1.
Forest Preserve (New York)
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New Yorks Forest Preserve is all the land owned by the state within the Adirondack and Catskill parks, managed by its Department of Environmental Conservation. These properties are required to be kept forever wild by Article 14 of the state constitution and it is thus necessary to amend the New York State Constitution in order to transfer any of these lands to another owner or lessee. Currently there are more than 2.6 million acres of Forest Preserve in the Adirondacks and 287,514 acres in the Catskills, while today the Forest Preserve is valued largely as a conservation measure, its establishment in the 19th century was motivated primarily by economic considerations. Gradually its inherent worth as a nature preserve came to be seen, as it became a draw for recreation and they were informed by George Perkins Marshs seminal 1865 book, Man and Nature, which made the connection between deforestation and desertification. Five years afterward, surveyor Verplanck Colvin beheld the Adirondacks from the summit of Seward Mountain during his mission to map the region and they appointed him to a committee to study the problem. Later that year, Ulster Countys representatives in the Assembly were trying to get the county out of a property tax debt a court had ruled they owed the state. Their solution was to some of the land on which they owed the taxes. One side effect of this deal is that the state pays all local and this has helped many local governments remain solvent as they have very little economic assets other than forest resources. To manage the land, the state had created a Forest Commission, most of its members were either openly or covertly connected to timber interests, however, and routinely approved dodges around the legislation to make sure logging would continue. In 1893 the legislature retroactively approved many of these practices by giving the commission the right to sell timber from the lands and it seemed the Forest Preserve now existed only on paper. This section, Article 7 of the 1894 constitution, is referred to as the forever wild section even though those two words do not appear next to each other in the text. Voters resoundingly rejected it, however, and the principle of a forever wild Forest Preserve has remained inviolate in New York State to this day, since then, over 2,000 amendments to Article 14 have been introduced in the legislature. Of those, only 28 have made it to the ballot, many of those have been otherwise routine land transfers that enabled the construction or expansion of public cemeteries or airports. Others have allowed for the construction and continued maintenance of reservoirs, the most significant change was a pair of amendments that created the ski centers at Belleayre in the Catskills and Gore and Whiteface in the Adirondacks. The latter includes a road to the summit as well. In 1902, when Article 14 was more a matter of settled law, accordingly, that year the Adirondack Park was defined in terms of the counties and towns within it. Two years later, the Catskill Park was defined, the park boundaries became known as the Blue Line since they were drawn, as they have been ever since, in blue ink on state maps. While many of the original came from tax foreclosures, over time the state bought huge tracts
2.
Saint Regis Canoe Area
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The Saint Regis Canoe Area in Adirondack Park is the largest wilderness canoe area in the Northeastern United States and the only designated canoe area in New York state. It is closed to motorized vehicles, among the 58 ponds and lakes are Upper Saint Regis Lake, part of the Seven Carries route, and Saint Regis Pond. It contains the headwaters of the West and Middle Branch of the Saint Regis, only two of the lakes can be reached without a portage, or carry as its known in the region. Primitive canoe camping is permitted on many of the lakes and ponds, Saint Regis Mountain and Long Pond Mountain are within the area. The area covers 19,000 acre in southern Franklin County, New York between Tupper Lake and Paul Smiths
3.
Mohawk language
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Mohawk /ˈmoʊhɔːk/ is a threatened Iroquoian language currently spoken by around 3,500 people of the Mohawk nation, located primarily in Canada and to a lesser extent in the United States. The word Mohawk is an exonym, in the Mohawk language, the people say that they are from Kanienkehá, ka or Flint Stone Place. As such, the Mohawks were extremely wealthy traders as other nations in their confederacy needed their flint for tool making. Their Algonquian-speaking neighbors, the People of Muh-heck Heek Ing, a people whom the Dutch called Mohicans or Mahicans, the Dutch heard and wrote this as Mohawks. This is why the People of Kan-ee-en Ka are often referred to as Mohawks, the Dutch also referred to the Mohawk as Egils or Maquas. The French adapted these terms as Aigniers, Maquis, or called them by the generic Iroquois, the Mohawks comprised the largest and most powerful of the original Five Nations, controlling a vast area of land on the eastern frontier of the Iroquois Confederacy. The North Country and Adirondack region of present-day Upstate New York would have constituted the greater part of the Mohawk-speaking area lasting until the end of the 18th century. For his work, Bell was awarded the title of Honorary Chief and participated in a ceremony where he donned a Mohawk headdress, the Mohawk language is currently classified as threatened, and the number of native speakers has continually declined over the past several years. Mohawk has the largest number of speakers among the Northern Iroquoian languages, at Akwesasne, residents have begun a language immersion school in Kanien’kéha to revive the language. With their children learning it, parents and other members are taking language classes. A Mohawk language immersion school was established, Mohawk parents, concerned with the lack of culture-based education in public and parochial schools, founded the Akwesasne Freedom School in 1979. Every morning, teachers and students gather in the hallway to recite the Thanksgiving Address in Mohawk, Kanatsiohareke is a small Mohawk/Kanienkahaka community on the north bank of the Mohawk River, west of Fonda, New York. The name means Place of the clean pot, Kanatsiohareke was created to be a Carlisle Indian Boarding School in Reverse, teaching Mohawk language and culture. Located at the ancient homeland of the Kanienkehaka, it was re-established in September 1993 under the leadership of Thomas R. Porter, the community must raise their own revenue and frequently hold cultural presentations, workshops, and academic events, including an annual Strawberry Festival. A craft shop on site features genuine handmade Native crafts from all over North America, the primary mission of the community is to try to preserve traditional values, culture, language and lifestyles in the guidance of the Kaienerekowa. Kanatsiohareke, Inc. is an organization under IRS code 501c3. In 2006, over 600 people were reported to speak the language in Canada, in 2011, there were approximately 3,500 speakers of Mohawk, primarily in Quebec, Ontario and western New York. Immersion classes for children at Akwesasne and other reserves are helping to train new first-language speakers
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
6.
Mount Marcy
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Mount Marcy is the highest point in New York State, with an elevation of 5,343 feet. It is located in the Town of Keene in Essex County, the mountain is in the heart of the Adirondack High Peaks Region of the High Peaks Wilderness Area. Its stature and expansive views make it a destination for hikers. Lake Tear of the Clouds, at the col between Mt. Marcy and Mt, the mountain is named after Gov. William L. Marcy, the 19th-century Governor of New York, who authorized the environmental survey that explored the area. Its first recorded ascent was on August 5,1837, by a party led by Ebenezer Emmons looking for the source of the East Fork of the Hudson River. Today the summit may be reached by trails, though long by any route. Roosevelt and his party hiked ten miles down the southwest face of the mountain to Long Lake, at some point along the route, Roosevelt learned that McKinley had died, and so Roosevelt took the train to Buffalo to get sworn in as President. The route from Long Lake to North Creek has been designated as the Roosevelt-Marcy Trail, Mount Marcy is one of the High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains. The majority of the mountain is forested, although the few hundred feet is above the tree line. The peak is dominated by rocky outcrops, lichens, and alpine shrubs, there are two plaques at the top commemorating the centennial of the climb as well as the mountain summit itself. The shortest and most frequently used route up the mountain is from the northwest, the Van Hoevenberg Trail, from there it is 7.4 miles to the summit, a lengthy roundtrip which can nevertheless be done in a day. A large section of the trail is suitable for skiing and snowboarding. The summit via the Johns Brook Trail from the Garden parking north of the mountain in Keene Valley is an 18-mile round trip, a lengthier southern approach can be made from either of the two major trailheads for the southern High Peaks, Upper Works or Elk Lake. Visibility on the summit occasionally affords very distant views of most of the Montregian Hills volcano chain in Quebecs St Lawrence valley as far north as Mont St Hillaire, views of Burlington and Lake Champlain adorn the surrounding Green Mountains with visibility extending far beyond the Southern Adirondacks as well. List of mountain peaks of North America List of mountain peaks of the United States List of U. S. states by elevation Adirondack Park High Peaks Wilderness Area Mount Marcy hike and trip report
7.
