Adirondacks, The Frontier, and the Pastoral Ideal

In Russell Banks' novel Cloudsplitter, on page 198, Owen Brown recounts the arrival of Richard Henry Dana: a writer and abolitionist from Boston who had gotten lost in the wilderness below what is now called Mt. Marcy. The real Richard Henry Dana wrote a book that described being taken in by John Brown and his family, and the novel from Owen Brown's perspective describes Dana as idealizing the Brown family for settling down in the wilderness. He looked up to them as the "ideal American Christian yeomen"--echoing what we now think of as manifest destiny, and the scramble to find uncharted lands in the West. It is easy to forget that the Adirondacks also had completely uncharted land in the 19th century, and that people settling there faced just as many hardships as those trying to move westward.

In a course I took last year, "Interpreting the American Environment", we talked a lot about what we called the "pastoral ideal". In short, the pastoral ideal was that the United States could ultimately be a nation of farmers, and people who settled down on a plot of land and built a life for themselves, rather than grouping together into crowded cities. The reverence that Dana had for the Brown family, and his connection between living off of the land and being an "ideal American" was an interesting connection to the mindset of the rest of the country at this point in history, and the image of America as a country of people coexisting with "wilderness".

I read a review of Cloudsplitter in the NY Times called 'Cloudsplitter': What Abolitionism Cost John Brown's Family. It essentially dismisses the novel as being of no historical value, arguing "In fact, as a history, it is a very bad book indeed: characters and incidents have been altered, rearranged and reinvented, and speculative analysis, ungrounded in the historical record, has been slathered over Brown's entire life." These comments seem overly critical to me, considering that Banks never makes any claims of historical accuracy. On the contrary, his book was marketed as a novel, and he had motivations other than accurately portraying John Brown's life. It is difficult to make a strong argument about the book, since I only read the assigned passages, but, from what I gathered, Cloudsplitter focuses more on psychological issues and the relationship between people and their environment. It is interesting that John Brown's life is largely fictionalized, while the setting, down to the farms proximity to different mountains, is quite accurate. To be fair, Kakutani, the author of the NY Times article, does not totally disagree. He writes, "But while Owen's account is long-winded and self-indulgent, it does accomplish Banks' end: it immerses us persuasively in his father's world, and it makes us understand, in a very visceral way, the familial repercussions of living with a visionary and martyr." He does not, however, mention the environment in the entire review.


http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/15/daily/cloudsplitter-book-review.html

Self-Preservation of the Park

In class today we discussed Amy Godine's essays in the Adirondack Park magazine, but we didn't have time to get around to what I thought was one of her major points. The last line in her "Peopling of the Park" essay makes a poignant statement that I took away as the main point of the piece, "In the end, the park's most renewable and enduring resource turns out to be the park itself." (59) While all the other resources in the park - soil, timber, bark, garnet, iron - wasted away and left the workers wanting, the park itself still stood tall. Even after farmers, loggers, tanners, hunters, and miners declared the land worthless and depleted of resources, the land continued to be incredible. Mere decades after being hunted out, clear-cut, and strip-mined, the land has reverted to wilderness as though it never bore those scars. This is a fact that can not be forgotten in the continuing battle surrounding the forest's resources - our efforts to be sustainable in resource acquisition, combined with the forest's own ability to renew its landscape, result in a beautiful expanse of land that can be carefully and happily utilized without lasting damage to the land or the creatures in it. Yes, logging tends to be an ugly practice, but it is a necessary one. I would rather see pricier lumber come out of sustainable practices in our beloved forest than from clear-cut, lumber-ravaged South America.

Beginning of the American Dream

Amy Godine does an excellent job through her essays portraying the immigrant community in a different light than what is commonly thought of. I spent, like many people I would assume, growing up with the idea of America being a "melting pot", where all ethnicities and groups come together. Godine's discussion of immigrants in the Adirondacks gives us a different perspective on the relationship between virtually the old and new immigrants. While reading I was angered by the discrimination against the newer immigrants, but the more Godine discussed the more I could see that maybe these more isolated communities with decent jobs and land availability were what they had been looking for. 

Manifest Destiny was concept that originally came about in the 1940's, it has been used historically to explain the American need to colonize and expand westward across the continent. As a concept that is extremely common in most basic level American history classes, this came to mind as we have been reading about settling the Adirondacks. The people who headed North to these areas were fighting against a lot of odds similar to the settlers going out west, but in both cases some prevailed. The Adirondacks doesn't have the same grand tale that the west does, no gold rush or cowboys, but it is still important to think about the immigrant experience in the Adirondacks. The way in which Godine describes this experience gives us a great view into their relationship with the land and their purpose for traveling all the way to the far reaches of upstate New York. These hopes led into what became the American Dream, the ever hopeful idea that the New World will provide what the Old World could not. 

