SPRING 2020 Vol. LVII No. 1 AdirondackPEEKS MAGAZINE OF THE ADIRONDACK FORTY-SIXERS Contents

2 President’s Report – Siobhán Carney-Nesbitt #5930W 4 Pre-Contact Native American History in the Adirondacks – Elizabeth S. Chilton 8 Talking Points: Stand Up and Start Walking: Reflections on the Adirondack 46– Amira Silverman 12 On Thomas Cole’s “View of Schroon Mountain”– John Sasso #7130W 18 Sustainable Trail Development – Tate Connor #3986 22 Mountain Vignettes “ 'pectacular” - A Four Year Old’s Perspective – Siobhán Carney-Nesbitt #5930W A Deep Aversion to Backtracking – Jeff Rinker #2382 31 Club News Boulder Report – John Sasso #7130W 2019 Finishing Class and Sketches – Lee Nesbitt #5931W, Siobhán Carney-Nesbitt #5930W, Rachel Schwerin #7196 56 Letters 56 In Memoriam

Front Cover: Wind-carved snow and trees covered in rime ice form a magical winter scene near the summit of Algonquin. Photo credit: Joey Priola; www.joeypriola.com Inside Cover: View from Basin. Photo credit: Jonathan Zaharek #11171W Volume LVII No. 1 SPRING 2020 AdirondackPEEKS Semi-Annual Magazine of the President’s Adirondack Forty-Sixers, Inc. Report OFFICERS Siobhán Carney-Nesbitt, President Laurie Rankin, Vice President Brian Hoody, Immediate Past President DIRECTORS Hiking in the Time of COVID-19 Bob Rock, Mary Lamb, Julia Goren, Steve Shumway, William Brizzell, Chris Sobik challenge or a journey? Climbing the 46 should be a journey, an experience APPOINTED OFFICERS Arather than simply a challenge. Hiking is a personal pilgrimage unique to Philip Corell, Treasurer every person. Some people like to hike faster than others and relish the sheer ath- Bill Lundy, Recording Secretary leticism of an adrenaline-pumping romp in the woods. Others relish every step of the journey and notice the nuances each turn unveils. Some are able to hike Bill Lundy, Don McMullen Outdoor Skills Workshop Coordinators more frequently than others. One hiker’s miserable weather may be awe-inspiring to another. Lee Nesbitt, Siobhán Carney-Nesbitt The term peak-bagger is irksome to many, including myself. If you climb Office of the Historian only one peak a year, are you a peak-bagger? Maebh, Lee, and I climbed 48 peaks Jane Meader Nye over 4,000 feet last season, but I still don’t consider us peak-baggers. Our hikes Archivist are about the moment. They are a lasting memory of what we saw and how we Joe Bogardus, Sam Eddy, Tom Fine, felt during our precious time together. We found joy in each outing, a sense of Doug Varney, Brian Sikora, Mark Simpson togetherness, and a profound appreciation of the journey. Trailmasters Now, in the midst of a global pandemic many of us reflect longingly on those Joe Ryan journeys and dream of others to come. Currently, there is no cure for COVID-19. Website Liaison and Content Manager We are still learning about how it spreads and who is affected the most. Times Paula Selmer of stress often prompt us to seek the mountains as a means of regaining our Merchandising Coordinator composure. But now is not the time to travel beyond our immediate surroundings. Leesa Arthur While the mountains are not closed, we are being asked to remain closer to Membership Coordinator home and practice social distancing. While it is important to get outside and enjoy local trails and paths, this is not an appropriate time to hike the High Peaks Chuck Schwerin Editor even if you live in the High Peaks region. Additionally mud season is a great time to give our beloved peaks a break. At this time, our health and the health of the Printed by: people in the communities we may travel to are also particularly at risk. Print Management, LLC As 46ers, we are stewards of the environment. It is our personal responsibility 800 Vinial Street, Suite B210 Pittsburgh, PA 15212 to follow social distancing and travel regulations. However, I encourage all of you to stay local for now, and avoid potentially putting pressure on the health care system, especially in smaller, more vulnerable communities. It’s time for us to Editorial Offices: Manuscript and photographic submissions for PEEKS should be sent to: Chuck Schwerin, 1036 East Shore embrace the reponsibility of “being” a 46er. Dr., Ithaca, NY 14850 or E-mail: [email protected] Sometimes, being a 46er means that we shouldn’t hike. Many of us are out

Orders and payments: Leesa Arthur, Membership of school or work. We are scared and sad while also doing our best to remain Coordinator, P.O. Box 4383, Queensbury, NY 12804 optimistic and find fruitful ways to spend our sequestered time. As I write this, E-mail: [email protected] we are still unsure about when this will end. It is especially important that we Outdoor Skills Workshop: P.O. Box 126, Lake Placid, NY recall that our goals should be to emphasize the journey and not the challenge. 12946 If you are looking for a challenge, then challenge yourself to stay local and close