Keene, New York
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Keene is a town in central Essex County, New York, United States. It includes the hamlets of Keene, Keene Valley, and St. Huberts, the town is part of the Adirondack Park, and includes 15 of the 46 High Peaks, including Mount Marcy, New Yorks highest mountain, and the rest of the Great Range. It also includes the Ausable Lakes, the source of the Ausable River, trailheads for many of the High Peaks are located within the town, along with the Johns Brook Lodge of the Adirondack Mountain Club. The earliest settlement in the present village of Keene Center was in 1787, the town of Keene was created from splitting parts of the towns of Jay and Elizabethtown on March 19,1808. This originally included current North Elba, but that was split in 1848 from the original Keene, the area was made of a mountainous and rocky surface, with a low population due to the unstable soil in the region. A nearby highway was extended to Keene Center via the towns of Lewis and Jay, the town of Keene organized the first school district in the Adirondacks, which held its first recorded trustee meeting in 1813. The area had been a stronghold with the lumber and iron industries, however, exporting items made by these industries was difficult due to lack of transportation. By around 1820 sawmills, forges and gristmills were being built, the riverbed region of Keene sprouted the first community, and Keene Flats become another by 1840. In 1882, when the Adirondack Park was created as a protected area. In 2011, the town completed a project to bring broadband service to more than 97% of the homes in Keene. The extension of this network into rural areas makes it unique in the Adirondack Park, the Hurricane Mountain Fire Observation Station and Walton Bridge are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 156.6 square miles, of which 155.9 square miles is land and 0.69 square miles. Many of the High Peaks of the Adirondack Park are in or near the town, including Mount Marcy, elevation 5,343 feet, the highest point in New York. The East Branch of the Ausable River passes through the hamlets of Keene and Keene Valley, New York State Route 9N changes from north-south to east-west south of Keene hamlet. New York State Route 73 changes from east-west to north-south in the same place, as of the census of 2000, there were 1,063 people,443 households, and 279 families residing in the town. The population density was 6.8 people per square mile, there were 984 housing units at an average density of 6.3 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 98. 68% White,0. 09% African American,0. 19% Native American,0. 47% Asian,0. 09% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 0. 38% of the population. 31. 4% of all households were made up of individuals and 13. 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 2.90
8.
Essex County, New York
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Essex County is a county in the U. S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 39,370 and its county seat is the hamlet of Elizabethtown. Its name is from the English county of Essex, along with Hamilton County, Essex is entirely within the Adirondack Park. When counties were established in the state of New York in 1683 and this was an enormous county, including the northern part of New York state as well as all of the present state of Vermont and, in theory, extending westward to the Pacific Ocean. This county was reduced in size on July 3,1766, by the creation of Cumberland County, on March 12,1772, what was left of Albany County was split into three parts, one remaining under the name Albany County. One of the pieces, Charlotte County, contained the eastern portion. In 1784, the name Charlotte County was changed to Washington County to honor George Washington, in 1788, Clinton County was split off from Washington County. This was a larger area than the present Clinton County. Essex County was split from Clinton County in 1799, according to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,916 square miles, of which 1,794 square miles is land and 122 square miles is water. It is the second-largest county in New York by land area, Essex County is in the northeastern part of New York state, just west of Vermont along the eastern boundary of the state. The eastern boundary of Essex County is Lake Champlain, which serves as the New York – Vermont border at an elevation of just under 100 feet, the highest natural point in New York, Mount Marcy at 5,344 feet, is in the town of Keene. The Ausable River forms a northern boundary for the county. As of the census of 2000, there were 38,851 people,15,028 households, the population density was 22 people per square mile. There were 23,115 housing units at a density of 13 per square mile. Of the population,22. 0% were of French,16. 3% Irish,13. 0% English,8. 6% German,7. 1% American and 6. 2% Italian ancestry,95. 2% spoke English,2. 2% Spanish, and 1. 3% French as their first language. 28. 30% of all households were made up of individuals and 12. 60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.93. In the county, the population was out with 22. 80% under the age of 18,6. 90% from 18 to 24,29. 80% from 25 to 44,24. 50% from 45 to 64. The median age was 39 years, for every 100 females there were 107.60 males
9.
Lake Champlain
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Lake Champlain /ʃæmˈpleɪn/ is a natural freshwater lake in North America mainly within the borders of the United States but partially situated across the Canada–U. S. Border, in the Canadian province of Quebec, the New York portion of the Champlain Valley includes the eastern portions of Clinton County and Essex County. Most of this area is part of the Adirondack Park, there are recreational opportunities in the park and along the relatively undeveloped coastline of Lake Champlain. The cities of Plattsburgh, New York and Burlington, Vermont are on the western and eastern shores, respectively. The Quebec portion is in the county municipalities of Le Haut-Richelieu. There are a number of islands in the lake, the largest include Grand Isle, Isle La Motte, and North Hero, all part of Grand Isle County, Vermont. The Champlain Valley is the northernmost unit of a system known as the Great Appalachian Valley. The Champlain Valley is a section of the larger Saint Lawrence Valley. Lake Champlain is one of large lakes scattered in an arc through Labrador, in Canada, the northern United States. Although it is smaller than each of the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain is a body of fresh water. Approximately 1,269 km2 in area, the lake is roughly 201 km long and 23 km across at its widest point, the lake varies seasonally from about 95 to 100 ft above mean sea level. Lake Champlain drains nearly half of Vermont, and approximately 250,000 people get their water from the lake. The lake is fed in Vermont by the LaPlatte, Lamoille, Missisquoi, Poultney, and Winooski rivers, along with Lewis Creek, Little Otter Creek, and Otter Creek. In New York, it is fed by the Ausable, Boquet, Great Chazy, La Chute, Little Ausable, Little Chazy, Salmon, in Quebec, it is fed by the Pike River. It is connected to the Hudson River by the Champlain Canal, parts of the lake freeze each winter, and in some winters the entire lake surface freezes, referred to as closing. In July and August, the temperature reaches an average of 70 °F. The Chazy Reef is an extensive Ordovician carbonate rock formation extends from Tennessee to Quebec. It occurs in prominent outcropping at Goodsell Ridge, Isle La Motte, the oldest reefs are around The Head of the south end of the island, slightly younger reefs are found at the Fisk Quarry, and the youngest are in fields to the north
10.
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest
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Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial biome, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions. The term Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is used by the World Wildlife Fund in global biogeography as one of the biome designations under which to organize ecoregions, the typical structure of these forests includes four layers. The uppermost layer is the canopy composed of mature trees ranging from 30 to 61 m high. Below the canopy is the three-layered, shade-tolerant understory that is roughly 9 to 15 m shorter than the canopy, the top layer of the understory is the sub-canopy composed of smaller mature trees, saplings, and suppressed juvenile canopy layer trees awaiting an opening in the canopy. Below the sub-canopy is the layer, composed of low growing woody plants. Typically the lowest growing layer is the cover or herbaceous layer. In the Northern hemisphere, characteristic dominant broadleaf trees in this biome include oaks, beeches, maples, the term mixed forest comes from the inclusion of coniferous trees as a canopy component of some of these forests. Typical coniferous trees include, Pines, firs, and spruces, in some areas of this biome the conifers may be a more important canopy species than the broadleaf species. In the Southern hemisphere, endemic genera such as Nothofagus and Eucalyptus occupy this biome, Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests occur in areas with distinct warm and cool season, which give it a moderate annual average temperature —3 to 15.6 °C. These forests occur in warm and rainy climates, sometimes also with a distinct dry season. A dry season occurs in the winter in East Asia and in summer on the wet fringe of the Mediterranean climate zones. Other areas, as in the central and upper eastern United States and southeastern Canada, have an even distribution of rainfall, annual rainfall is typically over 600 mm
11.