Logging, Its costs and benefits, and Tupper Lake

Logging: A word that strikes the environmentalist’s heart with anger and derision. In many cases, they are correct in their sentiments. In the Terrie book, a man traveling through the Adirondacks compares the torn down and desolate landscape to hell. When I hike through the Adirondacks, I often cross ugly and overgrown old logging roads, with remnants of corduroy laid across them. However, I really appreciated learning more about the history of logging from the readings this week, especially the Schneider book.

On page 215, Schneider describes the Adirondack wilderness as becoming a “great, hydraulic wood-delivery machine.” Although often destructive to the environment, I found the whole system of log delivery to be fascinating. It is a great example of mankind’s ability to manipulate the wilderness for economic gains and greater efficiency. Schneider also gives us a bit of perspective on logging’s impact on the Adirondack forests on page 217. According to Barbara McMartin, the impact of logging on the Adirondack forest before 1890 was “minor.” Despite the photos of logjams and descriptions of ravaged landscapes, logging was (finally) a profitable use of the land, and created many jobs. The question is, was it worth it? As a wilderness purist, I still say no, although not quite as vehemently as I would have said before the readings this week.

We are seeing a similar fight nowadays with the Tupper Lake resort case. Creating the resort would create many jobs and provide an economic boost to a depressed area. Yet would it be a suitable use for “forever wild” land? Would it set a dangerous precedent for the rest of the park?

The Cost of Beauty

During our last class we were discussing the impact of tourism on the Adirondack Park and used the castle, built from the granite excavated during road construction, on top of Whiteface as a prime example. I looked into it further and found this website: http://www.whiteface.com/activities/memorial-highway . I was surprised and bit saddened to see that there is also a restaurant as well as a gift shop on top of the peak. I do recognize that at this point in time tourism is one of the most consistent aspects of the Adirondack's economy but these installations seemed a bit absurd. I have personally never climbed Whiteface so I decided to search online to see the view as compared to a relatively unpopular member of the 46 peaks, Marshall. As you can see in the photos below the heavily wooden summit of Marshall pales in comparison to the breath taking expanse visible from Whiteface. There are other differences between the two peaks, one being a large distance between Marshall and any maintained roads. But in my opinion it is undeniable that the view from Whiteface has cost it some of its natural beauty. It is clearly a view that people value and would be willing to pay to see. Interestingly enough, I will be leading a 46 peaks trip to Marshall this upcoming weekend but was originally supposed to lead a trip to Whiteface. The switch didn't bother me despite the view because I was looking for an adventure in the Adirondacks with some friends for a night or so. I feel that regardless of where you are in the park you can find beauty in the environment but unfortunately for Whiteface the apparent beauty of its vista has turned the mountain into a commodity of sorts. When I hopefully reach the summit of Marshall this weekend I will not be disappointed by the lack of a "view" because the value of reaching the end of a journey often comes from the travels that take you there and back again. I feel that those tourists, who have driven to the top of Whiteface, may not fully appreciate or recognize that fact due to the convenience of such a "beautiful" view. That being said the perception of beauty in nature and attempting to place a value on that beauty are definitely topics I would love to discuss going forward. 

                     

The Castle on top of Whiteface Mountain

Marker at the top of Mount Marshall

View from Whiteface Mountain

I was totally and completely wrong

This blog post will hopefully serve as both an apology and a correction.

Last Monday, I presented on the "pre-European" history of settlement in the Adirondacks. That is to say that I (attempted to) give insight on the history and culture of the League of Five Nations.

I am afraid that I did a very shallow job of giving cultural insight, and that I may have shared some of my own ignorance about the topic with others.

First of all, the peoples of the five nations do not refer to themselves as the "Iroquois." This is a European version of a perforative that was used to describe them by the Algonquians. Instead, the five nations refer to themselves as the Haudenosaunee, or "People of the Longhouse."

The longhouse was important to these people, not only because it acted as their main dwelling but also because it was a symbol for their cultural structure. The five nations were independent from one another, and yet they shared the same home. They divided up the space, inhabiting specific locations within the same region, while preserving their unique cultures--just in the way that Haudenosaunee families would share a great longhouse, while preserving their individual identities. The five nations shared the Great Longhouse, but each had a place--"a hearth"--which they tended. The Mohawks guarded the front entrance; the Senecas guarded the back. The Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oneida nations fell in the middle.

Image 1. Haudenosaunee Longhouse, with a cutout to display one of the hearths within.
 
Image 2. Geography of the League of Five Nations. Note its resemblance to a longhouse--the way it stretches over a long swath of land, with neatly delineated land settlements.

Another potential inaccuracy: I mentioned that The League of Five Nations emerged in the 15th century, but in fact, the league's origins dates back hundreds or even thousands of years prior. The exact date of its establishment is still debated, but there is a long and winding history of these people that is, in many ways, far more important than any "exact" date. One myth tells the story of a confederacy forming more than 1,000 years ago. The league has been constantly evolving ever since.

Image sources:

Image 1. "Haudenosaunee: "People of the Longhouse"" - Grand River Branch - United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada. Grand River Branch - United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.

Image 2: White, Craig. "The Iroquois Confederacy." Craig White's Literature Courses. University of Houston, Clear Lake, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.