Volunteer trailwork: [email protected] to home.The mountains will wait for you, but will you be able to wait for the mountains? 46er information: For additional information on club I sincerely look forward to meeting you out on the trails once we are given the activities and to register to become a 46er visit the club’s website at www.adk46er.org or e-mail: “all clear” to travel, recreate, and congregate. [email protected].

Adirondack PEEKS is published twice a year by the In the words of Grace…Good Climbing. In the words of Governor Cuomo… Adirondack Forty-Sixers, Inc., a non-profit organization. Stay Home. PEEKS is free to members in good standing; to all others, $7.00 for a single copy, $12.00 for one year, $23.00 for two years, or $34.00 for three years (New York State residents add Siobhán Carney-Nesbitt #5930W sales tax). To subscribe, send your order to: Leesa Arthur, ADK 46ers Membership Coordinator, P.O. Box 4383, Queensbury, NY 12804

2 | ADIRONDACK PEEKS Ascending Colden. Photo credit Jonathan Zaharek #11171W SPRING 2020 | 3 spurred the professionalization ground disturbance. Several of compliance archaeology or years ago, a student of “cultural resource management.” mine at the University of Pre-Contact Native American History In the process, many more Massachusetts at Amherst, archaeological sites were Jessica Aither, updated the documented in advance of data for the Adirondacks in the Adirondacks construction projects around for her senior capstone the U.S. Most of the project. As of 2011 the reports from these surveys number of documented and excavations are not archaeological sites within published, and comprise the Blue Line had expanded what is often referred to as to 1032. While the By Elizabeth S. Chilton the “gray literature.” Thus, numbers of documented my research began at the sites had increased fivefold New York State Museum since 1985, these newly and in the New York State documented sites followed Historic Preservation Office the same general pattern of in Albany (SHPO), digging my work from the 1980s. through paper site files and There is no doubt in my hen I was first studying archaeology archaeology student, Ritchie’s explanation Adirondacks were unexplored terrain for reports…a different kind of mind that many more Wat the University at Albany in the ear- struck me as odd. How could the diverse and me. Those days exploring Indian Lake, Paul archaeology! thousands of archaeological ly 1980s, it was generally accepted that Na- complex Native societies of the Northeast Smith’s, Lake Champlain, and the High Prior to March of sites are dotted across the tive Americans had not spent much time in completely have avoided 6000 square Peaks, left me even more convinced that it 1985 only thirteen pre- Adirondacks but have the Adirondack Mountains in the centuries miles of an abundant and rich part of their was extremely unlikely that Native peoples contact archaeological not yet been found or prior to European colonization. In general, environment, complete with thousands of surrounding the Adirondack Mountains sites were documented documented. the known archaeological record follows lakes and ponds, many thousands of plant would have sought to avoid them. One of my within the Blue Line of Given that the modern development and road construction; and animal species, materials for making stops during that initial foray was at the Six the Adirondack Park. archaeological record in thus, given the relatively light development stone tools, and extensive forests for wood Nations Indian Museum in Onchiota, NY. However, in 1985 Hartgen the Adirondacks includes within the Adirondack Park, few archaeo- industries? Everything I knew about hunter- There I was guided through the museum Associates was contracted hundreds of known sites logical sites were known. The clearest state- gatherers and horticultural societies led by one of the founders, Ray Fadden. While to do an “Adirondack from all time periods and ment of the assumption that Native people me to question Ritchie’s assumption, and many of the thousands of objects in the Park Cultural Resources across all geographical sub- had generally avoided the Adirondacks came I sought to test his hypothesis in the form museum come from elsewhere, Ray told me Inventory.” They surveyed regions, what can we say from the New York State Archaeologist, Wil- of an honors thesis