Early highways North West Bay Road The area that is now known as the
hamlet of
Keene—the modern junction of
NY 9N and NY 73—was first settled at the beginning of the 19th century. Many of the early settlers arrived in the region by traveling along a rough and nearly unusable highway connecting what became Keene to
Jay in the north and
Lewis in the east. By 1810, part of the crude roadway had been supplanted by a privately funded highway leading westward from
Westport to at least
North Elba and possibly to
Saranac Lake by way of Keene. On April 5, 1810, the
New York State Legislature passed an act establishing a new state highway linking Westport to
Hopkinton by way of Keene and Saranac Lake. The highway incorporated the entirety of the pre-existing roadway between Westport and Saranac Lake. Initially, the state highway was poorly constructed and largely impassable, mirroring the condition of the roadways that preceded it. An act passed by the state legislature on June 19, 1812, indicated that the funds that had been allocated to the highway were "entirely inadequate to open and improve" the road. On April 17, 1816, the state attempted to correct the issue by approving a measure that appointed two sets of commissioners to oversee the reconstruction of the highway. Each set was to work on opposite ends of the route and eventually converge at a point midway along the route. Work on the highway was completed by 1818. The road was officially named the "North West Bay Road"; however, it eventually became known as the "Old Military Road".
Other highways The highway through
Keene Valley from
Underwood to Keene was built by 1846. At its southern end, it connected to a major stagecoach road that connected
Albany to the
Canadian border. The route fostered the rise of local lumber and tanning industries; up to 40 wagon loads of timber used the stagecoach route daily. Various hotels and taverns opened in the nearby town of
North Hudson to serve travelers along the route.
State ownership and designations In 1909, the state of New York began to take control of many private highways across the state under the terms of the new highway law developed in 1908. One of these highways was the old north–south stagecoach road from Albany to Canada. Most of the highway north of modern
NY 8 in
Chester became the northern half of Route 22, an unsigned
legislative route, under the text of the highway law. In 1913, the New York State Legislature created Route 22-b, a
spur route connecting Route 22 in
Schroon to the then-
village of Ticonderoga. On March 1, 1921, Route 22-b became part of Route 48, a new route created as part of a partial renumbering of New York's legislative route system. The path of the former Albany–Canada stagecoach route was largely designated as
US 9 in 1927. NY 73 was assigned as part of the
1930 renumbering of state highways in New York; however, it did not initially follow any of its modern routing. It began at an intersection with
NY 28N in
Tahawus and followed the
Blue Ridge Road east to US 9 in North Hudson. From there, it
overlapped US 9 south to Schroon, where it proceeded eastward on the former legislative Route 48 to Ticonderoga, where it ended at a junction with
NY 22. At the time, modern NY 73 from Lake Placid to Keene—identical to the old North West Bay Road east of the Lake Placid area—was assigned NY 86A. The remainder of what is now NY 73 from Keene south to Underwood was designated as NY 427 within a year's time. The portion of NY 73 between Tahawus and
North Hudson was removed from the state highway system . As a result, NY 73 was truncated to a new western terminus at US 9 in Schroon, eliminating the concurrency with US 9. To the north, NY 427 was supplanted by an extended NY 86A . In November 1952, NY 73 was extended eastward through Ticonderoga to the ferry dock on
Lake Champlain, where it connected to the Fort Ticonderoga–Larrabees Point Ferry. The change supplanted
NY 347, a short spur route off NY 22 that had been in place since . A month earlier, NY 73 was extended northward to Lake Placid via Underwood and Keene, replacing NY 86A and overlapping US 9 from Severance to Underwood. NY 73 was truncated to its current eastern terminus in Underwood on July 1, 1971, eliminating the overlap with US 9. Its former routing from Schroon to Lake Champlain was renumbered to
NY 74. On September 14, 1994, the state of New York signed a proposal to turn NY 73 into a scenic byway into law. The byway, known as the "High Peaks Scenic Byway", begins at the western terminus of NY 73 in Lake Placid and follows NY 73 and US 9 to
Interstate 87 exit 30. In December 1994, the group
Scenic America designated the highway as one of the ten most scenic areas in the nation. ==Future==