Wilderness and Aesthetics

When one thinks of wilderness areas in North America, it is usually Yosemite or Yellowstone that come to mind. One envisions towering mountains and beautiful, pristine lakes. The Stegner article reinforces this notion, with its photos of western peaks and endless vistas. While someone at Avalanche Lake gazing up at Mount Colden or atop Haystack Mountain certainly will find the landscape quite dramatic, the majority of the park lacks the dramatic qualities typically associated with wilderness. If one visits the Ha-De-Ron-Dah Wilderness, the Silver Lake Wilderness or perhaps the Siamese Ponds Wilderness, they will certainly find beauty in the verdant forests, rolling hills, and scattered lakes. However, these areas lack the drama of the High Peaks, and certainly that of the national parks out west.

So how did this vast tract come to be preserved? The Adirondack Park was formed foremost as a timber reserve, as desired by Verplanck Colvin. It was only later that the Adirondacks began to be prized for their recreational opportunities. In contrast, most of the famous national parks were preserved solely for their aesthetic beauty and recreational opportunities. It is very interesting to me how as the idea of wilderness being essential to Americans began to prevail, the role of the Adirondack park shifted from being strictly a timber and water reserve but also a playground. In increasingly environmentally depressing times, it will be interesting to see how the human view of wilderness evolved. Earlier, preserving wilderness simply required setting aside land, and pretty much banning logging and settlement there. In the future, with global warming looming as a serious threat, preserving our wild lands may require major lifestyle changes to be made by all of us.