The Sweet Hereafter Setting

Something that struck me from class today was when we were supposed to think if there was something in the Sweet Hereafter that could only have happened in the Adirondacks or if you really got a feel for the unique culture of the park. I've been thinking about it all evening and I still don't think that there is something in the novel that made the setting of the Adirondacks necessary to the story. Although Banks describes the people, the roads, the diners, the mountains, the view, the weather, the economic problems, and the social connections of the community of Sam Dent, the whole novel seems to me that it could be set in any other rural, poor mountain community. I think that the novel could have been set in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, or the Cascades, or northern Idaho , or western Montana. All those places struggle economically, have national forests or state parks and protected waterways, have incredible mountains and views and diners and poor roads, and are made up of small and interconnected communities. I don't know what Banks could have done differently to make the Adirondacks and Sam Dent more unique and important to the story but something that would have done this was missing. Had I not lived here for two months, I would have set the story in Incline Village were the dichotomy between summer people and residents is there, the mountains and water and views are there, and the crash could have happened along the stretch of Highway 50 that runs along the lake and has only a guardrail between the road and a steep cliff.
This question about the importance of the setting being the Adirondacks has made me think more about the settings in novels that I've felt have been more successful. And maybe more detail outside of the accident would have helped, maybe more discussion about a tension other than the immediate social and economic tensions of the town, or maybe someplace unique to the locals would have made it seem more important for the novel to have been set in the park but I don't think any one would have made it more convincing.