The Underground Railroad in the Adirondack Region, by Tom Calarco The Underground Railroad in the Adirondack Region History is one of those things, for me, that takes on a totally different feeling depending on the context and the subject. Thinking about a place and its history has a different feeling and evokes entirely different moods, even if it substantially the same period that is being considered. The Adirondacks of the mid 19th century are no exception. The exploits of Nessmuk and Street postdate the underground railroad and John Brown, and although they are nearly as remote in time, they occur in an entirely different place in history. The adventurous taming, exploration, and measuring of the land “Adirondack” books, typically, especially as presented to the outsider, lean more to the rugged pioneer/explorer image, or focus on the natural history of the region, be it logging, wildlife, geology or mining. It is easy to forget the other aspects of the region’s relationship with the rest of the country. The Adirondacks were, and are, not a place where people are divorced from what is going on in the rest of he country. It is easier, perhaps, to view the place through the lens of ...

Why the Adirondacks Look the Way They Do: A Natural History by Mike Storey Sometimes the smallest, least polished, most hidden away books turn out to be the most useful. This is certainly not surprising, as even book publishers cannot explain the deeper reasons beneath come of the industry's output. Suffice it to say that a lot of drek gets published and you wish you never bought it, just as you occasionally spot a work such as Why the Adirondacks Look the Way They Do: A Natural History by Mike Storey and wonder why it is so difficult to find so soon after it was published. FInd, that is, at a sane price. As of this writing the moderate sized paperback was listing for $40 or so on Amazon. This book does not cover a lot of new ground. What it is, however, is one of the most straightforward, easy to understand and comprehensive introductions to the physical makeup of the Adirondacs that I have come across. This is the book I want to have on hand when I need to explain something to a child. Or an adult, for that matter. Much of ...

The Adirondack; or Life in the Woods, by J. T. Headley The Adirondack Joel Tyler Headley is remembered in the annals of Adirondack history, and by book collectors and aficionados, as one of the first writers, if not the first, to draw true, widespread attention to the region. The Adirondack; or Life n the Woods, written after a pair of trips north in the 1840’s, sold well and promoted interest in the Adirondacks as an unspoiled wilderness and a potential health and recreational retreat. Headley’s long career, though, was hardly defined by the book. He went on to work in the New York City newspaper business, he was elected to the assembly, and he served as New York’s Secretary of State for a brief term. His trips, enforced vacations taken soon after his ordination as a Presbyterian minister, were dictated by what was apparently over-work, a mental breakdown, or some similar situation. In his words, an “attack on the brain first drove me from the haunts of men to seek mental repose and physical strength in the woods.” Whatever the reason, the book is seminal. He paints the mountains and the journey in the light of similar European tours historically ...

Through the Light Hole: A Saga of Adirondack Mines and Men, by Patrick F. Farrell Anyone who has lived in or spent any considerable time exploring the Adirondacks is apt to have at least a passing familiarity with the mining history of the region. From the margins of the mountains at Ironville, Mineville, or Lyon Mountain to the Tahawus and Adirondack in the High Peak region, the impact on the landscape and culture is very apparent. It is hard to enter the Adirondacks from some directions without having the history stare you in the face, for example when you are crossing the bridge from Vermont to Crown Point and can see the looming slag piles on the hills of Mineville and Witherbee. Old buildings at Adirondack Mining is not one of the first associations many people have of the region, and books such as this go a long way toward making the public record a bit more accessible. There is no shortage of books, museums and local knowledge, to be sure, but this well researched and presented work does a very good job of not only synopsizing and cataloguing the material, but also of giving it some wider historical context. His ...

Mac of Placid (1920) is not the most widely known work by Thomas Morris Longstreth, but it stands well as one of the classic early novels of the region. I come across copies occasionally, and currently have three for sale. Pictured is the Grosset & Dunlap edition in a dustjacket (most these days have lost their jacket sometime in the 90 years since publication). The Century Company put out the green covered edition, also circa 1920. They are printed from the same plates. At its core, and on many levels, Mac of Placid is a Romantic Novel in the truest sense. Longstreth romanticized the early European American residents and pioneers of the region; he romanticized and perhaps idolized Robert Louis Stevenson; and his work itself reflects the romantic ideal of literature and of the age that seemed to be on the wane in that era. His prose, throughout all his works, underscores his attachment to the romantic sensibility. I first read this book in the 1970’s. To me then it was a straightforward adventure, all the more interesting for its being set in my home town. As with other of stories of the region, it was fun to associate the ...

I still remember the first time I read The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. I forget how old I was, but I am pretty sure I was in high school. Hawkeye may not be a solely, or even a primarily, Adirondack character, but his adventures in The Last of the Mohicans certainly took him deep into the pre-revolutionary wilderness of the Adirondacks. The other four Leatherstocking Tales are set primarily to the south of the Adirondacks, or in the case of The Prairie, out on the prairie. [caption id="attachment_23" align="alignnone" width="209" caption="James Fenimore Cooper"][/caption] The Last of the Mohicans is a wonderful book. Other than this, the only other volume in the series I have fully read is The Deerslayer. Much has been written on the Five Volume Saga, including the entertaining and none too complimentary “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” by Mark Twain, which can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg here. Putting aside the consistency and literary quality of the writing, all the book remain extremely important if only for their glimpse into eastern frontier life and their contribution to the forging of our national myths. Despite the uneven quality of the series as a whole, Mohicans is not ...