The Deadliest Park in the World

An Atlas-F missile in Au Sable (O'Keefe.)

Four men sit in a room lit like a doctor’s office; well-kept and sterile. Radars in the far corner circulate with cold accuracy while the men wait for a call that they hope will never come to attack a place they have never seen and kill a people they will never know. It was easier for the operator not to be told the target- the 537 page Atlas base instruction manual had told them. 

The call never comes. The Russian tankers reversed course right before the Cuban embargo line.  One man walks out, relieved and with a faint but noticeable smile, through a steel 2,000lb blast door, up a staircase surrounded by super-hardened concrete walls, past two guards armed with .38 caliber pistols and into the crisp air. Though blinded at first by the October sun his eyes soon adjust to the oranges, reds and yellows of fall in the Adirondacks (Carr).

                But what business did this scenario have taking place in the peace and forever wilderness of the northern Adirondack park? The conflict between the United States and the U.S.S.R. permeated so deep into the nation that even the Adirondacks had a role to play in the Cold War effort. As we have said in class many times, the Adirondacks aren’t so different from the rest of the country, despite the exceptionalism we associate with them. Within the blue line, Riverview, Redford, Au Sable, Lewis and Willsboro all housed concrete silos 50ft in diameter and 165ft deep (Jenkins, 97).

A refurbished Adirondack silo, now for sale (Carr). 

 This clandestine development was an affront to all good philosophy, vitality and purpose in the park. The Atlas-F missiles placed in the Adirondacks by the government produced 389,000 pounds of thrust, were “85 ft. tall, 10 ft. in diameter, and weighing about 125 tons with a range of 6,300 miles that could, when fired from the northern Adirondacks, reach any of the major cities or military bases in western Russia” and could eliminate 10 square miles around the target (Jenkins, 97).  While these silos, which required 8,000 cubic yards of concrete to produce, were simply part of a much larger network born out of nuclear proliferation and fear, I find it inexcusable that they were placed in and around the Adirondack park. This action took clear advantage of government property, mocking forever wild with the most unnatural and destructive of devices, and making the park itself a target for preemptive strike (O’Keefe).
                 The Adirondack silos were all closed by 1965 and the only casualties that resulted were from their construction by out of work miners from the Lyon Mountain mine and their demolition (Bramen). What seems to be more fitting is that one of these silos has been refurbished and, though clashing slightly with the surrounding architectural style of exposed wood, is currently for sale as home (Carr).

(Thanks to John R(P?)utz at the Writing Center for the helpful edits.)

Works Cited

Bramen, Lisa. "DEFCON 2 in the Adirondacks." Adirondack Life Magazine. N.p., 22 Oct. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.

Carr, Nick. "Scouting An Abandoned Cold War Missile Base Hidden In The Adirondacks." Scouting NY. N.p., 09 Jan. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.

Jenkins, Jerry, and Andy Keal. The Adirondack Atlas: A Geographic Portrait of the Adirondack Park. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 2004. Print.

O'Keefe, Mike. "Atlas of the North Country: A Nuclear Threat Among the Adirondacks." All Points North Magazine. N.p., Summer 2009. Web.

Internal Conflict

While reading Philip Terrie’s Contested Terrain: A New History of Nature and People in the Adirondacks, the following quote stood out to me:

It [Adirondack culture] acquired a relatively new face after World War I in the guise of vacation-home development, which brought together major, perhaps contradictory threads of the Adirondack story: the lure or nature for recreation and personal redemption, the appeal of nature to a large constituency financially able to reach and enjoy it, the wish to appreciate nature away from the crowds of other people attracted by the same nature, and the desire to make a profit exploiting nature (144-145).

The issues that Terrie recognizes all have an impact on the environment, especially through land development. They also bring up many philosophical questions such as what wilderness is, who has the right to control it, and how it should be treated.

While some people want to enjoy nature in its purest form, others want to have their own part of it. If the money is there, many people will choose to purchase and develop a small portion of the Adirondacks instead of utilizing the public land as a shared space. This tendency might result from the emphasis American society puts on materialism. It could also result from the natural selfish tendencies of humans. Either way, the practice of developing wilderness cannot continue indefinitely because the Earth only has a finite amount of resources.

