Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Old Forge, NY

Old Forge is a hamlet and census-designated place on New York State Route 28 in the town of Webb in Herkimer County, New York, and it is one of the western gateway communities of Adirondack Park.

The 2020 census counted 727 people in Old Forge, a community whose year-round population is dwarfed by its seasonal tourist crowds.

The roughly 210,000 acres including Old Forge passed to the Brown family of Rhode Island in 1798 through a transaction involving Aaron Burr, and the settlement dates from that year.

In 1811 John Brown's son-in-law Charles Frederick Herreshoff moved to the area, attempted to raise sheep, opened an iron mine and built the first forge — the venture that gave Old Forge its name, even though the poor-quality ore made the enterprise a failure.

Old Forge sits at the start of the Fulton Chain of Lakes, a 16-mile chain of eight lakes beginning at Old Forge Pond, named for Robert Fulton, who surveyed the region in 1811.

Old Forge was incorporated as a village in October 1903, but residents voted 117 to 96 in 1933 to dissolve the village over the high cost of government operations, and the dissolution took effect on March 31, 1936.

Old Forge recorded New York State's all-time record low temperature of minus 52 degrees Fahrenheit on February 17, 1979, and it often posts the lowest winter temperatures in the state.

Old Forge is home to Enchanted Forest Water Safari, New York's largest water theme park, with more than 50 rides and attractions including 32 water slides — the park began in 1956 as the Enchanted Forest of the Adirondacks.

Skiers from Old Forge head to nearby McCauley Mountain, which benefits from the lake-effect snow that frequently buries the western Adirondacks and averages about 105 days of skiing a season.

Old Forge is a snowmobiling capital, controlling primary access to more than 500 miles of groomed trails in the western Adirondacks.