The Adirondack Park is unique in that it is home
to people from both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum and
has been throughout history. Attracting
people like William Johnson and members of the Rockefeller family along with
immigrants and farmers, searching for fulfillment of the American Dream, the
Adirondacks have been inhabited and visited by the most wealthy and most
desperate individuals in our countries past.
The coexistence of these varying economic classes has characterized the
history of the region and continues to influence the nature of the Adirondack Park
today.
Some
of the world’s most prominent, wealthy individuals have made their mark on the
Adirondacks. Building two seasonal homes near Caroga Lake, Sir William Johnson of
England was one of the first to do so, arguably inciting the phenomenon of wilderness vacations. John Brown of Providence Rhode Island also
purchased large land tracts intended for agriculture and mining in the
Adirondacks and later, William Rockefeller, brother of the Standard Oil Titan, purchased
a 21,000-acre estate around Bay Pond. Even more impressive, multiple United
State’s Presidents have visited the park; the list includes Benjamin Harrison,
Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover and of course, Teddy Roosevelt, who was
famously informed of his position as President while “lunching near the summit
of Mount Marcy” (Schneider). In this light,
the Adirondacks are a representation of wealth and privilege, a centerpiece to
the lives of Americas most prosperous and admired.
Hidden
among such immense wealth however, exists the stories of the individuals and families struggling to make a living in the Adirondacks.
These include the poor farmers who failed to make John Brown’s tracts
agriculturally productive and endured the 1816 “year without summer,” and Civil
War Veteran Oliver Lamora, who was stripped of his hunting grounds by William
Rockefeller’s land acquisition. Other poor families, like those of Livonia
Stanton, Henry Conklin, and Martin Byrne toiled on Adirondack land, enduring,
not only economic hardships, but “fire, illness, and…psychological trauma
resulting from isolation and the day-to-day drudgery” (Terrie, 30). Alongside, some of America’s wealthiest
individuals, America’s most desperate inhabited the Adirondack region.
The
prevalence of both the rich and poor within the Adirondacks has continued to
characterize the area today. Places like
Lake Placid and Lake George, lush with nice restaurants and seasonal tourist
attractions, benefit economically from vacationers in the winter and summer. I have personally witnessed and contributed the success of
such places on my skiing trips to Gore Mountain and White Face. Yet, I have also seen, driving through the
park from Canton, NY, the small shanties that populate the park, the homes,
clustered in the woods alongside roads riddled with potholes that are not
beneficiaries of Lake Placid’s quaint winter wonderland. Here, similar to the Stanton, Conklin and
Byrne families, people endure long winters and little economic success.
Considering the economic diversity in the Adirondacks today and in the past, it is an unfortunate reality that some residents of the park do not profit from eco-tourists and seasonal vacationers. For similar reasons, many people
scoff at the idea of vacationing beachside in a nice hotel amidst a city of
tall buildings that hide the nearby poor communities that do not benefit from vacationers either. Thinking now of the Adirondack Park and its
history, I question whether vacationing in the park is much different.
Sources:
Paul Schneider:
The Adirondacks: A History of America’s First Wilderness
Philip G.
Terrie: Contested Terrain
Private Property:Oliver’s War, Brandon Park and
Paddling Rights by Lawrence P. Gooley:
http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2012/11/private-property-olivers-war-brandon-park-and-paddling-rights.html
Amy Godine:
Peopling the Park
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