Colorful Characters

          What makes the Adirondacks so different from the Wild West? This topic came up in class discussion this morning and it made me think. Other than the apparent differences in landscape and climate, what makes the Wild West the land of outlaws and righteous cowboys whereas the Adirondacks simply don’t supply the same types of tales? The answer is, THEY DO!

            Take for instance Father Isaac Jogues, a French missionary who was captured and tortured by the Mohawks in a variety of ways, including pulling off his fingernails and cutting off his thumb with a clam shell. He managed to escape, whereupon he returned to France and then came back to the Adirondacks, claiming it was his God-given duty to convert the Natives. He was abruptly killed with a hatchet upon meeting the Mohawks a second time.

            Or how about Sir William Johnson, who is famous for learning the Mohawk language and Iroquois customs and becoming a crucial bridge between the English and Native Americans during the French and Indian War. However, he also seemed to be the historical version of a modern day frat boy. He lived in lavish style for being in the middle of the wilderness, with a full staff complete with bodyguards, a violinist, a Mohawk boy in uniform who handed out tobacco, and two white-skinned dwarfs, both named Bartholomew, who waited tables. He allegedly loved large dinner parties and hosted one almost every night, often lasting far into the wee hours of the morning. He loved dirty jokes and apparently had quite the eye for the ladies. The English press reported that he fathered about seven hundred children.

            Later on came the trappers such as Nick Stoner, known for starting drunken bar fights with Natives whom he believed had stolen his furs. Even worse was Nat Foster, a trigger happy son-of-a-gun who practically made sport of shooting Natives and entire packs of wolves at once. They seemed to be more wild than human themselves.

            There were also the first settlers, who were jacks-of-all-trades. Some made ‘toughing it’ work for them, others didn’t. Some tried building empires, including William Gilliland who had a pipe dream to reject the American lifestyle and build a future based on the feudal system. It actually worked for a while, before the Revolution landed him in debtor’s prison and his realm disbanded. He returned to his lands and lived off of surveying missions until he was found frozen solid in the middle of February, the bones of his hands and knees completely exposed from frostbite caused by him crawling through the icy forest.

            Yet stories like these are forgotten, since the Adirondacks were more subject to Thoreau’s sense of romanticism. In the period of time in which this area was settled, nature was most valued and admired for its beauty, vastness, wildness, and restorative qualities. In comparison, the west was settled during the era of Manifest Destiny, when the might of man, the ability to conquer nature, was most important. Vigilante-style living was what became most romanticized during this time, and so the rough-and-tumble John Wayne-esque personas became their sort of trademark. In the Adirondacks, it seems the trees are more famous than the people who have lived there over the centuries, and maybe that’s a good thing after all.

                                   “What are men to rocks and mountains?” –Jane Austen

           

Cited:

Schneider, Paul. The Adirondacks: A History of America’s First Wilderness. New York: H. Holt, 1998. Print.