Who Are The 10 Most Influential People in Adirondack History?
by Editorial Staff
A recent discussion of leadership in the Adirondacks, got me thinking about who should be included on a list of the Adirondack region's most influential people. I'd like to offer a list of the people who have had the greatest impact on the Adirondacks, and I'd like your help.
Clearly they should reflect the environmental, cultural, and political history of the park, and they need not be residents of the region, provided their impact was significantly felt here. I've offered some suggestions after the jump, but I'd like to hear your opinions and suggestions.
Theodore Roosevelt comes to mind, but what about Verplanck Colvin, or lumber barons James Caldwell and Daniel Finch? Does the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks' Paul Schaefer make the list? Clarence Petty? Father of NYS Forest Rangers William F. Fox? Or longtime environmental advocate John Sheehan? Should property rights advocates Carol LaGrasse or Fred Monroe be on the list? What about James Fenimore Cooper or transcendentalists Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson? Environmentalists George Perkins Marsh or Bob Marshall? What about great foresters like Bernhard Fernow or Gifford Pinchot? Ebenezer Emmons, the geologist who named the Adirondacks? Samuel de Champlain? William Johnson? William Gillbrand? John Thurman? Paul Smith? Isaac Jogues? Thomas C. Durant? William H. H. "Adirondack" Murray? Seneca Ray Stoddard? Arto Monaco? Nelson Rockefeller? Anne Labastille? Noah John Rondeau?
Feel free to add your suggestion, or argue for one of those above. We'll produce a list of the ten most influential on January 18th.
27 Comments:
I would put Dr. EL Trudeau on the list.
Governor Nelson Rockefeller for this leadership spearheading the Adirondack Park Agency and the Adirondack Northway/other highway improvements ?
Thank you for doing this project, John. I'm sure that whatever you and others write will fill in a lot of gaps in my knowledge of Adirondack history. I vote for giving the #1 spot to Verplanck Colvin for his tireless and brilliant leadership in surveying the Adirondacks and for his passionate advocacy for protecting them.
Yes Andy. That's what I had in mind - certainly nothing on the man-made Adirondack landscape matches the Adirondack Northway, and in terms of impact on the communities along its route, it's huge. Just for that he could make the list. Then add the APA and hmmmm.
Keep in mind those are just suggested names. Please feel free to add or argue or for one or another.
Mara Jayne said Thomas Cole, John Kensett, Sanford Gifford, Frederic Church, Samuel Coleman, J.D. Smilie, David Johnson, Asher B. Durand, James M. Hart, Alexander Wyant (that's 10).
Mara,
I get the hint, some artists, but why? I can understand someone like Thomas Cole perhaps because he helped shift American to the sublime appreciation of the natural world. But direct, measurable impact on the history and culture of the Adirondacks?
I'm interested in your thoughts on this.
What about the people who lived here until about four hundred years ago when the Europeans invaded and started stinkin' the place up?
OK Ron, I'm game - who? Which one?
Obviously this is a flawed exercise in big man history.
The original discussion was about the lack of anti-enviro leaders in the region, so I think this kind of thing is an interesting long duree approach to the general history of the region.
That said, maybe Deganawida?
I think Hendrick Theyanoguin ("King Hendrick") has a more minor role, and while important, probably doesn't make a list of ten.
The question really relates to the impact the person had on what we experience today in the region.
I would argue that Deganawida, who created the Iroquois Confederacy, help define whether this would be a French or English speaking area. Had there been no Iroquois Confederacy, I suspect we would be speaking French here today.
as a companion piece, how about the Adirondacks' 10 biggest asshats? I suppose libel becomes an issue, but that's one discussion I'd like to read.
Winslow Homer?
Seneca Ray Stoddard's photos enticed many city dwellers to the Adirondacks who in turn established the second-home community. Harold Jerry was a key appointee to the original commission to study the Adirondacks. Anne E. Lacy was a scientific illustrator whose beautiful interpretations of Adirondack habitats and wildlife inspired support environmental protections. -Phoebe
My vote is for Teddy Roosevelt since he started the preservation of the park as far as I know - am ready to stand corrected if not true!
going with verplank colvin as #1 there would be no adirondack forest preserve if not for him, his sacrifice, his own money, and his tireless work. Anything less than #1 would be an insult and show a clear lack of understanding of history.
in no particular order off the top of my head:
bob marshall, mills blake, teddy roosevelt (for the entire conservation movement and for becoming president essentially on my marcy), sabatis, nelson rockefeller.
as far as roosevelt being instrumental in the adirondacls specifically, I don't believe he was. I've read both colvins biography and roosevelts autobiography and actually TR was the one that ultimately ended the adirondack survey (and prior to its completion at that).