Taiga
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Taiga also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces and larches. The taiga is the worlds largest biome apart from the oceans, in North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States, where it is known as the Northwoods or North woods. However, the tree species, the length of the growing season. Hoffman discusses the origin of this use in North America. Although at high elevations taiga grades into alpine tundra through Krummholz, it is not an alpine biome only like subalpine forest, Taiga is the worlds largest land biome, and makes up 29% of the worlds forest cover, the largest areas are located in Russia and Canada. The taiga is the terrestrial biome with the lowest annual average temperatures after the tundra, extreme winter minimums in the northern taiga are typically lower than those of the tundra. The lowest reliably recorded temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were recorded in the taiga of northeastern Russia, the taiga or boreal forest has a subarctic climate with very large temperature range between seasons, but the long and cold winter is the dominant feature. This climate is classified as Dfc, Dwc, Dsc, Dfd and Dwd in the Köppen climate classification scheme, meaning that the summer lasts 1–3 months. In Siberian taiga the average temperature of the coldest month is between −6 °C and −50 °C, the mean annual temperature generally varies from -5 °C to 5 °C, but there are taiga areas in eastern Siberia and interior Alaska-Yukon where the mean annual reaches down to -10 °C. According to some sources, the boreal forest grades into a mixed forest when mean annual temperature reaches about 3 °C. The winters, with temperatures below freezing, last five to seven months. Temperatures vary from −54 °C to 30 °C throughout the whole year, the summers, while short, are generally warm and humid. In much of the taiga, -20 °C would be a winter day temperature and 18 °C an average summer day. In Canada, Scandinavia and Finland, the season is often estimated by using the period of the year when the 24-hour average temperature is +5 °C or more. For the Taiga Plains in Canada, growing season varies from 80 to 150 days, some sources claim 130 days growing season as typical for the taiga. Other sources mention that 50–100 frost-free days are characteristic, data for locations in southwest Yukon gives 80–120 frost-free days. The closed canopy boreal forest in Kenozersky National Park near Plesetsk, Arkhangelsk Province, Russia, the longest growing season is found in the smaller areas with oceanic influences, in coastal areas of Scandinavia and Finland, the growing season of the closed boreal forest can be 145–180 days. High latitudes mean that the sun not rise far above the horizon
12.
Alpine tundra
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Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high altitude. The high altitude causes an adverse climate, which is too cold, Alpine tundra transitions to sub-alpine forests below the tree line, stunted forests occurring at the forest-tundra ecotone are known as Krummholz. With increasing elevation it ends at the line where snow. Alpine tundra occurs in mountains worldwide, the flora of the alpine tundra is characterized by dwarf shrubs close to the ground. The cold climate of the tundra is caused by the lack of greenhouse effect at high altitude. Alpine tundra occurs at high altitude at any latitude. Portions of Montane grasslands and shrublands ecoregions worldwide include alpine tundra, Alpine tundra occupies high-mountain summits, slopes, and ridges above timberline. Aspect plays a role as well, the treeline often occurs at higher elevations on warmer equator-facing slopes, with limited access to infrastructure, only a handful of human communities exist in alpine zones. Many are small and have heavily specialized economies, often relying on such as agriculture, mining. An example of such a town is La Rinconada, Peru, a gold-mining town. A counterexample is El Alto, Bolivia, at 4,150 metres, which has a diverse service and manufacturing economy. Alpine climate is the weather for the alpine tundra. The climate becomes colder at high elevations—this characteristic is described by the rate of air, air tends to get colder as it rises. The dry adiabatic lapse rate is 10 °C per km of elevation or altitude, therefore, moving up 100 metres on a mountain is roughly equivalent to moving 80 kilometers towards the pole. This relationship is only approximate, however, since local factors such as proximity to oceans can drastically modify the climate, typical high-elevation growing seasons range from 45 to 90 days, with average summer temperatures near 10 °C. Growing season temperatures frequently fall below freezing, and frost occurs throughout the season in many areas. Precipitation occurs mainly as snow, but soil water availability is highly variable with season, location. For example, snowfields commonly accumulate on the lee sides of ridges while ridgelines may remain nearly snow free due to redistribution by wind, some alpine habitats may be up to 70% snow free in winter
13.
Adirondack Park Agency
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The Adirondack Park Agency was created in 1971 by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller as a governmental agency that performs long-range planning for the future of the Adirondack Park. It oversees development plans of private land-owners as well as activities within the Adirondack Forest Preserve, Development by private owners must be reviewed to determine if their plan is compatible with the park. The agency is headquartered in Ray Brook, New York, the Adirondack Park Agency was created in an attempt to settle many of these longstanding issues. It has been controversial from the outset, the Adirondack Park is unique in that more than half of the land in the park is privately held. The APA was formed in response to a threat to the integrity of the privately held portion. The completion of the Adirondack Northway in 1967 drastically increased the pressure brought by developers for second home developments, the agencys first task was to create a master plan, followed by a zoning map and land use plan. This zoning map breaks the park up into different sections, the classifications are broken up into two sections, private land classification, and state land classification. Private land classifications are the most controversial because they determine what people can do on their own land, the different classifications for private land include hamlet, low-intensity use, moderate intensity use, rural use, resource management use, and industrial use. Citizens living in the believe that much of the land is incorrectly classified. This is partly because the entire 6 million acres were classified in only eight months, a land classification can be changed through the APA, but it is a long process. Many argue that the map should be remade. The land use plan, in particular, ignited a storm of controversy, while most park residents were opponents of the APA, some, notably Clarence Petty, supported it. Initially, the APA handled matters poorly, and sentiment ran strongly against it. Then, in 1972, the Horizon Corporation of Tucson, Arizona, purchased 24,000 acres within the park and announced plans to build 10,000 new homes, along with golf courses, and ski areas. Other plans for 4,000 homes on 18,000 acres were under development, suddenly the Park Agencys land use plan looked much more reasonable to many more people, and the continued existence of the agency assured. The work of the APA remains controversial, however, with many of its actions drawing lawsuits from one side or the other, Adirondack Park Agency visitor interpretive centers Angus, Christopher, The Extraordinary Adirondack Journey of Clarence Petty, Syracuse, Syracuse University Press,2002. McMartin, Barbara, Perspectives on the Adirondacks, Syracuse, Syracuse University Press,2002, economic Impact of the Adirondack Private Land Use and Development Plan, State University of New York Press,1980. Adirondack Park Agency Maps and GIS, official site Visitor Information Centers New York Times, Building Boom in Adirondack Park Tests Laws to Preserve Wilderness, August 4,1987
14.
National Historic Landmark
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A National Historic Landmark is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Of over 85,000 places listed on the countrys National Register of Historic Places, a National Historic Landmark District may include contributing properties that are buildings, structures, sites or objects, and it may include non-contributing properties. Contributing properties may or may not also be separately listed, prior to 1935, efforts to preserve cultural heritage of national importance were made by piecemeal efforts of the United States Congress. The first National Historic Site designation was made for the Salem Maritime National Historic Site on March 17,1938. In 1960, the National Park Service took on the administration of the data gathered under this legislation. Because listings often triggered local preservation laws, legislation in 1980 amended the procedures to require owner agreement to the designations. On October 9,1960,92 properties were announced as designated NHLs by Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton, more than 2,500 NHLs have been designated. Most, but not all, are in the United States, there are NHLs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Three states account for nearly 25 percent of the nations NHLs, three cities within these states all separately have more NHLs than 40 of the 50 states. In fact, New York City alone has more NHLs than all but five states, Virginia, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, there are 74 NHLs in the District of Columbia. Some NHLs are in U. S. commonwealths and territories, associated states, and foreign states. There are 15 in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other U. S. commonwealths and territories,5 in U. S. -associated states such as Micronesia, over 100 ships or shipwrecks have been designated as NHLs. About half of the National Historic Landmarks are privately owned, the National Historic Landmarks Program relies on suggestions for new designations from the National Park Service, which also assists in maintaining the landmarks. A friends group of owners and managers, the National Historic Landmark Stewards Association, works to preserve, protect, if not already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, an NHL is automatically added to the Register upon designation. About three percent of Register listings are NHLs, american Water Landmark List of U. S
15.
