For the award-winning magazine’s 50th year, Adirondack Life compiled decades of its popular back-page Our Towns vignettes into a volume packed with quirky characters and colorful tales—including the strange case of a judge who lost his chance to serve in the Lincoln administration by admitting to beyond-the-grave chats with Sir Francis Bacon; where you can find Moan and Groan Acres—that is, if jokesters haven’t stolen the sign again; the lakeside community that borrowed its name from a 19th-century mystery novel; and where an intrepid hydrogen-balloon pilot landed after a sleepless 350-mile journey. Explore those stories and more as Adirondack Life’s editor-at-large Elizabeth Folwell and senior editor Niki Kourofsky delve into the park’s fascinating human landscape.