If you are interested in the history of the adirdondacks I recommend reading the colvin biography.
Here are at least 8, in some form of loose ranking order:
1) Verplanck Colvin
2) John Apperson
3) Bob Marshall
4) William H.H. Murray
5) Seneca Ray Stoddard
6) Paul Schaefer
7) The Roosevelt/Pinchot complex
8) Nelson Rockefeller
John Apperson? Well, he was Paul Schaefer's mentor and one of the earliest voices for, and probably the greatest catalyst for, the expansion of the blue line (c1930 or so) to include Lake George and other southeastern ADK lands. He, along with GE scientist Irving Langmuir, were Lake George's biggest champions in the early 20th century...
I will always contend that he is VERY important, though very forgotten...
Also, the Association for the Protection of the ADKS was founded at the turn of the 20th century, before Paul Schaefer was born! Schaefer and Apperson were founders of their own ADK organization in the 1930s. Only when the Association for the Protection of the ADKs needed a new home in the late 20th century, and was set up in Schenectady, did Schaefer's involvement become paramount in that org.
And as for the Hudson River School-era painters mentioned in a previous comment, I would say that William H.H. Murray's words and Seneca Ray Stoddard's images have done much more specifically to create an image of the ADKs in our minds than any of the 19th century romantic landscape painters did.
Kensett's Lake George paintings however are an important exception.
These are just some thoughts off the top of my head;
For more on the most influential Schenectady residents in ADK history, see my thesis "Electric City Pond: Schenectady and the Adirondacks," MA Thesis, UAlbany, 2007.
Cheers!
Great list Gregory (and thanks for the correction!).
Could you contact me via e-mail?
Thanks,
John
Colvin
T. Roosevelt
Trudeau
H. Hochschild
Stoddard
Nathan Farb
N. Rockefeller
Anne LaBastille
Bob Marshall
Maitland De Sormo
I would like to echo Gregory Rosenthal's pick of John Apperson. The Lake George Land Conservancy has been doing a lot of research lately on Apperson, Langmuir and others who ultimately saved Lake George from potentially devastating development (including a highway along the shore of Tongue Mountain), among other things. Apperson's efforts shouldn't be forgotten.
I think there is some benefit to drawing from a variety of "genres." (activists, artists, historians etc.)If the purpose of the listing is to get people to think about how the Adirondacks have been (and will be) influenced. Thinking about people who brought/bring the Adirondacks to a larger audience. Did I see Ron Stafford? Gary Randorf, John Sheehan, Paul Mathews, Nanci Battaglia, Brian Mann, John Warren :), Yes to the oldies...Bob Marshall..N. Rockefeller..G.Pataki
Colvin, for sure (we all seem to agree on that!) Then, in no particular order, maybe: Murray, Nelson Rockefeller, Schaefer (despite the timing), Petty, Marshall, Paul Smith, Stoddard, Ron Stafford (honestly), Trudeau
Bill McKibben has be very influential in the Adirondack and in the national climate change debate. In addition he cofounded Step it Up.
I don’t think that anyone has suggested William A. Rockefeller Sr. yet. Love him, or hate him, he had a huge influence on the ADKS and how it looks today. His land acquisition and later divestment and the railroad changed everything.
I second the vote for E. L. Trudeau. When he came to the Adirondacks in the 1870s, Saranac Lake had less than 500 residents. Bloomingdale was a bigger town. At his death in 1915, SL had grown to around 8,000 residents. Just about all of the built environment in this little city in the ADKs grew up to serve the TB patients who followed Dr. Trudeau here. Dr. Trudeau built the first laboratory for the study of TB in the U.S. and the first Sanatorium to care for TB patients. Thanks to Dr. Trudeau, Saranac Lake was the national center for patient care and TB research up until the advent of antibiotics. And that meant a lot: the number of Americans infected with tuberculosis in the nineteenth century was as great as the combined number of cancer and heart disease patients today.
Other than myself, I'd put forward John Brown. You'll find few other Adirondack residents in the textbook of every high school student. Plus, he has an awesome beard. --Jon Hoch
Clarence Petty
Names that should at least be considered:
Peter Paine Jr.
Paul Jamieson
Harold K. Hochschild
Bob Flacke- DEC, ORDA, APA, LG, FWH,1980 Olympics
Many good suggestions,but I can't believe no one suggested William West Durant. The man is hugely responsible for the development of the Adirondack interior around Raquette Lake, the creation of the Great Camp and the evolution of the rustic style which defines so much of the regional architecture. Not to mention be was responsible for construction of the railroad into North Creek, the very line that TR rode when he learned of McKinley's decline.
WW Durant without a doubt.
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