Producing for paddlers and people
Adirondack canoe aficionados, who collect boats as ants collect crumbs, at some point in their paddling adventures may have been exposed to beautiful, handcrafted components made at an Adirondack plant they have probably never heard of.
Lacking an iconic name like Hornbeck, Wenonah or Old Town, Essex Industries operates anonymously amid the rusting ironworks of Mineville not far from the shores of Lake Champlain.
Within the walls of a former Catholic school building, Essex has for decades churned out the good, old-fashioned wooden stuff—seats, yokes, gunwales—that accent the space-age materials that go into modern canoe hulls.
Its parent company, Mountain Lake Services, is the largest employer in Essex County, and Essex Industries is among the county’s largest manufacturers, with annual sales of canoe parts exceeding $1 million. (Essex Industries also produces furniture, picnic tables, camp stools and other wooden products.)