Blue Line (New York State)
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The Blue Line is the term used in New York state for the boundaries of the Adirondack and Catskill parks, within which can be found the states Forest Preserve. The state constitution requires that any property owned or acquired by the state in those parks be forever kept as wild forest lands and it is so called because blue ink was used when they were first drawn on state maps. That started a tradition that persists to this day, when the Forest Preserve was created in 1885, the legislature merely designated particular counties in the state as places where Forest Preserve could be acquired in the future. This definition was retained nine years later when the Forest Preserve Act became Article 14 of the state constitution, ulster County, for instance, is home to some of the wildest land in the Catskills but also has many well-developed lowlands near the Hudson River. So, in 1902, the legislature passed a bill defining the Adirondack Park for the first time in terms of the counties, two years later, the Catskill Park followed suit. However, it was delineated not solely in terms of pre-existing political boundaries but instead through a combination of those and old survey lot lines, streams and railroad rights-of-way. That proved to be an effective and politically viable method. Both parks have grown considerably since being created, the Catskill Park reached its present size in the late 1950s, the Adirondack Park did not cover its current domain until the early 1970s. In 1912 the legislature further clarified that the parks included the privately owned lands within as well as the public holdings and this has a few implications today. Land use in the Adirondack Park is subject to the rules, even the state Department of Environmental Conservation must get APA approval of its management plans for the Forest Preserve. But there is no corresponding agency for the Catskills and as a rule the practical impact of living within Blue Line is minor, DEC still has that status in what the law calls fire towns, which include every town entirely or partially within the parks. Fires have become less widespread than they used to be, however, thanks to a better-educated public. The Catskill Park is also the place within the states Southern Zone where hunters do not have to wear their deer tags in the woods. Usually the agencies involved, like the Department of Transportation, simply lease what they need from private landowners, sometimes another governmental entity not subject to state law owns the land. The Administrative Use land classification, particularly in the Adirondacks, also some other state business possible. The law also exempts some areas within the park boundaries, land inside the territory of any incorporated village or city does not have to be incorporated into the Forest Preserve. The towns of Altona and Dannemora are also excluded, despite being entirely or partially inside the Adirondack Blue Line, NYS Adirondack Park Agency, History of the Adirondack Park,2003, http, //apa. ny. gov/about_park/history. htm
16.
Adirondack Mountains
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The Adirondack Mountains /ædᵻˈrɒndæk/ form a massif in the northeast of Upstate New York in the United States. Its boundaries correspond to the boundaries of Adirondack Park, the mountains form a roughly circular dome, about 160 miles in diameter and about 1 mile high. The current relief owes much to glaciation, the earliest written use of the name, spelled Rontaks, was in 1724 by the French missionary Joseph-François Lafitau. He defined it as tree eaters, in the Mohawk language, Adirondack means porcupine, an animal that may eat bark. The Mohawks had no written language at the time so Europeans have used various phonetic spellings, an English map from 1761 labels it simply Deer Hunting Country and the mountains were named Adirondacks in 1837 by Ebenezer Emmons. People first arrived in the following the settlement of the Americas around 10,000 BC. The Algonquian peoples and the Mohawk nation used the Adirondacks for hunting and travel, european colonisation of the area began with Samuel de Champlain visiting what is now Ticonderoga in 1609, and Jesuit missionary Isaac Jogues visited the region in 1642. In 1664 the land came under the control of the English when New Netherland was ceded to The Crown, after the American Revolutionary War, the lands passed to the people of New York State. Needing money to war debts, the new government sold nearly all the original public acreage about 7 million acres for pennies an acre. Lumbermen were welcomed to the interior, with few restraints, resulting in massive deforestation, for the history of the area since industrialization, see The History of Adirondack Park. In 1989, part of the Adirondack region was designated by UNESCO as the Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve, the rocks of the mountains originated about two billion years ago as 50,000 feet deep sediments at the bottom of a sea near the equator. Because of continental drift these collided with Laurentia in a mountain building episode known as the Grenville orogeny, during this time the sedimentary rock was changed into metamorphic rock. It is these Proterozoic minerals and lithologies that make up the core of the massif, such minerals of interest include, wollastonite, mined near Harrisville magnetite and hematite, formerly mined at the Benson Mines, Lyon Mountain, Mineville, Tawahus, and Witherbee. Graphite, mined near Hague and Ticonderoga, garnet, mined at the Barton Mine, north of Gore Mountain. Anorthosite, visible in road cuts on the New York State Route 3 between Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake, marble zinc, The Balmat-Edwards district on the northwest flank of the massif also in St. Lawrence County was a major zinc ore deposit titanium was mined at Tawahus. Around 600 million years ago the area began to be pulled apart, as Laurentia drifted away from Baltica, faults developed, running north to north east which formed valleys and deep lakes. Examples visible today include the grabens Lake George and Schroon Lake, by this time the Grenville mountains had been eroded away and the area was covered by a shallow sea. Several thousand feet of sediment accumulated on the sea bed, trilobites were the principal life-form of the sea bed, and fossil tracks can be seen in the Potsdam sandstone floor of the Paul Smiths Visitor Interpretive Center
17.
Adirondack guideboat
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Adirondack guideboats were built since the early 19th century and evolved from a hunting skiff to todays highly refined design, virtually unchanged since the late 19th century. It was in the guides best interest to make their craft both lightweight and easy to carry over the typically unimproved roads and trails between the lakes and streams of the Adirondack region, the New York craft were famous for their on-center tenderness, a trade-off from their remarkable speed. Although these boats resemble canoes, they are not and they are built in the same manner as a skiff and rowed, not paddled, except for short distances with a sneak paddle. The boat is more stable than a canoe because the occupants are sitting lower, almost on the bottom of the boat. The oars are pinned and aligned so that if the rower stops rowing and lets go of the oars they will stay with the boat, Adirondack guideboats have won open water rowing races in some very challenging conditions. Modern reproduction Adirondack guideboat hulls are made of kevlar, fiberglass or wood strips, some hulls use both materials, with a wood hull and a fiberglass laminate applied to the outer surface for greater durability. The boat can be fitted with either a fixed or a sliding seat and outriggers for racing. Since 1962 the annual Willard Hanmer Guideboat & Canoe Race has been held in July in Saranac Lake, New York, it is a 10-mile canoe and kayak race on Lake Flower, Willard Hanmer was a master guideboat builder. There is also a Guideboat class in the Adirondack Canoe Classic, the Adirondack Museum has several classic examples in its collection. Durant, Kenneth, Durant, Helen van Dongen, Adirondack guideboat manufacturer Plans & photos from the Adirondack Museum
18.
Romanticism
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Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was embodied most strongly in the arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, Romanticism assigned a high value to the achievements of heroic individualists and artists, whose examples, it maintained, would raise the quality of society. It also promoted the individual imagination as a critical authority allowed of freedom from classical notions of form in art, there was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability, a Zeitgeist, in the representation of its ideas. In the second half of the 19th century, Realism was offered as a polar opposite to Romanticism, the decline of Romanticism during this time was associated with multiple processes, including social and political changes and the spread of nationalism. Defining the nature of Romanticism may be approached from the point of the primary importance of the free expression of the feelings of the artist. The importance the Romantics placed on emotion is summed up in the remark of the German painter Caspar David Friedrich that the feeling is his law. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others believed there were laws that the imagination—at least of a good creative artist—would unconsciously follow through artistic inspiration if left alone. As well as rules, the influence of models from other works was considered to impede the creators own imagination, so that originality was essential. The concept of the genius, or artist who was able to produce his own work through this process of creation from nothingness, is key to Romanticism. This idea is called romantic originality. Not essential to Romanticism, but so widespread as to be normative, was a strong belief, however, this is particularly in the effect of nature upon the artist when he is surrounded by it, preferably alone. Romantic art addressed its audiences with what was intended to be felt as the voice of the artist. So, in literature, much of romantic poetry invited the reader to identify the protagonists with the poets themselves. In both French and German the closeness of the adjective to roman, meaning the new literary form of the novel, had some effect on the sense of the word in those languages. It is only from the 1820s that Romanticism certainly knew itself by its name, the period typically called Romantic varies greatly between different countries and different artistic media or areas of thought. Margaret Drabble described it in literature as taking place roughly between 1770 and 1848, and few dates much earlier than 1770 will be found. In English literature, M. H. Abrams placed it between 1789, or 1798, this latter a very typical view, and about 1830, however, in most fields the Romantic Period is said to be over by about 1850, or earlier
19.
