I have an Enterprise treasure right here on my cluttered desk dated, dated May 18, 1955, a special “summer supplement,” eight pages, and on the front page is a huge hand-drawn map. The location starts at Montreal and leading, in a heavy, black line to Saranac Lake, via Plattsburgh, 116 miles. I seem to remember that copies of that edition were distributed in Montreal … I went to work at The Enterprise in 1951.

It was all advertising and stories about the beauty of the area and the places to visit — and guess what? Here is a photo and story of Santa’s Workshop which you should be looking at right now. My incredible research team came up with this: “The opening day crowd was 212, the single day record of over 14,000 was recorded on September 2, 1951.”

“Lake Placid businessman, Julian Reiss, along with collaborators Harold Fortune and artist Arto Monaco, founded Santa’s Workshop in Wilmington, N.Y. (North Pole, NY) in 1949, creating America’s first theme park inspired by his idea of a summer home for Santa, featuring a permanent ‘North Pole’ and free-roaming animals, attracting huge crowds and influencing later parks like Disneyland.” (I knew three of the Reiss children, Peter, Paul and Mary. Paul and Mary attended St. Bernard’s School with me and Paul was later President of St. Michael’s College in Vermont.)

From The Enterprise supplement:

“One of the great attractions in the Adirondacks is Santa’s Workshop at the North Pole, en route to the top of Whiteface Mountain near the Village of Wilmington.

“Hundreds of thousands of tourists have visited this enchanting little village on the Whiteface Highway, two miles from the base.

“The novel village houses Santa’s Workshop, his cottage, toy shops, the Shrine of St. Nick, Mother Hubbard’s shop and many other brightly colored buildings. Other buildings include Santa’s nursery building for animals where you will see baby reindeer, other types of deer, goats, sheep and many others.

“The village is also educational with the many craft-working shops. Reindeer, goats, llamas, ducks, rabbits, donkeys, peacocks and many varieties of woodland animals roam through the village to bid for the attention of visitors.

“Old St. Nick himself, with dozens of other Fairyland characters, is on hand to extend a jolly welcome. A real ice coated North Pole in the heart of the village received the skeptical touch of most visitors.

“It is the only attraction of its kind in the world and affords a real treat for kids from 1 to 100. In fact, as many as 10,000 have visited this popular place in one day.”

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North Pole and the postal service

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(Briefs from The Enterprise archives)

“On Dec. 16, 1953, The U.S. Postal Service, recognized the great interest in North Pole, N.Y. and awarded it ‘Rural Postal Station’ status. The same year Santa and his reindeer team traveled to the nation’s capital to participate in the Pageant for Peace. Earlier the same year they were seen in New York City’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

“Many other organizations recognized Santa’s Workshop dedication to the true Christmas Spirit and Santa and his team participated in the Holiday Festival at Palisades Park’s Bear Mountain and Project 80 in Montreal, Quebec.

“Within weeks of the opening, more than 700 daily newspapers in the U.S. and Canada carried photos and feature articles. Pathe Newsreel showed Santa’s Workshop to 30 million theater viewers.”

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Operation Toylift

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“In the true spirit of Christmas, the developers chose to share their good fortune. Santa’s Operation Toylift began delivering toys and gifts to underprivileged children in Northern New York and Vermont with pilot Julian Reiss and his personal aircraft. Within six years, with the help of a C-46 ‘the Silver Sleigh’ provided by Esso Standard Oil of New Jersey, Operation Toylift expanded to over 13 states, The District of Columbia and two Provinces of Canada, making 34 stops at major airports delivering more than ten tons of presents to orphaned children.”

Santa’s Workshop is open now — take your kids there for Christmas.