The 'Queen of American Lakes' in the Adirondacks Story-Date: 03:43 p.m. PST Monday , September 7, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------ The 'Queen of American Lakes' in the Adirondacks With TRAV-Lake George-Tips By Chris Carola Associated Press Writer LAKE GEORGE, New York (AP) -- People have been plying the waters of Lake George for centuries, from American Indians defending their culture to Jesuit priests on a mission and colonial armies on the march. When future U.S. presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison passed through the region in 1791, Jefferson deemed the lake "the most beautiful water" he had ever seen. The 32-mile-long (51-kilometer-long) lake in the southeast corner of the Adirondack Park is still one of the most popular tourist destinations in upstate New York. The Lake George region offers numerous campgrounds, marinas, beaches, amusement parks and lakeside motels and hotels. The village of Lake George sits on the southern shore, and it's filled with the typical trappings found in tourist hot spots from Key West, Florida, to Venice Beach, California: T-shirt shops, bars, pizza parlors, a wax museum and video arcades. Motels line the western shore for miles (kilometers), but they eventually give way to natural scenery that has captivated visitors since the first Indian paddled these waters. Craggy islands topped with trees dot the surface, giving what 19-century historian Francis Parkman called "a certain savage character to the beauties of Lake George." Sheer cliffs plunge into dense forests, while mountains shoulder their way right down to the waterline. In their shadows, cozy, secluded bays ringed with pine trees offer boaters glimpses of a wilderness on the edge of civilization. On the more rugged and less accessible eastern shore, the inlets are even more pristine. Over them loom such peaks as Pilot Knob and Black Mountain, their summits catching the last rays of sun at dusk or disappearing all together in the clouds and mist as summer storms rumble through the Adirondacks. Lake George, along with Lake Champlain to the north, forms a natural water route linking Canada with the upper Hudson River. What nature provided, man utilized in his quest for glory or empire. Iroquois and Algonquin warriors used Lake George in their forays against each other. French explorers and Jesuit missionaries took the same route, often with dire consequences, in their efforts to win over the Indians. The armies of France, Britain and the young United States turned its shorelines into killing grounds during two centuries of strife, ranging from European-style sieges to short, bloody Indian ambushes along dark forest trails. One of the more famous battles took place during the French and Indian War in August 1757, when the British surrendered Fort William Henry to the French, who razed the fortress. It was reconstructed in the 1950s and once again commands the bluff on the lake's south shore. Tour guides in 18th-century military uniforms tell the story of the fort and Lake George's place in American history. As the "Queen of American lakes," Lake George had a thriving tourist trade as early as the first decades of the 1800s, when visitors came to view the fort ruins and trenches left over from the "old French war." The first steamboat launched on Lake George took its maiden voyage in 1817, and excursion boats have been a popular way to view the lake ever since. ------------------------------------------------------------