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LYON MOUNTAIN - New York state has bought a mountain that once served as Verplanck Colvin's headquarters for survey work and is now a popular hiking and skiing destination.

Last week, the state used $9.8 million from its Environmental Protection Fund to purchase about 20,000 acres of Nature Conservancy land in Clinton County, including Lyon Mountain where Colvin had his headquarters in 1879.

The purchase comes nearly four years after the Canadian lumber company Domtar Industries announced that it sold those 20,000 acres to The Nature Conservancy and another 84,000 acres to the New Hampshire-based Lyme Timber.

When the two deals were announced in January 2005, the state agreed to buy the 20,000 acres for its Adirondack Forest Preserve while slating the 84,000 acres of timberland for conservation easements that would prohibit development while allowing recreation rights.

The deal for the 20,000 acres was closed last week. The newly acquired state land includes a 1,700-acre tract on Ellenburg Mountain, 2,900 acres along one mile on eastern Chazy Lake, a 920-acre tract containing Whistle Pond and a 14,400-acre tract on Lyon Mountain.

The purchased land falls in four towns: Dannemora, Ellenburg, Saranac and Black Brook. The majority of Lyon Mountain is in the town of Saranac. Calls to Saranac Supervisor Joe Girardi and members of the Saranac Town Board were not immediately returned.

The purchase does not include the entire mountain. The abandoned mine on the east side, and portions of Averill Peak, where a telecommunications tower that serves Y106.3-FM radio and Mountain Lake PBS television, are under separate ownership.

The second part of the deal, for the 84,000 acres of conservation easement that contains large tracts in the towns of Bellmont and Franklin, is still being worked out

"The conservation easement hasn't yet been completed," state Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman Yancey Roy told the Enterprise in an e-mail Monday. "It is on track, perhaps before the end of the year."

Anticipating that Lyon Mountain would become Forest Preserve, this summer the DEC contracted with the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) to create a new trail.

During the 10-week project, the ADK crew cut a longer, more scenic trail with 11 switchbacks. They added a mile to what is now a 3.5-mile trail to Lyon Mountain's summit.

With a peak of 3,830 feet, Lyon Mountain is the largest mountain in the northeast part of the Adirondack Park. Its summit has also been home to a fire tower since 1917.

Because of its size and location, the mountain's summit offers views of Chazy Lake, Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains of Vermont to the east and the Montreal skyscrapers to the north. More recently, views have come to include immense white wind turbines to the northeast and northwest.

Large sections of the peak are bare. In 1879, while collecting data for the "1879 Topographical Survey of the Adirondack Region," Colvin had crews clearcut the top of the mountain and erect a lean-to, cabin and signal tower there. He chose Lyon Mountain because it was the largest mountain in that region.

He used the signal tower to communicate with similar towers on Poke-o-Moonshine, Silver Lake Mountain and Whiteface Mountain in an effort to gather data for his survey work.

Though Colvin's work on Lyon Mountain is mainly forgotten, the area's value to the scientific community is still high. Today, its forests are prime habitat for pine martens, moose and a rare songbird, the Bicknell's thrush.

"Prior to our purchase, that was considered the second-largest unprotected area for Bicknell's thrush habitat in the state," Nature Conservancy spokeswoman Connie Prickett said.

The largest was Boreas Mountain, part of The Nature Conservancy's 161,000-acre purchase from the Finch-Pruyn timber company last year.

Also important to The Nature Conservancy and state was the location of these lands.

"There were no large blocks of protected land in that northeast corner of the Park, and that part, we know, provides important habitat for a wide range of (animals)," Prickett said.

Contact Mike Lynch at 891-2600 ext. 28 or mlynch@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.