On June 24^th, 1837 – that’s 174 years ago  --  painter Thomas Cole visited Schroon Lake and made several drawings of the area, including what’s today known as Hoffman Mountain.

It was his second trip in two years and he was moved to return after observing in his journal: “The [Schroon] Lake I found to be a beautiful sheet of water, overshadowed by sloping hills clothed with heavy forests”.

Art historians say this is not just a pretty picture, but one in which Cole makes an anthropological observation. From The Adirondack Museum:

It not only depicts a known site and its inhabitants but also conveys Cole's reactions to civilization's transformation of the wilderness.