James Fenimore Cooper
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James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a form of American literature. He lived most of his life in Cooperstown, New York, Cooper was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church and, in his later years, contributed generously to it. He attended Yale University for three years, where he was a member of the Linonian Society, but was expelled for misbehavior. Before embarking on his career as a writer, he served in the U. S. Navy as a Midshipman, the novel that launched his career was The Spy, a tale about counterespionage set during the Revolutionary War and published in 1821. He also wrote numerous sea stories, and his works are five historical novels of the frontier period known as the Leatherstocking Tales. Among naval historians, Coopers works on the early U. S. Navy have been well received, among his most famous works is the Romantic novel The Last of the Mohicans, often regarded as his masterpiece. James Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1789 to William Cooper and Elizabeth Cooper and he was descended from James Cooper of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, who emigrated to the American colonies in 1679. James and his wife were Quakers who purchased plots of land in New Jersey, seventy-five years after his arrival in America, his great-grandson William was born on December 2,1754. Shortly after James first birthday, his family moved to Cooperstown, New York, later, his father was elected as a United States Congressman from Otsego County. Their town was in a area of New York that had previously been occupied by the Iroquois of the Six Nations. The Iroquois were forced to cede their territory after British defeat in the Revolutionary War, shortly after the American Revolutionary War, the state opened up these former Iroquois lands for sale and development. Coopers father purchased several acres of land in upstate New York along the head-waters of the Susquehanna River. By 1788, William Cooper had selected and surveyed the site where Cooperstown would be established and he erected a home on the shore of Otsego lake and moved his family there in the autumn of 1790. He soon began construction of the mansion that would be known as Otsego Hall and it was completed in 1799 when James was ten. At age 13, Cooper was enrolled at Yale, but he incited a dangerous prank that involved blowing up another students door — after having already locked a donkey in a recitation room, Cooper was expelled in his third year without completing his degree. Disenchanted with college, he obtained work in 1806 as a sailor and, at age 17, by 1811, he obtained the rank of midshipman in the fledgling United States Navy, conferred upon him on an officers warrant signed by Thomas Jefferson. At 20, Cooper inherited a fortune from his father and he married Susan Augusta de Lancey at Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York on January 1,1811 at age 21
20.
Henry David Thoreau
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Henry David Thoreau was an American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, and historian. Thoreaus books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry amount to more than 20 volumes and he was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the abolitionist John Brown. Amos Bronson Alcott and Thoreaus aunt each wrote that Thoreau is pronounced like the word thorough, Edward Waldo Emerson wrote that the name should be pronounced Thó-row, with the h sounded and stress on the first syllable. Among modern-day American speakers, it is more commonly pronounced thə-ROH—/θəˈroʊ/—with stress on the second syllable. Thoreau was a man, with a nose that he called my most prominent feature. Of his appearance and disposition, Ellery Channing wrote, His face, once seen, Henry David Thoreau was born David Henry Thoreau in Concord, Massachusetts, into the modest New England family of John Thoreau, a pencil maker, and Cynthia Dunbar. His paternal grandfather was born in Jersey and his maternal grandfather, Asa Dunbar, led Harvards 1766 student Butter Rebellion, the first recorded student protest in the American colonies. David Henry was named after his recently deceased uncle, David Thoreau. He began to call himself Henry David after he finished college and he had two older siblings, Helen and John Jr. and a younger sister, Sophia. Thoreaus birthplace still exists on Virginia Road in Concord, the house has been restored by the Thoreau Farm Trust, a nonprofit organization, and is now open to the public. He studied at Harvard College between 1833 and 1837 and he lived in Hollis Hall and took courses in rhetoric, classics, philosophy, mathematics, and science. He was a member of the Institute of 1770, according to legend, Thoreau refused to pay the five-dollar fee for a Harvard diploma. He commented, Let every sheep keep its own skin, a reference to the tradition of using sheepskin vellum for diplomas, after he graduated in 1837, he joined the faculty of the Concord public school, but he resigned after a few weeks rather than administer corporal punishment. He and his brother John then opened the Concord Academy, a school in Concord in 1838. They introduced several concepts, including nature walks and visits to local shops. The school closed when John became fatally ill from tetanus in 1842 after cutting himself while shaving, upon graduation Thoreau returned home to Concord, where he met Ralph Waldo Emerson through a mutual friend. Emerson urged Thoreau to contribute essays and poems to a periodical, The Dial. Thoreaus first essay published in The Dial was Aulus Persius Flaccus and it consisted of revised passages from his journal, which he had begun keeping at Emersons suggestion
21.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, following this work, he gave a speech entitled The American Scholar in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be Americas intellectual Declaration of Independence. Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first and then revised them for print and his first two collections of essays, Essays, First Series and Essays, Second Series, represent the core of his thinking. They include the well-known essays Self-Reliance, The Over-Soul, Circles, The Poet, together with Nature, these essays made the decade from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s Emersons most fertile period. Emersons nature was more philosophical than naturalistic, Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature, Emerson is one of several figures who took a more pantheist or pandeist approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world. He remains among the linchpins of the American romantic movement, and his work has influenced the thinkers, writers. When asked to sum up his work, he said his doctrine was the infinitude of the private man. Emerson is also known as a mentor and friend of Henry David Thoreau. Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 25,1803, a son of Ruth Haskins and the Rev. William Emerson and he was named after his mothers brother Ralph and his fathers great-grandmother Rebecca Waldo. Ralph Waldo was the second of five sons who survived adulthood, the others were William, Edward, Robert Bulkeley. Three other children—Phebe, John Clarke, and Mary Caroline—died in childhood, Emerson was entirely of English ancestry, and his family had been in New England since the early colonial period. Emersons father died from cancer on May 12,1811. Emerson was raised by his mother, with the help of the women in the family. She lived with the family off and on and maintained a constant correspondence with Emerson until her death in 1863, Emersons formal schooling began at the Boston Latin School in 1812, when he was nine. In October 1817, at 14, Emerson went to Harvard College and was appointed freshman messenger for the president, requiring Emerson to fetch delinquent students and send messages to faculty. Midway through his year, Emerson began keeping a list of books he had read. He took outside jobs to cover his expenses, including as a waiter for the Junior Commons and as an occasional teacher working with his uncle Samuel in Waltham. By his senior year, Emerson decided to go by his middle name, Emerson served as Class Poet, as was custom, he presented an original poem on Harvards Class Day, a month before his official graduation on August 29,1821, when he was 18
22.
Joel T. Headley
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Joel Tyler Headley was an American clergyman, historian, author, newspaper editor and politician who served as Secretary of State of New York. He was born at Walton, New York to a Presbyterian clergyman father and he graduated from Union College in 1839 and took a course in theology at the Auburn Theological Seminary in Auburn, New York. After being ordained, he preached at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, but soon had to give up his profession due to the strain and he turned to history writing, producing many works on various subjects. His writings were among the first to call attention to the Adirondack Mountains as a health resort and he later accepted the solicitations of Horace Greeley and became associate editor of the New York Tribune. Headley was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1855 and he died in Newburgh, New York in 1897, having lived there for many years. Headley, Joel Tyler, ed. Washington and His Generals, the Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution. Springfield, MA, G. & F. Bill, Headley, Josel Tyler Napoleon and his marshals. The History of Orange County, New York, middletown, N. Y. http, //en. wikisource. org/wiki/Author, Joel_Tyler_Headley including a photo, signature, & his works listed. Works by Joel Tyler Headley at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Joel T. Headley at Internet Archive
23.
