The devastating forest fires of 1899, in the Adirondack Forest Preserve, which burned provoked Colonel William F. Fox, Superintendent of New York's state-owned forests, to urge replacing fire wardens with a cadre of professional forest rangers. However, it took more than a decade, the terrible forest fires of 1903 and 1908, and the help of Louis Marshall before the present New York State Forest Ranger system was finally established in 1912.Angus, p.120 Marshall was also a driving force behind the establishment of the New York State Ranger School in Wanakena, New York, which was founded in 1912,Marshall, Louis. Letter to the Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner of NY and copy to Governor Hughes, September 25, 1908. Subject: Adirondack Fire Emergency ... Replacing lax, ad hoc Fire Wardens. In Reznikoff, pp. 1014–1018. and a similar school was established at Paul Smith's College.
