LAKE PLACID – Asked how long New York has been issuing its Fall Foliage Report, Eric Scheffel, the Empire State Development employee who administers the weekly report for the I Love NY campaign, guessed “36 or 37 years,” which would make it around the time of the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid.

Yet this program’s roots date to the late 1940s.

The state government got into the business of promoting fall foliage tourism once World War II veterans came home, settled down and created the Baby Boom generation. These growing families needed to travel. It was this time in the late 1940s and early 1950s that roadside attractions were added. Theme parks were developed across the U.S.: places like Santa’s Workshop in Wilmington, the Land of Makebelieve in Upper Jay and Storytown in Lake George.

Empire State Development’s predecessor, the Travel Bureau of the state Department of Commerce, began surveying hotels and resorts in New York’s resort villages after World War II and found that many establishments were beginning to extend their summer tourist season by offering discounts to travelers. In 1948, the department found that 27 percent more resorts were remaining open later than they did in 1947, according to the Sept. 3, 1948, issue of the Lake Placid News.

“October vacationers, although finding cooler temperatures, will be rewarded by the invigorating crispness of fall air, and the glories of autumn foliage,” the News reported.

The 1949 survey found that 60 percent of the state’s summer resorts were extending their summer seasons until the end of September, and 50 percent would remain open until the end of October, according to the Oct. 6, 1949, issue of the Ticonderoga Sentinel). The survey also showed that rates were being reduced by 10 to 25 percent for the fall months.

Due to the increase in fall traffic, the Travel Bureau began promoting foliage season in the late 1940s, first publishing a fall foliage guide and then a weekly fall foliage report by the late 1950s. The guide was called “Autumn Colorama in New York State,” according to the Sept. 16, 1956, issue of the Herald-Mail of Fairport.

Using the NYS Historic Newspapers website, the earliest newspaper reference found regarding a fall foliage report by the Commerce Department was in the Oct. 17, 1957, issue of the Courier-Gazette in Newark, New York:

“The Department maintains a weekly reporting arrangement with representatives of regional associations throughout the state.”