Diana's map comes with Bonaparte, Harrisville, and deep woods

Diana is one of those North Country towns where the map feels wider than the population count.

The town sits on the northeastern border of Lewis County, covers 140.8 square miles, and includes Harrisville and Lake Bonaparte. Part of the eastern town reaches into the Adirondack Park, while part of the western side touches the Fort Drum military reservation.

The name gives the place its story hook. Lewis County history ties Diana’s 1830 formation from Watson to Joseph Bonaparte, the former king of Spain who lived in exile in northern New York. Bonaparte wanted the area named for Diana, the Roman goddess of the huntsman.

That is a wonderfully odd local thread: a European royal exile, a hunting-goddess name, lake country, woods, sawmills, iron-furnace memory, Harrisville roads, and a Fort Drum edge all sitting inside one town.

For a visitor, Diana may first read as Route 3, forest, and water. For a resident, the old name story gives the woods a different flavor. It is not just remote Lewis County. It is a place where Adirondack geography and a Bonaparte footnote share the same local map.