Our Story
“Bark Eater” is an English translation of the Mohican word “Adirondack,” a term the Mohawk once used for Algonquian-speaking tribes who were said to eat the inside of the bark of the white pine when food was scarce. The Adirondack mountains were given their name in 1838.
The beginning of The Bark Eater property dates back to Algonquin and possibly Mohican use of the land. Multiple burn pits discovered in the meadows behind the Inn are believed to have been ceremonial because of their shape and dimensions. European American settlers arrived in the 1770s or 1780s. Their early presence is indicated by graves in a nearby cemetery that had stones dating back to 1793. The Town of Keene was founded in 1808.
The farm was originally a stagecoach stop between the Lake Champlain Region to the east and the Lake Placid Region to the west. The stage left the Inn at 6:00 a.m. heading west fourteen miles to Lake Placid. With a little luck, it arrived at 6:00 p.m.—twelve hours later. Much of the road was paved with log, called “corduroy road.” The stage was king of the road by 1893—the same year the first railroads opened in the fringes of the Adirondacks. The road was drivable by car until the late 1940s, when it was replaced by an alternate route through the Cascade Lakes. For a while it was called the Old Mountain Road; now it is now known as the Jack Rabbit Trail and is popular for cross-country skiing, hiking, and mountain biking.
Gordon and Anna Wilson, who were from Lake Placid, bought the farm in the 1930s with a gold coin collection. In the 1940s they operated the property as a dairy farm and inn catering to artists from the New York City area during the summer.
Joe-Pete Wilson began operating The Bark Eater as an inn in the 1970s. Over the years he and his family made many additions and improvements to the Inn property.
In 2008, Joe Pete Wilson Jr. and his wife, Sarah Wilson, took over operation of the Inn.
Aunt Margaret and her husband, Robert Stuwe; Anna Wilson and her husband, Gordon H. Wilson (Joe-Pete’s Parents), circa 1925.
Anna and her mother, Carolyn, on the near side, circa 1932. Gordon and Anna, who were from Lake Placid, bought the farm in the 1930s with a gold coin collection. Their friends thought they had gone mad buying a farm fourteen miles from Lake Placid when there were several hundred farms in the immediate Lake Placid area.
Marge, Joe-Pete, and older brother Gordon (1938). Now that’s a tricycle! Note the old-fashioned hand gas-pump in the background.
The inn, circa 1940. Guests can be seen at the right rear of the photo.
The inn, circa 1940. It was operated as both an inn and dairy farm. At this time there was no electric power, at least nineteen people shared the party line telephone, and even if you were going to die you had to pick the right day because the car went to Lake Placid, the major shopping area, only once a week. Dad’s huge vegetable garden was behind the Inn. My mother’s flower garden was in the front, along with about two acres of lawn—which was mowed regularly with a 14-inch-wide push mower. Guests were subtly encouraged to help. There was very little vegetation on the hillsides because of grazing by the farm animals.
Aunt Margaret, sister Marge, and our faithful farm dog “Chummer,” a beautiful collie, on the east side of the Inn, circa 1940. The Inn has been in continuous operation by the Wilson Family since that time.
Making Syrup, 1940s.
Making Syrup, 1940s. Gordon H. Wilson, along with his wife, Anna, purchased the farm in the late 1930s using the gold coin collection he had started collecting as a child.
Sam the Ram. He was released from employment due to his dislike of some guests!
Skijoring—a sport popular in the '20s.
Part of the original dairy barn complex, this horse barn remains virtually unchanged. It was built on a stone foundation, as most were in those days. Today, a hundred years later, its north end is only two inches lower than its south end.
Aerial view of The Bark Eater property. All of the land in the picture, except a small portion in the upper left and upper right, are part of the property, and the land also extends east (left) to the AuSable River. The meadows and ridges in this mountain valley offer spectacular views and exhilarating hiking, skiing, horseback riding, and mountain biking.Joe-Pete Wilson
The Bark Eater’s owner, Joe-Pete Wilson Sr., is an Adirondack native. His father, Gordon H. Wilson, was born in Lake Placid in 1903, the year of one of the worst forest fires in the Adirondacks. His mother, Anna Bathgate, came with her family from Norway to the U.S. at the age of eight. Her father was the captain of the four-masted schooner that brought them.
Joe-Pete was born and raised in Lake Placid and spent summers on the family farm in Keene.
He graduated from St. Lawrence University in 1958.
He was on the U.S. Olympic team at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, where he competed as a cross-country ski racer.
He was the North American Snowshoe Champion in 1964, and in 1965 he was a member of the U.S. Four Man Bobsled Team that won a bronze medal in the World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland. (The team missed the Silver Medal by 1/100th of a second over a two-day period and a total of four runs.)
Joe-Pete co-wrote (with William J. Lederer) one of the earliest books on cross country skiing. It became the bible of the sport and described ski techniques that are still relevant today. It was considered by many to have launched the boom in cross-country skiing that occurred in the 1970s.
In the 1970s, he was Director of Cross Country Operations at The Trapp Family Lodge, where he was responsible for building the famous log cabin, establishing the sales, rentals and instruction, and the layout of the first major trail expansion.
He was also a prime mover in establishing the first program to certify instructors in cross country skiing in the U.S. It is now known as P.S.I.A. (Professional Ski Instructors of America).
Joe-Pete was inducted in the Lake Placid Hall of Hame.
Joe-Pete began running The Bark Eater as an inn in 1971. His five children, Joe Pete Jr., Derek, Brandy, Georgie, and Katie, all spent much of their childhood at the inn.
The Wilson “Ridge Runner” Gang: Georgie, Joe Pete Jr., Brandy, and Derek.
The fifth “Ridge Runner,” Katie, aboard Puffy the pony.
Joe Pete Wilson Jr.
Joe Pete Wilson Jr., his wife, Sarah Wilson, and their children, Joseph and Grace, took over operation of The Bark Eater in 2008.