North Pole is a small village located in Essex County, New York in the Adirondack Mountains.

See also: town of North Pole, Alaska

Geography

This tiny village is situated in Adirondack Park at the northern edge of Essex County () near Whiteface Mountain, twelve miles from Lake Placid, New York and approximately thirty miles from Plattsburgh, New York.

North Pole is touted as one of the best places in the Northeast for those who love a white Christmas, with historical weather data gathered at nearby Tupper Lake, New York every year since 1948 claiming a 96% chance of any amount of snow for the holiday.

Demographics

The United States Census Bureau did not report any separate figures for North Pole in 2000, instead treating it as part of a larger area including Lake Placid, NY. Of a total of 8,098 people in the region, 1,444 are under 18, 1,072 are age 65 or over, 87% are White and 10.7% are African American.

North Pole does not have its own bank, school, library, fire department, newspaper, police station or community organizations and most local businesses have closed their doors. North Pole has a small community postal station at 201 Main St, which is open only on a seasonal basis.

Media

Burlington/Plattsburgh-market NBC affiliate WPTZ (channel 5) has been licensed to North Pole since it signed on (as WIRI) in 1954. The station has repeatedly petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to reallocate channel 5 to Plattsburgh, on the grounds that the village has always been small and continues to lose population, with four houses remaining near North Pole's main crossroads; the Commission has denied all these requests.

Tourism

Santa's Workshop on Whiteface Mountain Memorial Highway 431 is the North Pole village's main attraction.

Open from mid-June onward, it bills itself as the oldest theme park in the United States, featuring Santa at the North Pole with live reindeer and a traditional Christmas theme with the North Pole post office (ZIP code 12946) serving as a fine place to mail holiday greetings.

Created in 1949 with costumed characters, a frosty "north pole" ice column (created using mechanical refrigeration) and a small menagerie which may well be the first petting zoo, Santa's Workshop in North Pole was ahead of its time and spawned many imitators. Originally built on the road to Whiteface Mountain by a Lake Placid businessman whose daughter had desperately wanted to see Santa's house, it caught the eye of planners designing an entire generation of theme parks, including the first Disney parks (designed in the 1950's).

External Links

Santa's Workshop: (official) http://www.northpoleny.com/ (unofficial) http://www.theimaginaryworld.com/sw.html

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus (NY Sun, 1897): http://beebo.org/smackerels/yes-virginia.html

WPTZ TV5 http://www.thechamplainchannel.com

Cornell University meteorological data http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/00/12.14.00/white_X-mas.html

Roadside America: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/NYNORsanta.html