Loon Lake is along a road less taken. You won’t pass it on your way from here to there. Found three miles west of state Route 3, 20 miles north of Saranac Lake, along Route 26, the old Port Kent-Hopkinton Turnpike, it requires a dedicated trip. Its history as one of the most “socially prominent” resorts in the Adirondacks saw wealthy families such as the Vanderbilts, Whitneys, Rothschilds, Rockefellers, and Guggenheims regularly staying as guests. It features one of the earliest golf courses in the Adirondacks and African-American homesteaders with ties to Gerrit Smith of Timbuctoo and the abolitionist movement.