Stagecoach
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A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon used to carry passengers and goods inside. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand, widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers. The business of running stagecoaches or the act of journeying in them was known as staging, the yard of ale drinking glass is associated by legend with stagecoach drivers, though it was mainly used for drinking feats and special toasts. The stagecoach was a vehicle pulled by horses or mules. The primary requirement was that it was used as a conveyance, running on an established route. Vehicles that were used included buckboards and dead axle wagons, surplus Army ambulances, on the outside were two back seats facing one another, which the British called baskets. In addition to the driver who guided the vehicle, a shotgun messenger, armed with a coach gun. The stagecoach traveled at an speed of about five miles per hour. The term stage originally referred to the distance between stations on a route, the coach traveling the route in stages, but through metonymy it came to apply to the coach. A fresh set of horses would be staged at the next station, under this staging system, the resting, watering and feeding of the spent horses would not delay the coach. This system based on making fresh horses regularly available along a route had been in use by a number of different civilisations, the stagecoach was also called a stage or stage carriage. Varieties included, mail coach or post coach, used for carrying mail, mud coach, lighter and smaller, with flat sides and simpler joinery. Road coach, revived in Great Britain and Ireland during the half of the 19th century. The first crude depiction of a coach, not necessarily a stagecoach, was in an English manuscript from the 13th century, crude coaches were built from the 16th century. Without suspension, these coaches achieved very low speeds on the poor quality rutted roads of the time, by the mid 17th century, a basic stagecoach infrastructure had been put in place. The first stagecoach route started in 1610 and ran from Edinburgh to Leith and this was followed by a steady proliferation of other routes around the country. A string of coaching inns operated as stopping points for travellers on the route between London and Liverpool by the mid 17th century, the coach would depart every Monday and Thursday and took roughly ten days to make the journey during the summer months. They also became adopted for travel in and around London by mid-century
24.
William Henry Harrison Murray
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He became known as the father of the Outdoor Movement. Born in Guilford, Connecticut, he graduated from Yale in 1862 and then served as a minister in Greenwich, Connecticut and Meriden and he also served as pastor of Park Street Church in Boston from 1868 to 1874. He also delivered Sunday evening lectures about the Adirondacks in a Boston music-hall that proved highly popular, in 1869, they were published as a book, Adventures in the Wilderness, or, Camp-Life in the Adirondacks. The literary tone of the book made it successful, it went through eight printings in its first year. Murray promoted New Yorks north woods as health-giving and spirit-enhancing, claiming that the rustic nobility typical of Adirondack woodsmen came from their intimacy with wilderness, a subsequent printing, subtitled Tourists Edition, included maps of the region and train schedules from various Eastern cities to the Adirondacks. The book is cited as changing common parlance to use instead of the British holiday for people vacating their city homes. Full text of Camp Life in the Adirondacks Works by William Henry Harrison Murray at Project Gutenberg Works by W. H
25.
Thomas Clark Durant
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Thomas Clark Durant was an American financier and railroad promoter. He was vice-president of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869 when it met with the Central Pacific railroad at Promontory Summit in Utah Territory and he created the financial structure which led to the Crédit Mobilier scandal. He was successful in building railroads in the Midwest, and, after the UP was organized in 1862 by an act of Congress, John A. Dix was elected president and Durant vice president of the company. He organized and at first controlled the Crédit Mobilier of America, Durant, however, continued on the directorate of the Union Pacific and furiously pushed construction of the railroad until it met the Central Pacific RR on May 10,1869. The Ames group then procured his discharge, Durant was born February 6,1820 in Lee, Massachusetts. He studied medicine at Albany Medical College where, in 1840, he graduated cum laude, after he retired from this field, he became a director of his uncle’s grain exporting company, Durant, Lathrop and Company in New York City. While working with the wheat trade, Durant discovered the need for improved inland transportation. Durant got his start in the industry working as a broker for the Chicago. It was during this time that Durant became professionally acquainted with Henry Farnam, the two men created a new contracting company under the name of Farnam and Durant. In 1853 they were given the commission of raising capital and managing construction for the newly chartered Mississippi, the M&M Railroad acquired major land grants to build Iowa’s first railroad. The centerpiece of the M&M was a railroad bridge, which. The bridge linked the M&M to the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, after a steamboat hit the bridge, boat operators sued to have the bridge dismantled. Durant and the Rock Island hired private attorney Abraham Lincoln to defend the bridge, like Samson he would not hesitate to pull down the temple even if it meant burying himself along with his enemies. Durant had a reputation for squeezing friend and foe for personal gain. As general agent for the UP Eastern Division, Durant was also charged with the tasks of raising money, acquiring resources, persuading various politicians to invest as limited stockholders, amongst others, Durant successfully issued $2.18 million of UP stock to subscribers. At the same time, Durant manipulated the market, running up the value of his M&M stock by saying he was going to connect the Transcontinental Railroad to it. He was secretly buying competing rail line stock, and then said the Transcontinental Railroad was going to go to that line, since the government paid for each mile of track laid, Durant overrode his engineers and ordered extra track to be laid in large oxbows. In the first two-and-a-half-years the Union Pacific did not extend further than 40 miles from Council Bluffs, as the federal government was waging the Civil War, Durant avoided its oversight on railroad construction
26.
Saratoga Springs, New York
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Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 26,586 at the 2010 census, the name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over 200 years. The city is just north of Albany, in the heart of New Yorks Capital Region, Saratoga Springs was ranked tenth in the list of the top 10 places to live in New York State for 2014 according to the national online real estate brokerage Movoto. The picturesque area was occupied by the Algonquian-speaking Mahican Indians before they were pushed out by European settlement and they eventually moved east and became allied with other remnant peoples and became known as the Stockbridge Indians, as they settled near Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The British built Fort Saratoga in 1691 on the west bank of the Hudson River, the current village of Schuylerville was settled about a mile south by British colonists shortly after the fort, it was known as Saratoga until 1831. In 1767, William Johnson, a British soldier who was a hero of the French and they treated his war wounds, as the spring was thought to have medicinal properties. Now known as High Rock Spring, it may still be visited today, in 1756 Johnson had been appointed British Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Northeast region due to his success in building alliances with the Mohawk and other Iroquois tribes. He had learned the language, and created many trading relationships and he achieved great wealth from trading and landholdings, and was knighted for his service to the Crown with the Iroquois. The first permanent European-American settler built a dwelling about 1776, the springs attracted tourists, and Gideon Putnam built the first hotel for travelers. Putnam also laid out the roads and donated land for use as public spaces, the Battle of Saratoga, the turning point of the Revolutionary War, did not take place in Saratoga Springs. Rather, the battlefield is 15 miles to the southeast in the Town of Stillwater, a museum dedicated to the two battles is located on the fields where the battles were fought. The British encampment before the surrender at Saratoga took place 10 miles east of the city, in Schuylerville, the surrender of the sword of battle took place where Fort Saratoga had been, south of Schuylerville. Saratoga Springs was established as a settlement in 1819 from a portion of the Town of Saratoga. Its principal community was incorporated as a village in 1826 and the region became a city in 1915. Tourism was greatly aided after 1832 by the arrival of the Saratoga and Schenectady Railroad, Resort hotels developed to accommodate them. In the 19th century, the noted doctor Simon Baruch encouraged developing European-style spas in the United States as centers for health. With its wealth of waters, Saratoga Springs was developed as a spa, generating the development of many large hotels, including the United States Hotel. The latter was, in its day, the largest hotel in the world, in 1863, Saratoga Race Course opened, moving to its current location the following year
27.
