Mount Baker

Photograph of Moody Pond and Mt. Baker, probably by Winchester MacDowell, undated. Courtesy of Marsha MacDowell Morgan.
Mount Baker is a 2457-foot mountain east of Saranac Lake. Moody Pond lies at its foot.

It is one of three small mountains surrounding Saranac Lake: the others are Mount Pisgah and Dewey Mountain.

The first recorded ascent of Mount Baker on skis was made by Edwin R. Stonaker on March 11, 1916. ¹

There were major forest fires on Baker in 1903 and 1908.

The Mt. Baker Club was a speakeasy at the foot of the mountain that offered a "red hot orchestra" and featured "girlie shows from Montreal and a healthy sprinkling of semi-mobsters hiding out from prohibition day vengeance."

Lake Placid News, May 15, 1914

Planted Baker's Slopes

A big force of men and boys of the High School started out last Friday to plant the fifteen thousand Scotch pine secured by the Fish and Game Club on the slopes of Mount Baker. The trees were obtained from the State nursery at Saranac Inn and cost about four dollars a thousand. It would cost an equal sum to put them into the ground, the labor was all donated, with the exception of a few paid men who saw that the lads did the work right.

Planting was continued Saturday and Monday. It is not expected that the 15000 trees will make much of an impression on the stony sides and summit of Baker, but the Club hopes the beginning will serve to rouse public feeling in the matter. The appearance of the mountain was ruined in forest fires of a few years ago.

Mount Baker from Kiwassa Road View of Moody Pond, Lake Flower, Dewey Mountain and Saranac Lake village from Mount Baker, between 1901 and 1906. William Henry Jackson The burning of Mount Baker, 1915. Adirondack Daily Enterprise, September 11, 1999 Mount Baker in Winter, between 1905 and 1920 Detail from Mount Baker in Winter, between 1905 and 1920 View of Moody Pond, Lake Flower, Saranac Lake village and Lower Saranac Lake from Mount Baker

Comments: