Golden Beach Campground – Raquette Lake NY

Description

Raquette Lake is the largest lake in the southwestern portion of the Adirondack Park in  upstate New York.  It is famous as the site of some of the earliest and grandest of the “Camps” established by wealthy New Yorkers in the Gilded Age of the 19th century – which were, in fact, grand summer homes owned by families like the Durants, Vanderbilts, and Morgans).

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Eighth Lake Camp, established in  1933, did improvements to the state campground at Golden Beach on the southeastern flank of Raquette Lake, which the Department of Conservation had created in 1929 (on a parcel formerly owned by the Durants).  The 8th Lake CCC Camp was closed in November 1933. But in 1939, CCC boys from a camp at Indian Lake did further work at Golden Beach Campground, adding 30 campsites.

Golden Beach campground covers an extensive area with over 200 campsites, several restrooms, a few cabins and service buildings.  It has been improved over the years since the New Deal.  Visiting the site after it had closed for the season, it was hard to tell which structures are CCC-built among the many camp stoves, restrooms and park buildings — and there was no one to ask.  The Ranger’s house at the park entrance is very likely CCC in origin.