Saranac Lake’s First Automobile

In July 1902, honeymooners Captain Herbert J. Sackett and Miss Gillian Mae Stevens arrived at the Ampersand Hotel on Lower Saranac Lake. Their most unusual luggage? An automobile – the first ever seen not just in Saranac Lake, but in the entire Adirondacks. This pioneering vehicle brought new freedom with a top speed of 22 mph. The Sacketts explored widely, from Paul Smith’s Hotel to Lake Placid, and even ascended Mount Pisgah in Saranac Lake. As more families embraced the automobile, a new age of travel and vacationing roared into the Adirondacks.

Adjusting Business

Like many communities, the automobile's arrival permanently transformed Saranac Lake. With Henry Ford's Model T making cars affordable, remote Grand Hotels soon gave way to easily accessible downtown businesses, such as the Hotel Saranac on Main Street.Local businesses quickly adapted. Giles Bombard, owner of Fowler’s Livery (later Bombard’s Livery), offered a heated garage for Hotel Saranac guests' early vehicles before antifreeze became common.Bombard himself may have owned Saranac Lake's first resident-owned automobile in 1909. As quick and pronounced as the cars themselves, the motor age had arrived.

Car Camping

The automobile forever changed the way families planned their vacations, especially in the Adirondacks. As cars became more common, the Conservation Commission established car camping sites that were easily accessible thanks to an expanding network of highways.
Fish Creek, with 355 sites today, quickly filled up with campers from all over. Its popularity led to the opening of Rollins Pond, which has 287 sites. The automobile was no longer just for sightseeing; it had truly opened up the Adirondacks for a new era of family adventures.

Auto Racing

Sixty years after the first automobile crept through Saranac Lake, revved-up engines were unleashed for auto racing. In 1962, Aaron and Pearl Hoyt opened a track at their farm off Trudeau Road, and it became an instant hit. Huge crowds came to watch their favorite drivers, with nearly 1,500 paid admissions and hundreds more viewing from outside the fence. Most drivers were locals, including legends like Jim Hoyt and Wes "Slugger" Moody. The track closed around August 30, 1968, but its outline can still be seen via satellite today—a lasting marker of another chapter in Saranac Lake's automobile history.

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Bayle Reichert: [email protected]  

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