of Lakes?
The Fulton Chain is a string of eight lakes named First through Eighth that were created when the Moose River was dammed to power 18th-century mills. The dam at Old Forge holds back roughly 6.8 billion gallons of water. The chain is named for Robert Fulton, who proposed connecting the lakes into a long Adirondack canal that was never built.
