The village of Indian Lake, NY is in the center of Adirondack Park at 1,750 feet above sea level. Indian Lake, the body of water from which the town derives its name, is three miles south of town.
In the 1850s, the first dam built on Indian Lake was designed to store and release water for moving lumber to market. It increased the width of the lake, but not the length.
In 1898, construction of the current state dam was completed. It was built to ensure a continuous supply of water to the manufacturing plants and mills along the Hudson.
