Lake Placid was founded in the early 1800s to develop a mining operation based on iron ore.

While the village is a year-round resort, it is likely most known as the site of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics, and particularly the 1980 USA-USSR hockey game, when a group of American college students upset the heavily-favored Soviet national ice hockey team 4-3 and won the gold medal. The victory is ranked as one of the greatest in American sports history.