One of the main events of our field trip this past weekend was the Wild Center. Located in Tupper Lake, the museum combines indoor and outdoor activities to give everyone a complete experience of the natural history of the Adirondack Park. On our way home, many of us wondered about the funding for the museum and how such a successful attraction affects the surrounding areas, which are not nearly as well off as the booming tourist town of Lake Placid. So, I did some research, and what I found was pretty interesting...
The idea for the Wild Center was conceived by a group of friends who were enjoying the summer weather on the shore of Long Lake in 1998. As they sat around Betsy Lowe's cabin, they noticed the forest that was damaged greatly by the ice storm and realized that no one had ever tried to display the natural history of the Adirondacks. From there, the idea grew and more than 100 regional organizations backed the Museum and the citizens of Tupper Lake voted to donate the 31 acre property along the Raquette River to the project. The first fundraising effort involved a simple letter mailed to local homes and raised $500,000, a huge amount of money for the area, which allowed the volunteer committee to hire an architecture company to start the planning process. After that, the donations began to come in at an increased rate, with $10 million dollars raised to start site preparation for construction in 2002. In 2004, the total funds raised by 5,237 private donors was $28.3 million and the non-profit Wild Center officially opened on July 4, 2006, drawing a crowd of over 5,000, the largest gathering in the Adirondacks since the opening ceremony for the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Though the Wild Center draws many visitors to Tupper Lake each year for its exhibits, activities, conferences, and weddings, many of us worried that the center brought people to town only for the day, after which, they retreat to their hotels in Lake Placid, preventing economic growth in a town that really needs it. However, on its website, the Wild Center has a page of information about where to stay and eat, which are all located in the village of Tupper Lake. While the site does have a list of other attractions in the park, including the Adirondack Museum, Fort Ticonderoga, and a variety of places in and around Lake Placid, the emphasis is on Tupper Lake and clearly encourages tourism in the town. Though I wouldn't say that the Wild Center has been a tremendous economic boom for Tupper Lake so far, it, at the very least, provides some employment opportunities and draws people to the town, encouraging them to stay and eat there too. Even if Museum visitors venture into town only to get gas for their cars and to grab a quick snack, they are contributing to Tupper Lake's economy and likely wouldn't have done so if the Wild Center didn't exist. The Wild Center has become an important part of Tupper Lake's economy and will hopefully help it become more prosperous while educating the public about the natural history of the Adirondack Park.
Sources:
http://wildcenter.org/about-us/our-story/the-history-of-the-wild-center
http://wildcenter.org/visit/near-the-wild-center-visit
I'm really glad you researched this Gaby, because I was curious too. I went to the page you cited about visiting and what's near the Center, and you're right that they emphasize Tupper Lake. I was happy to see that the giant blurb at the top of the page tells the history of Tupper Lake and lists some annual events that happen in the town. It also has this sentence, "The railway arrived in Tupper in the 1890's and much of the modern town was built in the boom years that followed". It makes the town sound like a booming town with a functioning railroad, which it isn't. But if it draws tourists in it could be!
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