in anthropology at the that he and others had found a number of the town and village historians, about Native American liam Ritchie. Ritchie said in his book, The University of Albany in 1985. objects in the Adirondacks. Objects included museum professionals, history within the Blue Archaeology of New York State (1965), that a variety of spear points, fish net weights, professors, and other Line? Essentially, the pre- “Mountain and highland barriers, besides An Archaeology of Archaeology grinding stones, stone axes, and ancient professional archaeologists. contact Native history shutting out ready communication with pottery. It was clear that there was quite a Fifty-nine people replied follows what is known the west and east, afforded in themselves I began my thesis research by spending bit of evidence in the museum’s collection giving the location of 187 pre-contact Native for the Northeast region in general, which I Archaeological Distributions and Roadways very limited resources to food collectors and several days exploring the Adirondacks— for a long and complex Native history in the American archaeological sites. The location of in the Adirondack Mountains summarize here. even less to food producers.” The word Ad- literally driving around, hiking, stopping region. But for professional archaeologists, all of these was recorded and put on file in the irondack comes from an Algonquian word in small towns. Having spent most of my artifacts out of their original context and Data courtesy of the New York State Ecological Setting SHPO. Historic Preservation Office and the meaning, literally, “tree-eater.” Some schol- life until that point on Long Island, the without documentation of excavation I plotted the location of each New York State Museum, May 2011. ars thought this designation context don’t provide adequate archaeological site, its time period, and Graphic by Kathryn Curran. The Adirondacks are surrounded by was used pejoratively to refer evidence to test a hypothesis. function (if known) on a map of New York major waterways that would have served as to people living in the region, Somehow, I needed to find State. In total there were 200 archaeological transportation and communication routes who were so starved of food that archaeological evidence. sites documented at that time spanning throughout human history in the region. they resorted to eating the bark Between the time that all known periods of Native American Bounded by the Saint Lawrence seaway to of trees. Ritchie also suggested Ritchie wrote the first edition occupation of North America, and across all the west and north, the Mohawk River to the that native peoples may have of his authoritative tome on the regions of the Adirondacks. Sites included south, and Lake Champlain and the Hudson avoided mountainous regions archaeology of New York (1965) rock shelters, short-term encampments, River drainages to the east, the Adirondacks because of a fear of malevolent and the time that I began my villages, and cemeteries. Interestingly, were clearly accessed by many different spirit forces that resided there. thesis research, a number of but perhaps unsurprisingly, the pattern of groups of Native peoples in the Northeast Certainly, at the time laws had been passed requiring documented sites followed modern highways throughout prehistory. For much of their Ritchie wrote that book in archaeological compliance work and the density of modern settlement—this pre-contact history, Native peoples were 1980, only a handful of small in advance of construction is because most archaeological sites are not hunter-gatherers, meaning they moved their archaeological sites were known projects. In particular, the found through comprehensive surveys, but settlements seasonally to exploit various plants from the Adirondack Park Archaeological and Historic by people inadvertently encountering artifacts and animals for subsistence, shelter, clothing, region. But even as a novice Along the Ausable River, 1985 Preservation Act of 1974 either before or during construction or other Fluted point et cetera. The many hundreds of lakes, ponds, 4 | ADIRONDACK PEEKS SPRING 2020 | 5 swamps, and wetlands would have been very tensions, but more study would be needed to Aside from farming, by 700 AD another societies, the persistence of Native peoples peoples include stories about the creation of attractive to hunter-gatherers for fishing, food see how this might have played out in the technological was adopted in the Northeast: is often overlooked in the early histories of the mountains, often as a result of contests collecting, and for acquiring