Download or read book Cranberry Lake and Wanakena written by Susan Thomas Smeby and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the northwest corner of the Adirondack Park lie Cranberry Lake and the village of Wanakena. This remote area was the last-settled part of New York State; from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, its name evoked the very essence of wilderness. Initially, sportsmen, naturalists, and artists flocked to the area. By 1900, summer tourism was booming. The logging industry followed, to harvest the virgin timber; after that, the state purchased the mostly cleared lands. Today, seventy-five percent of the lake's shoreline is state owned, and the Five Ponds Wilderness, south of Wanakena, is one of the largest and wildest areas in the Adirondacks.