Beer and the Adirondacks

Craft beer is the new face of beer drinking in the United States. There are several popular craft breweries that allude to the Adirondacks, or directly use the Adirondacks as inspiration, and in their advertisements. Firstly, and most obviously (at least in this area), is Saranac Brewery, located in Utica. Saranac Brewery, though not located in the Adirondacks, borrows much from the region. One of their more popular beers is "Adirondack Lager." They also have a collection of beer called "High Peaks," and another called "Lake Placid," which includes a beer called "Big Slide."

(saranac.com)

A slightly less popular craft brewery that is actually located in the Adirondacks is Adirondack Brewery, which is in the Lake George area. They have also named their beer in the theme of the Adirondacks, with an emphasis on wilderness: "Bear Naked Ale," "Iroquois Pale Ale," "Beaver Tail Brown Ale," "Bobcat Blonde Lager," and "Headwater Hefe Beer." Each beer has a story or legend as it's inspiration--and the Adirondacks are part of each one (click on the beer to go to the stories!). The catch-phrase of Adirondack Brewery? "Here's to the Legends that Live Within the Mountains, Adventures Waiting to Happen, and a Cold Adirondack Ale at the End of Every Trail."

(http://adkbrewery.com/beer-beaver-tail-brown-ale.asp)

Somehow, the connection between craft beer and the Adirondacks makes sense and is appealing. For some reason, beer taps into the same feelings of adventure and wilderness that the Adirondacks evoke. This is obviously something that in understood by Saranac Brewery and Adirondack Brewery, and it seems to have become a major marketing point for the breweries.

Also, just FYI to anyone who is 21, the Little Pub has some of these beers!

Adirondack Art then and now

During the classes that we spent discussing old Adirondack artwork I was fascinated with evolution of the types of artwork, the mediums used, the meaning either obvious or vague, and the style of painting, realistic or abstract. One of the most obvious trends that I could see in the evolution of Adirondack art that we looked at was the movement from realism to abstraction. I was curious what classic Adirondack artwork looks like today and how this compares to the growth and changes of art throughout previous Adirondack history.

I picked out three pieces of artwork that show the three of the main branches of modern Adirondack artwork.

A day better than this?--Diana Leifheit (pastel)

This pastel artwork is very similar to the past artwork of the Adirondacks, representing the idea of the Adirondacks, but not displaying the precise details of the nature so the viewer is allowed to fill it in with their own experiences. I love seeing these pieces of artwork according to my own personal experiences with the Adirondacks.

Downtown--Barry Lobdell (photograph)

The popularity of photography has increased and it gives a much more realistic depiction of the world around the artist, sharing exactly what they saw. 

Large Pine Bowl--Mary Lou Reid (pottery)

The art of craftsmanship in the Adirondacks is one of the largest forms of artwork in the Adirondacks, it is a huge part in representing old Adirondack culture and traditions. Many times these pieces of artwork incorporate depictions of classic Adirondack wilderness.

Ironies in Law

The aspect of today's reading that surprised me the most was how contradictory the legal statements of the constitutional article were. The first two sentences claim that all land owned by the state within the forest preserve will be "forever kept as wild forest lands" where there will be no destruction of timber whatsoever nor will the land ever be put up for sale or lease. However, the third sentence already begins the contradictions, stating "Nothing herein contained shall prevent the state from constructing, completing and maintaining any highway" (New York Constitution Article XIV). There is more language working around and negating the "forever wild" law than actually establishing it. For such an important legal movement - nearly unprecedented at its time - the language seems to be more concerned with bypassing the law than anything else. My purpose in writing this blog post to begin questioning this practice. Is this law important enough to uphold? Many seem to think so, and yet continually legislation is passed slowly negating it piece by piece. Is this something that people should stand up against, or is moving past it a necessary part of human progress? Obviously this is a complicated question as there are so many groups with rights and interests in the park, but I believe it's something worth bringing up in a formal context.

Verplanck Colvin at Hamilton College

In class today we concluded our discussion on Colvin’s survey and journal writings on the Adirondacks. I found it extremely interesting that one person’s writing could so heavily influence governmental action and lead to the creation of the Adirondack Forest Preserve and the Adirondack State Park.  I also noted that he has a connection to Hamilton College, which I decided to learn more about.

Verplanck Colvin always had an association to the upstate New York region. He was born in Albany in 1847. He loved the outdoors and topography, translating to his interest in the Adirondack region. He also studied law for a time under his father.  Colvin concluded many explorations and surveys of the region, correcting already created maps as well. He climbed and made the first accurate measurement of Mount Marcy, concluding it was 5,344 feet above sea level. During his career he climbed and measured all the highest peaks in the Adirondacks. He also found lakes never discovered in the Moose and Beaver River regions in 1876.