Another controversial topic deals with the question of if people have the right to make a profit from the wilderness and, if so, whom that right belongs to. The Adirondack Park has supported several industries throughout its time, including activities such as trapping and hunting, logging, and mining. Since people have a tendency towards anthropocentrism, they commonly exploit resources just because they are available. While the Adirondacks are protected and preserved as forever wild lands today, they were not always that way. And many other places around the world are still taken advantage of. However, climate change might be able to mitigate the intensity with which people consume resources.

This particular quote from Terrie’s book is extremely powerful, and it summarizes some of the main issues facing the Adirondack Park. Not only does it apply within the blue line, but it also brings up larger issues on a global scale. The Adirondack Park is connected to both the national economy and culture, so areas such as this one cannot be forgotten about.

Works Cited

Terrie, Philip G. Contested Terrain: A New History of Nature and People in the Adirondacks. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1997. Print.

I would like to thank Megan at the Hamilton College Writing Center for helping me revise this blog post!

How can the Adirondacks help California

“We can’t shower. We’re wearing dirty clothes. My kids had to wear dirty clothes to school this morning,” said Elizabeth Baker, when she was interviewed by CBS. Ms. Baker is a resident of a small town in California, which  is facing a record long drought currently. Another year of record low snow melts and very little rainfall has continued to afflict the western states with a problem rarely seen in a developed nation. They don’t have water. These are truly desperate times for the US not just California. The value of food produced by California reaching 37.5 billion dollars according to Western Food Press. It is the major producer of fruits and vegetables for the United States. An agricultural industry of this scale requires a lot of water. Despite the governor’s best efforts to control use of water, California is running out of water still, and its produce yields are dropping.  The question is what can we do to help? Many proposals exist to tackle the problem, but probably the most effective is moving the water from areas that have it to the West Coast.

            Building a pipeline from the Mississippi River, the Great Lakes, or another water-saturated environment on the east coast would be very expensive. Unfortunately we are somewhat out of options, and though it may seem absurd there is not much else to be done to help the West. one cannot just make water. As long drawing of water from these areas in the East is regulated, and water is taken from multiple areas, it will at least buy the West some time. This may seem somewhat irrelevant to the Adirondacks. The park was actually founded mainly with concern for the New York water supply. New York has the best water quality in the country, partially due to the formation of the Adirondack State Park. We need to help our fellow Americans who do not have water, especially considering how much food California puts on the table for us.

Thank You Megan Murphy for your help

Sources:

"East Porterville Residents Without Water As Wells Go Dry During California Drought." CBS Sacramento. CBS Sacramento, 27 Aug. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2015. <http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/08/27/porterville-residents-without-water-as-wells-go-dry-during-california-drought/>.

Cornett, Richard. "What Happens If US Loses California Food Production?" What Happens If US Loses California Food Production? Western Farm Press, 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2015. <http://westernfarmpress.com/tree-nuts/what-happens-if-us-loses-california-food-production>.

Lallanilla, Marc. "Shipping Snow: Could Eastern Water Ease Western Drought?" LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 6 Feb. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2015. <http://www.livescience.com/43176-drought-pipeline-water-projects-arid-west.html>.

Pursuit of Hapiness

I was standing waist deep in the freezing waters of my favourite trout stream, with no waders to keep me warm and dry. The spring melt had carved out the previously shallow and gentle stretch into a deep trough, funneling the raging muddy waters right into me. Looking ahead I realized I had two options, take a risky step towards the far bank and the faster water, or retreat and look for a safer place to cross. I took a quick step forward and the water started to push me over. Unable to catch my balance I plunged into the torrent and was quickly swept downstream. With a little luck I ended up on a gravel bar by the far bank where I sat for a moment catching my breath and collecting my thoughts.

At this point a part of me began asking why I was even trying to fish when the chances of catching were so slim. No fish that valued its life would risk being stuck in the same waters that had just sent me swimming. On top of that the beautiful green foliage of the summer was still in hiding, waiting for warmer days. Such are often the thoughts of the cold and wet fisherman.

