Questions for Clarence



Every issue of the Adirondack Explorer since May/June 2004 has featured
“Questions for Clarence,” a column conceived and compiled by our editor, Phil Brown. Over the years, Phil asked Clarence hundreds of questions about his life in the Adirondacks and his views on wilderness, wildlife, and conservation. Herewith a sampling:

What’s the best-tasting Adirondack fish?

Lake trout and brook trout are equal as far as I’m concerned. We did eat pike, too. Some people would eat bass, but we never did, because the bass were all loaded with parasites. When we went up to Noah Rondeau’s [the hermit of Cold River], we always cooked the brook trout right in the frying pan. He used to like to eat the eyes. He’d pick up the trout and suck the eyes right out. I don’t know what it was about the eyes, but he liked them.

What’s the best thing to happen to the Adirondacks in your lifetime?

Getting more land for the Forest Preserve. They’ve added quite a bit. When I started out, they had about half of what we got right now. If we didn’t have Forest Preserve, I don’t think we’d have the wildlife we have here now. We’re sitting in the middle of one of the most heavily populated states in the Union, and you got almost all of the [species of] wildlife that was here originally.

Is it harder to make a living in the Adirondacks nowadays?

It’s easier today than it ever was. We used to go out and do almost anything to get a dollar. We’d trap and sell bait and all that kind of stuff. The change is you got a lot of demand for services and damn few people to fill the bill. We have some good carpenters and plumbers, but they’re all busy. Try and get somebody to work, even just mowing the lawn, and you’ll have a problem doing it. It took us over a year to get somebody to work on our chimney.

How did you use to obtain supplies in Coreys in the winter?

We usually had enough supplies to last us all winter. We would get a bunch of stuff in before the snow got bad. We’d get a barrel of flour, a barrel of sugar, and four barrels of apples that would come from Crown Point. You had to do that, because sometimes the roads were just blocked; you couldn’t get a horse through. We got our first Buick in 1921, and none of the roads were plowed then. We jacked our cars up in the fall and didn’t use them again till spring.

Was DEC right to kill a bear that was bothering campers in the High Peaks this summer?

No, I don’t think they needed to. They’re very trigger-happy. They want to kill something and ask questions later. What they should have done was tranquilize it if they wanted to get it out of there. The people are the ones at fault. If they keep the food away, the bears aren’t going to bother them any.

Does a guide’s job today differ from the old days?

Tremendously. It used to be pretty much hunting and fishing. Most of the guides now are rock climbing or whatever. They get $150 a day. My father got $2. And of course now they are governed by regulations, which they weren’t years ago.

Should jet skis be banned from the Park?

I think so. People come here to enjoy the scenery and also the tranquility, and you certainly can’t do that with those damn things buzzing around.

Are there too many beavers in the Adirondacks?

No. I’m sure there are some places that people would rather they not be, but nature has a way of controlling things. They were here originally and were all trapped out by the early trappers. Then they were reintroduced back in the turn of the century. Harry Radford brought five or six of them in over near Old Forge and they were let loose in one of the creeks out there. They multiplied much more rapidly than people thought they would. Down at our place, some of the ponds were just full of them.

How did you keep your feet warm in winter?

Heavy socks and exercise is the main thing. If you’re standing still, you can bury your feet in snow. I found that out when I was watching the ski jumping in Saranac Lake back in 1917 or 1918. I found you could stand perfectly still, cover yourself with snow right up to your knees, and your feet would stay perfectly warm. It's good insulation.

What did you do for hot water when you were growing up?

We heated the stuff on the stove. If you wanted hot water for a bath, that’s what you did. We brought our water in by the bucketful, and in the summer we took advantage of the rains on the roof by putting rain barrels around. After we built a trench for a pipe, we got our water from a spring. That was in 1921.

What do you think of Governor Pataki?

He’s done a great job conserving land for the Adirondacks. He has come to the conclusion that many of us had years ago, that the economy of the Adirondacks is not in growth and development; it’s in the people from outside who come and spend their money here. That was recognized by us way back when we were living in the woods. We had to depend on the sports who came in to hunt and fish. Governor Pataki has purchased more state land, and it’s the state land that people come here to enjoy.

How do you feel about trapping now?

