South of the state park, at the very tip of Wellesley Island, lies Thousand Islands Park (800/847-5263), a quiet community filled with hundreds of wooden Victorian homes painted in luscious ice-cream pastels. Ornate carvings, shingled roofs, porches, turrets, and gables abound.

On the National Register of Historic Places, the park is largely privately owned but visitors are welcome. The community has its own movie theater, post office, library, and playground.

On the way to and from Thousand Islands Park, you’ll pass by the smaller, scruffier community of Fineview, once home to a man who went by the name Barry Freed. During the late 1970s, Freed began a still-active—and quite effective—environmental organization called Save the River.

Then, in 1980, locals were astounded to discover that Barry Freed was actually activist Abbie Hoffman, on the lam from the FBI since 1974. Hoffman arranged a deal with the authorities and moved back into the national arena, only to commit suicide in 1989.