No one is immune to these thoughts though. The conditions are almost never perfect, but we still venture out for some reason. Sometimes it takes sitting on a river bank, cold and wet, to realize what that reason is.

Photo: Evan Buitenhuis

When it finally comes to you the only reasonable reaction is to smile. You smile for a number of reasons, but first of all you smile because you probably shouldn’t have taken that one extra step which soaked you. You smile because in taking a second to stop and look around you see the great beauty you were too focused to notice earlier. And you smile because there is nowhere you would rather be.

As I picked myself up off the bank to continue upstream I couldn’t help but laugh. To anyone passing by I might have appeared crazy, but the truth is far from that. I had finally realized why it was I put myself through so much to just get out and fish. Fishing is not all about catching fish, just like climbing is not always about reaching the summit. Catching a fish may be the most exciting and glamourous part of it, but the journey of getting to the fish is where the most memories are made.

Walking upstream to the next fishable pool the sun dried my clothes and drove the chill from my bones. With the smile from earlier still plastered across my face I knew there was nowhere else I would rather be.

Edited with help from Danielle Gauthier

The Bones of the Adirondacks

How exactly did the Adirondacks recover so quickly from such destructive logging in the 19th century?  Whenever I hike through the park, I notice how all of the trees seem to have the same circumference trunk.  While some of these were reseeded naturally, 18,000 acres of the trees in the Adirondacks were planted by members of the Civilian Conservation Corp from 1933-1942 (Adirondack Explorer, 2012).  This national program was developed at the height of the Great Depression in order to provide jobs for young, able-bodied men.  These legions of men developed the infrastructure of many national parks and forests that we still use today.  In doing so, these men brought environmental conservation to the forefront of American thought and made nature more easily accessible to the increasing number of tourists.

During the nine years the Civilian Conservation Corps was in operation, the 220,000 men who worked for the program in New York State not only planted trees in the Adirondacks, but they also built fire towers and developed better ways at combatting forest fires (Adirondack Explorer, 2012).   Programs such as this protected the burgeoning forest preserve from natural and man-made destruction, and ensured a quick recovery from the degrading logging practices of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Source: http://rockrivertimes.com/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Civilian-Conservation-Corps.png

The Civilian Conservation Corp also opened the Adirondacks to the general public.  By building roads and hiking trails, vehicles could easily access the park's interior and people could climb mountain summits without the need of a guide.  The workers also established campsites to support the growing visitor population, built dams for recreation and a constant supply of water, and stocked lakes with fish for the enjoyment of the tourists (Civilian Conservation Corp Stories).  

The men of the Civilian Conservation Corp laid down the modern bones of the Adirondack State Park.  Without their hundreds of thousands of hours of manual labor, the park would look much different today.  There would be fewer trails and organized recreation sites, and even fewer trees without the protection these men provided to the forest preserve.

Sources:

Podskoch, Marty. "Civilian Conservation Corps Stories." By Marty Podskoch. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. <http://cccstories.com/>.

Podskoch, Marty. "Adirondack Civilian Conservation Corps Camps - Adirondack Explorer." Adirondack Explorer. N.p., Jan. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2015. <http://www.adirondackexplorer.org/book_reviews/adirondack-civilian-conservation-corps-camps>

Thank you to the Hamilton College Writing Center for reviewing this document. (4/24/15)

Norman's

On the March’s field trip we toured the Adirondack park and took note of the varying economic status of the communities. Lake Placid had large commercial stores such as EMS, and Ben and Jerry’s. There were many upscale boutique tourist shops as well as fancy restaurants. It became apparent that its status as a city who had held the Olympics twice is a huge draw. There are a variety of recreational activities including the bobsled run and skating on the historic rink on which the United States claimed gold in hockey against the Soviet Union.

We discovered on the trip that not all communities are so lucky. The region of Tupper Lake was clearly struggling to find a niche to attract visitors and stimulate the local economy. It could be seen visually with the state the buildings were in, the price point of shops, and the consistency of traffic flowing through without stopping, except for gas. The Wildlife Center which was hoped to be a huge draw for the community appeared to have taken on the role a stop for families on the way to the better known Lake Placid. That is why when reading the Adirondack Almanack, a story on the closing of a beloved general store in Bloomingfield caught my eye.

