The Lake Placid Village Board of Trustees is working with the Open Space Institute, a New York-based conservation organization, to build the trailhead on an almost two-acre plot next to the Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society. Village Mayor Art Devlin said that the state government ushered in the partnership between the village and OSI.

The village is close to finalizing the $249,000 purchase of the land on which the trailhead will be built. The 1.77-acre plot, a former railyard, currently belongs to the Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society, which has been in the former Lake Placid Railroad Station since 1967. The village’s purchase, along with associated fees, is funded by $300,000 from the 2023 state Environmental Protection Fund, which funds capital projects that also promote conservation.

“June 1 was the date we were supposed to buy the property,” Devlin said. “I’m under the understanding it’s imminent.”

While OSI is handling most of the improvements to the property, the village will be helping out in any way it can, Devlin said. Some of the anticipated work includes bringing water and electricity to the property for the restroom facilities. The parking area will open as soon as the property is in the village’s hands, according to Devlin, and should be able to serve those using the Rail Trail throughout the summer. OSI’s Senior Vice President for Communications Eileen Larrabee said that construction on the trailhead’s amenities will likely not begin until next year, as OSI is still $300,000 away from its $1.55 million fundraising goal for the project.

This property on Station Street is expected to become a new trailhead for the Adirondack Rail Trail. (Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)

“It’s an important $300,000,” she said.

The project has so far received funding via a $300,000 grant from the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Smart Growth Grant program, a $500,000 EPF grant, a $50,000 grant from North Elba’s Local Enhancement and Advancement Fund and an unspecified grant from the Cloudsplitter Foundation.

Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society board member Peter Roland Jr. said that the new trailhead is going to drive traffic to the historical society’s museum.

“When you operate a facility like ours, your biggest challenge is having people find you — getting residents to take the time to come and visit you and visitors to find you,” he said. “Since we’ll be immediately adjacent to what is already a really popular attraction … it’s going to give us exposure to an audience that we’ve been hard-pressed to reach.”

The first phase of the Adirondack Rail Trail, a 10-mile stretch between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake, officially opened to the public on Dec. 1, 2023. Construction started in November 2022. This is the first summer tourist season when phase one of the trail will officially be open — since railroad ties first started getting removed in 2020, the DEC has asked the public to stay off sections of the trail with active construction, but the public has used it anyway.

Once completed, the ADA-accessible, 34-mile trail will connect the villages of Tupper Lake, Saranac Lake and Lake Placid. The second phase, which will span from Saranac Lake to Floodwood Road in Santa Clara, is slated to be completed by this fall. The third and final phase, from Floodwood to Tupper Lake, will be completed in 2025.

Before the former rail corridor underwent construction, the section from Lake Placid to Saranac Lake was used by the Adirondack Railway Preservation Society to run a scenic tourist train. Throughout a lengthy approval process, locals debated the benefits and drawbacks of the trail, with some arguing that the unused railroad tracks made for a decent trail already and public funds could be better spent on other projects and others arguing that a smooth trail would make for better year-round outdoor recreation and spur the local economy.

OSI has participated in other conservation projects in the Adirondack Park, including acquiring the 10,000-acre Tahawus Tract; contributing the Finch, Pruyn and company lands, the largest addition to the forest preserve in 100 years; and conserving more than 600 acres of the Trembleau Mountain-Lake Champlain shoreline, which was added to the forest preserve.

(Enterprise and Lake Placid News Editor/Publisher Andy Flynn contributed reporting.)