Raqette Lake features countless bays and inlets. As a result, it has the longest shoreline of any lake in the Adirondacks. Many summer homes are reached only by boat. Tradition has it that the hamlet and lake are named after "raquettes," the French word for snowshoes. As a party of Tories was making its way to Canada, pursued by the Colonial Army, winter turned to spring. The British sympathizers abandoned their snowshoes on the shore where they were found years later, just in time to inspire the naming of the lake. Nearby is Great Camp Sagamore, a 27-building National Historic Landmark on its own lake that was one of the Vanderbilt's extravagant summer homes. Built by the originator of the Adirondack architectural style, it is one of the few remaining log "palaces" open to the public. You can even sleep where Gary Cooper slept!

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