raw materials for Adirondack region. the bow and arrow. Prior to that, hunting the Northeast U.S. Throughout the Contact between benevolent and malevolent forces. stone tool-making, woodworking, basket and spears were thrown, often using a spear- Period there were several periods of dispersal But as I discussed with Ray Fadden back in cloth-making. The Woodland Period thrower or atlatl. Bow and arrow technology and realignments among Native tribes, and 1985, while both Iroquoian and Algonquian- was first invented in Northeast Asia about the Adirondack region certainly played a role speaking peoples would have regarded The First Peoples: The period when Native peoples began 5000 years ago and then mountainous regions as special Paleo-Indian Period to make pottery marks the beginning of spread across North and South places in their cosmologies, there what archaeologists call the “Woodland America. Evidence for this is no reason to think that this The first peoples of North America are Period,” 1000 BC - 1600 AD. The making new technology comes in the would have limited their travel often referred to as “Paleo-Indians.” Until Arrowheads of fired clay vessels clearly marks a change form of a new projectile point: to, and settlement in, the region. about 13,000 years ago, the Adirondacks in cooking technology and likely indicates a small, lightweight, triangular The ideological and spiritual were covered with a continental-size ice sheet courses and floodplains were established; sea the intense exploitation of particular kinds point that would have been aspects of Native relationships that, at its height, was over a mile thick. Not level had risen to close to modern levels, and of starchy seeds that require intense cooking more aerodynamic for use with with the Adirondacks would be a single one of the High Peaks would have the forest had matured significantly in just a (e.g., goosefoot, sumpweed, and acorns). bow and arrow. While later— an exciting avenue to explore been visible above the ice at the time of the few thousand years. Towards the latter part of the Woodland and especially after European in future research. For those last glacial maximum 18,000 years ago. The This period is referred to as the “Archaic Period, new, domesticated plants made colonization—this became a of you who want to explore first people to colonize the Northeast arrived Period” by archaeologists. Over the course their way into the region, specifically weapon of war, it was initially this, I encourage a visit to John around 13,000 years ago from the south of the Archaic Period, Native peoples settled corn, beans, and squash. Corn and beans adopted as a more effective Fadden—Ray’s son—at the and west, just after the continental glaciers into regional homelands, moving their were originally domesticated in Central hunting technology. Six Nations Indian Museum in had melted. The glacier would have mowed settlements seasonally within relatively America, and Native peoples adopted them Onchiota. down everything in its path, scouring valleys circumscribed territories. They exploited into their subsistence across many parts of Post-Contact If you ever do come across and mountain tops, leaving behind piles of many thousands of species of plants and North America between 4000 BC – 1000 Native Settlement artifacts while on a hike or while dirt, rock, water, and ice. Given the higher animals seasonally. A large portion of the AD. As the plants were grown further and camping in the Adirondacks, elevation of the Adirondacks and overall sites in the Adirondacks date to the Archaic further north, Native people hybridized the While the main focus of whether it is a spear point or slower drainage, it is likely that ice remained Period. People clearly spent whole seasons or plants to become better adapted to a colder this article is Native American ceramic sherds, please report it to Tribal territories during the early colonial Iroquoian tribes in the mountains for longer, and it likely took portions of the season in the mountainous climate. While there is evidence for maize use and habitation of the the SHPO (https://parks.ny.gov/ period. Source: Smithsonian Institute Algonquian tribes a bit longer for the environment to bounce regions of New York, collecting berries and in the Northeast dating to 200 BC, it was Adirondacks before European shpo/contact/). The rich cultural back after glaciation than it did in the major plants, fishing, hunting, obtaining materials not likely a significant part of the diet until colonization, it is important to history of the Adirondacks is as river valleys and lowlands. Nevertheless, there