In 1881, as the guest of President Darling, Colvin began lecturing on higher surveying and geodesy at Hamilton College. Geodesy, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “a branch of applied mathematics concerned with the determination of the size and shape of the earth and the exact positions of points on its surface and with the description of variations of its gravity field.” He obtained the job from his friend and Hamilton Professor C. H. F. Peters, attributed to discovering thirty-six minor planets in our solar system.

        Hamilton College has a deep history in this region and hosted many famous Professors. Colvin is a very interesting one and we are lucky to have had a man who was so deeply devoted to the preservation of the Adirondack region.

 

Verplanck Colvin Survey Marker http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verplanck_Colvin#mediaviewer/File:Verplanck_Colvin_bolt.jpg

Sources and more information:

http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/families/hmgfm/colvin.html

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/geodesy

Rails or Trails

Ben and I are doing our final project on the current debate about whether to convert Adirondack railroad tracks into recreational trails, so we (along with Onno and Janelle) attended a public hearing in Utica on Tuesday, October 28th. Both the New York State Department of Transportation and the Department of Environmental Conservation were represented at the hearing, where they discussed both sides of the debate and presented estimated costs for the projects. Interestingly, they project that trail construction would be more expensive than track rehabilitation on both stretches of the corridor.

After the presentation, the audience was encouraged to move around to four writing boards stationed in the corners of the room. There, people could record there opinions and questions. I wrote down some of the most interesting (and sometimes funny) comments, so I'll relay them here.

• few people using existing trails
• shorter trails from population centers in conjunction with rail
• doubt rail estimate
• widen rte 86 and 73? Cost?
• many, many trails - one railroad - extreme to eliminate the only railroad - this is extinction
• extinction is progress
• no interest in train from Utica to Tupper Lake - Interest in train from Utica to Lake Placid
• when are they going to start paying Adirondack Scenic RR?
• If the track comes up and DOT has eminent domain - can they close the snowmobile trails through the wilderness area?

So, what do you think?

A Different Feel in Lake Placid

This past weekend, I was staying in Lake Placid with my mom, and was struck by the very different feel of the town from the rest of the Adirondacks. After a morning hike, we decided to just walk up and down main street, stopping in the Olympic hockey rink and a couple of tourist shops. Something felt very distinct about the atmosphere of the town compared to the other Adirondack towns I had been to, which I first attributed to being there with someone from home, but I eventually realized that Lake Placid is different from other parts of the park in a lot of ways. The views of the High Peaks over Mirror Lake were familiar, but the overflow of commercial stores and Olympic tourism made Lake Placid feel like it was in a park that was not the Adirondacks.

Olympic decorations were the theme, not only in the hockey center and the outdoor skating rink, but along all of Main Street. The shops, mainly selling food or souvenirs, painted the Adirondacks as a completely wild mountain region that also happened to house the Olympics a couple of times. After learning a little bit about the cultural history of the park in this class, and after having spent time in other Adirondack towns where people live year round, I was able to recognize that Lake Placid painted portrayed itself as a hub in the Adirondacks even though it was a wholly different environment from the rest of the Park. 

A different kind of 46er

If you’ve climbed all the highest peaks and want another type of Adirondack accolade (and happen to be in grade school), now you can become a 46Reader. I stumbled across a cool website called AdirondackKids.com (more links below) which both chronicles all the Adirondack children’s books that have been made and is also itself a children’s books series.

The 46Reader patch is an award that Adirondack Kids gives out to kids who read 46 books between 4^th and 6^th grade. I thought it was a great way to promote reading to kids. They use the name recognition and cultural value of “46 peaks” to get kids excited to have an accomplishment like climbing all the high peaks. And the 46Reader patch takes on a different character than just being a symbol of having read a bunch of books – to kids, it also inherits the respect that accompanies climbing all the high peaks.

Under the “Dax Facts” page, they list over 100 children’s books that have been set in the Adirondacks dating back to the 1890’s. This list and the Adirondack Kids series could be turned into a fascinating research project, analyzing the changing culture over the past century. The heavy influence of imagination and creativity in the books could limit the amount of “culture” you can take from them, but at the same time, it might show how kids are interacting with and interpreting the Adirondack environment.

http://www.adirondackkids.com/46reader.html

http://www.adirondackkids.com/daxfacts.html