The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
By breviews
Like Mozart in music and Keats in poetry, Bob Marshall packed an astonishing quantity of experience and accomplishment into a short life and has been elevated to near mythic status by generations of followers. We have the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana and a proposal for a 409,000- acre Bob Marshall Great Wilderness (“the Bob”…
By breviews
For most of the 20th century, tourists saw fire towers as good destinations for hikes with the kids, while to residents they meant jobs with decent pay for a few months of relatively easy work. Both also saw the towers as an early-warning system against the fires they knew could ravage the forests, as had…
By breviews
In 1916, T. Morris Longstreth, a schoolteacher from Kingston and author of a long list of travel books and novels, spent six months exploring the Adirondacks, mostly on foot, accompanied by a friend and a faithful horse carrying their gear. They began at the North Creek train station in June and finished up there the…
Perhaps it was inevitable that Mark Bowie would become an Adirondack photographer. He grew up just outside the Blue Line and spent most of his childhood summers in the Park. Both his grandfather and father are professional photographers. Mark always liked taking pictures, but he didn’t turn pro until after getting a master’s degree in…
Hungarian-born Arpad Gerster was a 19th-century Renaissance man, an artist, writer, musician, keen observer of the natural world, early conservationist, pioneer of thoracic surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and the author of Rules of Aseptic and Antiseptic Surgery, the textbook that set the standard in the United States for maintaining a…
Want proof that Peter O’Shea is a serious naturalist? Pay close attention to the section titled “Wildlife and Changes Around a Homestead” in his new book The Great South Woods II. The homestead is O’Shea’s “own humble abode” in the northwest Adirondacks hamlet of Fine. He acquired it in 1973, moved in shortly after, and…
Inspiring stories of female winter 46ers who defy extreme conditions to conquer the High Peaks, experiencing unexpected transformations.
When I finished the three-page introduction to The Ardent Birder I concluded, with a yawn, that while very sweet and even tender the book seemed far too basic for an experienced birder like myself. But I found the bordering-on-theprecious tone disarmingly honest and refreshing, and the arrangement of material suggested by the contents meticulously sensible,…
On Page 65 of this excellent biography is a photograph of Howard Zahniser in front of Hanging Spear Falls, on the Opalescent River. Snapped by the Adirondack conservationist Paul Schaefer in 1946, it provides a compelling visual reminder of the role of the Adirondacks in the story of wilderness preservation in the United States. Zahniser…
Dennis Aprill has come out with another book for people looking to hike outside the High Peaks. His first guidebook, Paths Less Traveled, focused on smaller mountains (less than 2,800 feet). Short Treks takes the concept a step further, describing 20 easy hikes that require no summit climbing. Silver Lake Bog, the Hudson Gorge, Lampson…