Norman’s General store, one of the oldest in the park, is an iconic landmark in Bloomingfield. It has an old school feel- a store where you can buy camping supplies, food and a movie. The community will miss Norman’s and the role it played in shaping Bloomingfield as a small town family town. When asked why they closed, Norman’s replied simply- what they had been doing in the past few years had not been working. It makes me wonder if these small stores in struggling communities have a future in the Adirondack park, and, if so, how they will be able to set themselves apart from chain competition such as Stewarts (Adirondack Almanack 1).    

Sources 
Riccio, Emily. "Norman's General Store Closes After Over a Century of Business." Norman's    General Store Closes After Over a Century of Business. Adirondack Almanack, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.

(Needs to be edited)

         

Economic Development in the Adirondack Park

            The recent trend of populations shifting towards cities and the decline of investment capital available to rural businesses have contributed to unemployment rates in some parts of the Adirondack Park that are nearly twice the national average (NY State Department of Labor). One of the main organizations that aims to minimize this problem and encourage economic development in the Adirondack region (as well as other regions in the state) is the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), which serves as New York State’s chief economic development agency and runs over 50 economic development programs throughout the state through over 200 subsidiary corporations and other entities (Mann). 

            A recent report released by the New York State Comptroller’s Office expressed some concerns about the current state of ESDC. While the large scope of ESDC allows some synergies such as increased administrative efficiency, it also creates an issue of transparency. The Comptroller’s report argues that ESDC needs to report and compile more detailed results for each of their programs so internal decision makers (the ESDC Board of Directors and managers) and external decision makers (legislators and voters) can effectively weigh the costs and benefits of each individual program to determining its efficacy.
            For 2013, ESDC spent $1.1 billion on economic development programs, and reported that these programs created 2,424 jobs (1.8% of net private-sector job creation in the state in 2013) (DiNapoli). While this figure seems reflective of the agency’s overall performance, the lack of clarity about the breakdown of jobs created by individual initiatives makes it extremely difficult to measure their true performance. This lack of detail and clarity hinders internal management's ability to determine which programs are worth growing, altering, or discontinuing. The lack of transparency is also troublesome to legislators and voters who are charged with determining the efficacy of the agency as a whole in order to vote on the resources devoted to it. Without the specific breakdown of results for each program, legislators and voters may come to the wrong conclusion about the agency's performance and vote to over- or under-fund the programs, which would ultimately hurt the people the agency strives to help.
           While I read ESDC's report, I looked for evidence of their efficacy in the Adirondack region, and noticed some startling statistics that suggest the agency's efforts are even more futile in the Adirondack Region. As supported by the figure below, less than 6% of the total companies/organizations assisted by ESDC in 2013 were located in the North Country and zero jobs were created in the North Country as a result of these initiatives (DiNapoli). 

Though North Country residents are contributing to the funds used to run the agency through state taxes, they are not receiving any of the benefits of ESDC’s efforts. If ESDC increases the transparency of their reporting and really digs into the specific implications of each of their programs, I hope they will notice this discrepancy and redirect funding from their failed initiatives towards new programs to help meet the needs of the people in the Adirondack region.

Update 4/26/15: Thank you to M.E. from the Hamilton College Writing Center for your thoughtful feedback and suggestions to improve this post.

Works Cited:

DiNapoli, Thomas P. Public Authorities by the Numbers: Empire State Development Corporation. Rep. Albany: Office of the State Comptroller, 2015. Print.

Mann, Brian. "Are the North Country's Economic Development Gurus Actually Boosting Jobs?" North Country Public Radio. Saranac Lake, NY, 15 Apr. 2015. Are the North Country's Economic Development Gurus Actually Boosting Jobs?Web. 18 Apr. 2015.

New York State Department of Labor. Unemployment Rates by County, New York State, February 2015. N.p., 31 Mar. 2015. Web. 18 Apr. 2015.