I’m opposed to trapping because there’s no need for it. When I was growing up, almost everybody trapped. I didn’t like clubbing an animal over the head; that was no fun, but you got money from the hides, and that’s why you did it. Today we have substitutes for fur. The only reason people are trapping now, 99 percent of them, is just for the fun of it. Many of the animals that got caught freeze to death in the trap or just die from being left there so long. It’s a hell of a cruel thing, and there’s no need for it.

Is it true you were a champion speed skater?

Almost everybody in Saranac tried speed skating, largely because Ed Lamy was the world champion. We had a speed-skating team representing Saranac Lake High School. Three of us made up a relay team, and in 1923 we won the state championship skating on Lake Placid. The Lamy boys, particularly Ed and Ernest Lamy, were pretty good at jumping over barrels. Ed used to jump over twelve or fourteen at a time. I only did it for fun. I could jump over five or six.

Have you ever heard of a bear attacking a human in the Adirondacks?

No. I know of some people who got injured by bear, but not because a bear was attacking them. One of them was Chandler Rice, the fire-tower observer up on Ampersand Mountain. He was coming down from the top and there’s kind of a pass between two rocks, and the bear was coming in the opposite direction. The bear got scared, and they have a habit of going straight when they get scared. It made a lunge and struck the observer and broke his shoulder. He got back up in the tower and called the rangers, and they helped him out. The newspapers said he was attacked by the bear. Of course, that is typical of a lot of the stuff you read.

Do you recall any big forest fires?

The big ones were in 1903 and 1908. I was alive during the 1908 fire. My father spent three days just taking people from the Wawbeek Hotel up the lake to Saranac Inn in his guideboat. They wanted to get the train to get out of here. But the train couldn’t get from Tupper Lake to Saranac Inn; the fire had burned out the wooden trestles. Some of the people at Saranac Inn—the smoke was so thick they were afraid they were going to get burned up. My mother said that down in New York the smoke was so thick [from the Adirondack fires] that they had to keep the lights on for three days, all night and day.

Do you still write letters to our political leaders?

This last week I think I wrote five. I’m slowing up a lot. I used to write ten or fifteen a week, almost all about environmental stuff. I wrote to President Bush a number of times. Anything he wants to do is wrong. But I never get any reply from him.

How often did you eat venison when you were growing up?

All the time. My father and my brother and I would each get a deer in the fall, and that would last us right through to spring. We didn’t buy beef because we couldn’t afford it. So you take whatever runs wild. We had snowshoe hare, which we always called rabbit. And we had what we called partridges, which is actually the ruffed grouse, and they were always good.

Do you have any memories of the flu epidemic of 1918?

My brother Bill and I were rooming in Saranac Lake in 1918. We were both in high school. Although we roomed together, the peculiar thing was he caught the disease and I didn’t. I left there as soon as he got it and stayed up here in Coreys. That epidemic killed more people than World War I did. A number of people in Saranac Lake got it, and a number of them died. Bill happened to be lucky, but it left him with a breathing problem for a while. It took him quite a few years to get over it. You could hear him wheeze all over the place.

Which is more annoying, the deerfly or the black fly?

Well, it’s a contest between them. But to me the deerfly is the worst, although the black fly is pretty bad. The deerfly is always buzzing around your head. The deerfly also would last all summer, and the black fly would die out with the weather in June or July.

You supervised men from the city in the Civilian Conservation Corps. How did they like the woods?

They’d point to a balsam tree or a spruce and call it a Christmas tree. They’d say, “What do you want to do with that Christmas tree?” Some of them took to the woods fairly good, and others never got accustomed to it. They didn’t like being out in the bush where you had to be on your own. They were used to being in the city where things were done for them. You get in the woods, and you have to take care of yourself.

What do you think of the state’s decision to allow floatplanes on Lows Lake for another three years?

I think it’s a mistake. These guys have plenty of other places to land; they don't have to land on Lows Lake. About 90 percent of the water in the Adirondacks they can land on. They got to come to this one little spot that happens to be part of a Wilderness Area? Just to give them a profit? I don’t think that’s right.

Do you want to be buried in Coreys, where you grew up?

No. I’ve donated my carcass to the Syracuse University College of Medicine. They can use it for whatever purpose they want.