North Creek, New York
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North Creek is a census-designated place and hamlet in the Adirondack Park, in the town of Johnsburg, in Warren County, New York, United States. It is a known for skiing, hiking and other outdoor recreational activities. It is located at 43°41′52″N 73°59′11″W, the town hall, library, and Johnsburg Central School are all located in North Creek. The Saratoga and North Creek Railroad is a railway that operates between North Creek and Saratoga Springs over the tracks of the historic Adirondack Railway. The North Creek Depot Museum is in the town, documenting the cultural and industrial history of the Adirondacks area, North Creek was the original northern terminus of the Adirondack Railway, the first railroad into the Adirondacks, built by Dr. Thomas C. It was to the station at North Creek that then Vice President Theodore Roosevelt rode from Mount Marcy upon learning of the death of William McKinley in 1901, the North Creek Railroad Station Complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The Gore Mountain ski area has expanded greatly over the past five years, with new trails, gondola, and quad chairlift. The center is owned by New York State and operated by ORDA, there are several new housing developments under way as well
28.
Paul Smith's Hotel
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In its day it was the most fashionable of the many great Adirondack hotels, patronized by American presidents Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge, celebrities like P. T. Barnum, and the elite of the latter half of the 19th century, such as E. H. Harriman. Smith died in 1912, but the continued under his son, Phelps. For years the hotel was kept intentionally primitive, offering neither bellboys nor indoor bathrooms and it also had woodworking, blacksmith, and electrical shops, a sawmill and a store. Stagecoaches delivered guests to the hotel until 1912, when an electric railroad connected it to the nearest main line. Upper St. Regis Lake Spitfire Lake Seven Carries Adirondack Architecture Donaldson, jerome, Christine Adirondack Passage, Cruise of Canoe Sairy Gamp, HarperCollins,1994
29.
Great Camps
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The camps were summer homes for the wealthy, where they could relax, host or attend parties, and enjoy the wilderness. In time, however, this was accomplished without leaving the comforts of civilization behind, the style of the Great Camps was influenced by the British Arts and Crafts Movement and the related American Craftsman style as well as by Swiss chalet design. William West Durant, a developer of the camps, was familiar with all three styles and adapted them to local materials and the skills of the craftsmen. By 1875 there were more than two hundred hotels in the Adirondacks, some of them with several hundred rooms, the most famous was Paul Smiths Hotel. The early Great Camps started life as simple tent camps, often on land leased from hotel owners. The tent camps evolved into tent platforms or lean-tos and then into compounds of rustic cabins, even in the early stages, some of these camps became quite elaborate. In 1883 one of the first families on Upper St. Regis Lake, as the regions hotels became more civilized and elaborate, so too did the camps. The largest and most luxurious camps were built on large landholdings, Adirondack land was cheap. Many of them were Jewish families excluded from the traditional Adirondack resorts, for example, the rules of the Lake Placid Club specifically excluded anyone against whom there is any reasonable physical, moral, social or race objection. This invariable rule is enforced, it is found impracticable to make exceptions to Jews or others excluded. The Great Camp tradition has analogs in the western United States, closely tied to the dude ranch tradition, elaborate private lodges and cabins owned by groups of wealthy Easterners were constructed in the wilderness. Often families originated from New York or Chicago, and traveled by train to spend periods in summer in the high country. Some lodges in the West were built by railroad interests, who were able to pick the best land while surveying potential railroad routes. By 1921, in A History of the Adirondacks, Alfred Lee Donaldson was writing that Among Adirondack terms calling for exact definition is the word camp. The realization that the camps were vulnerable came when, in 1975, Syracuse University announced plans to sell Sagamore Camp, Sagamore was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. In the early 1980s staff of the Adirondack Museum recognized the Great Camps as a resource of the region. Professor Malo induced the Preservation League of New York State to become active in saving Camp Sagamore, professor Malo represented the organization in negotiating with the State of New York to spare the Sagamore buildings. The Preservation League also conducted a survey of the region
30.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
31.
Reconstruction Era
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Johnson followed a lenient policy toward ex-Confederates. Lincolns last speeches show that he was leaning toward supporting the enfranchisement of all freedmen, whereas Johnson was opposed to this. A Republican coalition came to power in all the southern states and set out to transform the society by setting up a free labor economy, using the U. S. Army. The Bureau protected the rights of freedmen, negotiated labor contracts. Thousands of Northerners came South as missionaries, teachers, businessmen, rebuilding the rundown railroad system was a major strategy, but it collapsed when a nationwide depression struck the economy. The Radicals in the House of Representatives, frustrated by Johnsons opposition to Congressional Reconstruction, filed impeachment charges, in early 1866, Congress passed the Freedmens Bureau and Civil Rights Bills and sent them to Johnson for his signature. Meanwhile, self-styled Conservatives strongly opposed reconstruction and they alleged widespread corruption by the Carpetbaggers, excessive state spending and ruinous taxes. Southern democrats and conservatives violently counterattacked and had regained power in each redeemed Southern state by 1877, meanwhile, public support for Reconstruction policies, requiring continued supervision of the South, faded in the North, as voters decided that the Civil War and years of conflict should stop. Reconstruction was a significant chapter in the history of civil rights in the United States, in the different states Reconstruction began and ended at different times, federal Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877. In recent decades most historians follow Foner in dating the Reconstruction of the south as starting in 1863 rather than 1865, Reconstruction policies were debated in the North when the war began, and commenced in earnest after Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1,1863. As Confederate states came back under control of the US Army, President Abraham Lincoln set up reconstructed governments in Tennessee, Arkansas and he experimented by giving land to blacks in South Carolina. By fall 1865, the new President Andrew Johnson declared the war goals of national unity, Republicans in Congress, refusing to accept Johnsons lenient terms, rejected new members of Congress, some of whom had been high-ranking Confederate officials a few months before. Johnson broke with the Republicans after vetoing two key bills that supported the Freedmens Bureau and provided federal civil rights to the freedmen and that same year, Congress removed civilian governments in the South, and placed the former Confederacy under the rule of the U. S. Army. In ten states, coalitions of freedmen, recent black and white arrivals from the North, Conservative opponents called the Republican regimes corrupt and instigated violence toward freedmen and whites who supported Reconstruction. Most of the violence was carried out by members of the Ku Klux Klan, Klan members attacked and intimidated blacks seeking to exercise their new civil rights, as well as Republican politicians in the south favoring those civil rights. One such politician murdered by the Klan on the eve of the 1868 presidential election was Republican Congressman James M. Hinds of Arkansas, widespread violence in the south led to federal intervention by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1871, which suppressed the Klan. Nevertheless, white Democrats, calling themselves Redeemers, regained control of the state by state, sometimes using fraud. The end of Reconstruction was a process, and the period of Republican control ended at different times in different states
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Deforestation
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Deforestation, clearance or clearing is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, the most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests. About 30% of Earths land surface is covered by forests, Deforestation occurs for multiple reasons, trees are cut down to be used for building or sold as fuel, while cleared land is used as pasture for livestock and plantation. The removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and it has adverse impacts on biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Deforestation has also used in war to deprive the enemy of cover for its forces. Modern examples of this were the use of Agent Orange by the British military in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency, as of 2005, net deforestation rates have ceased to increase in countries with a per capita GDP of at least US$4,600. Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland, disregard of ascribed value, lax forest management and deficient environmental laws are some of the factors that allow deforestation to occur on a large scale. In many countries, deforestation, both naturally occurring and human-induced, is an ongoing issue, Deforestation causes extinction, changes to climatic conditions, desertification, and displacement of populations as observed by current conditions and in the past through the fossil record. More than half of all plant and land animal species in the live in tropical forests. Between 2000 and 2012,2.3 million square kilometres of forests around the world were cut down, as a result of deforestation, only 6.2 million square kilometres remain of the original 16 million square kilometres of forest that formerly covered the Earth. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat, subsistence farming is responsible for 48% of deforestation, commercial agriculture is responsible for 32%, logging is responsible for 14%, and fuel wood removals make up 5%. Experts do not agree on whether industrial logging is an important contributor to global deforestation, some argue that poor people are more likely to clear forest because they have no alternatives, others that the poor lack the ability to pay for the materials and labour needed to clear forest. One study found that population increases due to fertility rates were a primary driver of tropical deforestation in only 8% of cases. Other causes of contemporary deforestation may include corruption of government institutions, the distribution of wealth and power, population growth and overpopulation. Globalization is often viewed as another cause of deforestation, though there are cases in which the impacts of globalization have promoted localized forest recovery. The degradation of forest ecosystems has also traced to economic incentives that make forest conversion appear more profitable than forest conservation. Some commentators have noted a shift in the drivers of deforestation over the past 30 years, Deforestation is ongoing and is shaping climate and geography. Deforestation is a contributor to global warming, and is cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced greenhouse effect
33.
