Ampersand Mountain

Infobox Mountain
Name = Ampersand Mountain
Photo = Ampersand Mtn from Middle Saranac Lake.jpg
Caption = Ampersand Mountain from Middle Saranac Lake
Elevation = 3,352 ft (1,022 m)
Location = New York, USA
Range= Adirondacks
Prominence =
Coordinates = coord|44|14|04|N|74|12|02|W |type:mountain_region:US |display=title,inline
Topographic

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Ampersand Mountain is a convert|3352|ft|m|1|abbr=on mountain in Franklin County in the northeastern Adirondacks, east of the High Peaks in New York State. The trail up the mountain begins on NY-3 convert|8.1|mi|km southwest of the village of Saranac Lake, near Middle Saranac Lake; it is a popular day hike. The mountain takes its name from nearby Ampersand Creek, so named because it twists and turns like the ampersand symbol [Goodwin, Tony, ed., "Adirondack Trails, High Peaks Region", Lake George, New York: Adirondack Mountain Club, 2004. ISBN 1-931951-05-5] .

The summit is bare rock, with extensive views of the High Peaks to the east and the Saranac Lakes to the west. The summit was tree covered in the early 1800s, but Verplanck Colvin cleared the summit while working on his survey of the Adirondacks, and subsequent erosion left the summit bare. There is a memorial to hermit Walter Channing Rice, who manned a fire tower on the summit from 1915 to 1923. ["ibid."]

Ampersand was the first mountain that wilderness activist and explorer Bob Marshall climbed, in 1915, when he was 14. In 1925, Marshall and his brother George became the first to climb all 46 of the Adirondack peaks over convert|4000|ft|m|abbr=on, [Brown, Phil (ed). 2006. "Bob Marshall in the Adirondacks". Saranac Lake, New York: Lost Pond Press. ISBN 0978925408.] becoming the first Adirondack Forty-Sixers.

See also

* List of mountains in New York

References

External links

* [http://www.adk.org/trails/Ampersand.aspx Adirondack Mountain Club - Ampersand Mountain]
* [http://nyroute30.com/mappages/ampersandmttopo.php NYroute30.com - Ampersand Mountain Topographic Map]
* [http://tupperlake.net/ampsand.htm TupperLake.Net - Ampersand Mountain]
* [http://www.adksportsfitness.com/july2006/articles/hiking_paddling.html Adirondack Sports and Fitness: "Water, Water Everywhere: The Views from Ampersand"]