for stone tools, et cetera. The population size several hundred years later. For Iroquoian- emphasize that Native peoples have persisted in both seasonal settlement and movement of important as its precious natural resources, is archaeological evidence for Paleo-Indian and density of native populations clearly speaking peoples along the Mohawk and through the Contact Period in the greater peoples throughout human history. and we need to work together to protect this archaeological sites in the Adirondacks. expanded through the Archaic Period. St. Lawrence Rivers, the adoption of maize Northeast and through to the present day. On a final note, I would like to come back cultural heritage for future generations. The The environment and the climate at that There is some evidence for social conflicts horticulture is associated with an increase in There were numerous Contact Period Native to Ritchie’s hypothesis that Native peoples Adirondacks have not been truly “wild” for time was bouncing back from glaciation during the Late Archaic Period, and towards population size and density, the formation American sites reported in the NYS site files. believed that there were spirit forces in the the past 13,000 years, as people travel through, and would have been patchier, variable, the end of this period there is evidence for of sedentary villages, and a rise in inter- Because of the number of objects traded among Adirondack Mountains. Certainly, mountain in, and among, all the regions within the Blue and somewhat unpredictable. Like other increased burial ceremonialism and ritual. group warfare. Archaeological evidence for and between Native peoples and Europeans in tops are often associated with the sky-world or Line, hunting, fishing, farming, sleeping, food foragers, these first peoples would have Dena Dincauze (1968) suggested that this this intensification includes the remains the 17th and 18th centuries, and because of above world in Native American oral histories, hiking, and living and dying among those exploited many species of plants and animals may indicate more territorial marking and of numerous multi-roomed longhouses in the quick settlement changes among Native and many of the origin stories of Iroquoian beautiful and precious peaks. n in a given year. Paleo-Indians are known by a social tensions. It is possible that an increase villages that were inhabited for up to 50 distinct form of stone tool: the fluted point. in population led to some of these social years at a time. Population estimates for these Many other stone tools have been found on villages range between 600-1300 people. Paleo-Indian sites, including a variety Many of these villages were palisaded of scrapers, drills, and cutting tools. for defense, and there is clear evidence Further Reading Paleoenvironmental evidence suggests for inter-tribal warfare during the Late that there would have been a plethora Woodland Period. While the most Chilton, Elizabeth, and Meredith Hardy of wild animals and plants, including intensive horticulture was practiced 2014 “The Atlantic Coast of North America,” turtles, fish, and sea mammals along the only after about 800 AD and primarily in The Cambridge World Prehistory edited Elizabeth S. Chilton is Dean of the by Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn, Cambridge coast and interior seaways, birds, wild in the major river valleys of the Mohawk Harpur College of Arts and Sciences at University Press. grapes, and other berries and fruits. and St. Lawrence, certainly there were Binghamton University and Professor of some farming villages in the Lake Anthropology. Chilton's research interests Dincauze, Dena F. The Archaic Period George and Lake Champlain areas and include cultural heritage, heritage policy, 1968 Cremation Cemeteries in Eastern in some of the lower elevations around North American archaeology, the origins Massachusetts. Peabody Museum, Cambridge, of agriculture, social complexity, ceramic By about 10,000 years ago, much the edges of the Blue Line. Further, it Massachusetts. of the Northeast U.S. had been is clear that people continued to make ecology, geoarchaeology, and cultural resource management. colonized by these first peoples, and the forays into the Adirondacks for seasonal McManamon, Frank (editor) environment had rebounded and was encampments, fishing and hunting, and 2009 Archaeology in America: An Encyclopedia. much like it is today. Many of the larger other natural resources through the Greenwood Publishing. rivers had settled into their modern Pottery sherds pre-contact period. 6 | ADIRONDACK PEEKS SPRING 2020 | 7