Roger Errington, Jr., age 9,

Are the Adirondacks the oldest mountains of North America?

The green and beautiful Adirondacks are just a single range in the massive Appalachian mountain system. The Adirondacks and other ranges in New England and Canada are more than 300 million years old. They are 100 million years older than the southern ranges of the Appalacians and 200 million years older than the Rockies.

But in Canada, Minnesota and Wisconsin there are hilly humps which are the worn down roots of mountains that poked up their heads 500 million years ago. The gentle Laurentians of eastern Canada are the roots of mountains that grew more than 1,000 million years ago. The Adirondacks are among our oldest mountains still standing proud and tall ‑ but the ancient Laurentians are the remains of the oldest mountains in the world.