Verplanck Colvin
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Born on January 4,1847 in Albany, New York to Andrew James Colvin, a wealthy lawyer, and his second wife, Margaret Crane Alling, his first name was his grandmothers maiden name. Although he preferred attending West Point Military Academy, he joined his fathers law office in Albany and was admitted to the bar. Working in real estate law gave him his first experience in surveying, in 1865, when Colvin was 18, Alfred Billings Street gave him a copy of his 1860 book, Woods and Waters, about his adventures in the Adirondack Mountains. The next three years, Colvin spent his summers exploring the Adirondack wilderness, by 1869, he had formed the idea of doing a geological survey of the Adirondack region. During the summer of 1869 he climbed Mount Marcy, and in 1870 made the first recorded ascent of Seward Mountain, during the ascent of Seward, Colvin saw the extensive damage being done by lumbermen in the Adirondacks. His report of the climb was read at the Albany Institute, where it garnered the attention of state officials, and was printed in the annual report of the New York State Museum of Natural History. In it, he tied clear-cutting of Adirondack forests to reduced water flow in the canals and rivers. He was an administrator, managing crews of up to 100 men separated by difficult terrain with only primitive communication methods. He also designed and built some tools for the job, including a canvas boat. During the first year he discovered Lake Tear-of-the-Clouds, often considered the source of the Hudson River and he directed surveying parties throughout the Adirondacks and determined the altitudes of most of the highest peaks, becoming obsessed with his task. He was subsequently appointed superintendent of the New York state land survey and his work ended in 1900 when then Governor Theodore Roosevelt transferred his duties to the state engineer. He was a member of scientific societies and was president of the department of physical science at the Albany Institute. About 1881, at Hamilton College, he delivered lectures on geodesy, surveying, in 1891, he ran on the Republican ticket for New York State Engineer and Surveyor but was defeated by Democrat Martin Schenck. Goodwin, Tony, ed. Adirondack Trails, High Peaks Region, Lake George, New York, ISBN 1-931951-05-5 Verplanck Colvin, American Wilderness Surveyor and Savior New York Times, The Adirondack Region--Ascent of Mount Seward, November 21,1870 Colvin, Verplanck
34.
Seward Mountain (New York)
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Seward Mountain is a mountain located in Franklin County, New York, of which it is the highest point. Seward Mtn. is named after William H. Seward, Governor of New York, the mountain is part of the Seward Mountains of the Adirondacks. Seward Mountain is flanked to the southwest by Donaldson Mountain, Seward Mountain stands within the watershed of the Raquette River, which drains into the Saint Lawrence River in Canada, and into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The southeast slopes of Seward Mtn. drain into Seward Brook, thence into the Cold River, the west end of Seward Mtn. drains into Calkins Brook, thence into the Raquette River. The northern slopes of Seward drain into Ward Brook, thence into Ampersand Lake, Ampersand Brook, Stony Creek, Seward Mountain is within the High Peaks Wilderness Area of New Yorks Adirondack Park
35.
Albany Institute of History & Art
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It is located on Washington Avenue in downtown Albany. Founded in 1791, it is among the oldest museums in the United States, several other institutions have merged over time to become todays Albany Institute. The earliest were learned societies devoted to the sciences. Robert R. Livingston was the first president, Joseph Henry delivered his first paper on electromagnetism to the Institute. Its collections of animal, vegetable and mineral specimens from state surveys eventually became the foundations of the New York State Museum, later in the century it became more focused on the humanities, and eventually merged with the Albany Historical and Art Society. It has had its present name since 1926, over the course of the 20th century it has become more firmly established as a regional art museum. Its main building is a 1920s Classical Revival structure designed by local architect Marcus T. Reynolds, a more modern glass structure connects the two. The original two buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, the institute occupies the 1⅔-acre parcel of Dove Street between Washington and Elk Street. It is surrounded by buildings mostly of a scale and vintage. Across Washington are some commercial buildings. On the southwest corner of the intersection is another Fuller brick Classical Revival building, a block to the west is the Washington Avenue Armory, with the Italianate Walter Merchant House across the street from it. North of the institute, across Elk, is a parking lot with the small Sheridan Park beyond. The Rice Building sits on the southwest corner of the lot, on the intersection of Washington. To its east is a lawn with mature trees and a walkway from the connecting building to the street. A low metal railing on a stone base sets off the property from Washington. In the middle of it is a modern stone entryway with two pillars of blocks similar to those on the Rice Building supporting a modern steel and glass hood. The larger main building occupies the northeast corner, with a parking lot in the northwest. Between the two is a modern hyphen of large blocks with steel and glass on both sides
36.
New York State Museum
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The New York State Museum is a research-backed institution in Albany, New York, United States. It is located on Madison Avenue, attached to the side of the Empire State Plaza, facing onto the plaza. The museum houses art, artifacts, and ecofacts that reflect New York’s cultural, natural, operated by the New York State Education Departments Office of Cultural Education, it is the nations oldest and largest state museum. The New York State Museum was founded in 1836 as the New York State Geological and Natural History Survey, in 1870, it was reorganized as the New York State Museum of Natural History under the trusteeship of the regents of the State University. The museum was located in the State Education Building from 1912 until 1976, the current location opened on July 4,1976, and 15,000 people took part in the ceremony. With Don Mclean performing at the opening ceremony, in June 2015, the museum announced the largest renovation in its history. Over three to four years,35,000 square feet of space will be modernized. Several galleries and halls on the first floor house various art exhibitions, as well as temporary scientific. Presentations and lectures are held in the Museum Theater, located near the West Gallery, a student visitors center is located behind the museum’s main lobby. The Museum Store, located adjacent to the lobby, offers souvenirs, high-quality mineral specimens, and selected New York State publications on science, history. The second floor, generally not accessible by the public, contains education, the museum’s staff, including the Division of Research and Collections and the Exhibits Division, is located on the third floor, also not accessible to the public. The windowed walls surrounding this floor afford visitors a view of the Empire State Plaza and other areas of downtown Albany, hence the gallerys name, the following is a list of several of these programs. BRI hosts a scientific conference at the New York State Museum. Cultural Resource Survey Program – A cultural resources management program that conducts historical and archaeological research for the State of New York. This specifically refers to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, in doing so, CRSP works closely with New York States Historic Preservation Officer and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The Laboratory for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics – The LCEG is a molecular phylogenetics laboratory designed for use by researchers studying animal, the facility provides technology that allows Museum researchers to analyze genetic variability among organisms by DNA nucleotide sequencing. The laboratory also houses the Museum’s Genome Bank, a tissue collection that complements the traditional dried-specimen collections by preserving plant. The collections of the New York State Museum include geological samples, paleontology specimens, historic materials and their anthropological collections are extensive, and include the collections of several early and well-known anthropologists, including Lewis H. Morgan and Arthur C
37.
Erie Canal
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The Erie Canal is a canal in New York that is part of the east–west, cross-state route of the New York State Canal System. Originally, it ran about 363 miles from Albany, on the Hudson River, to Buffalo and it was built to create a navigable water route from New York City and the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. First proposed in the 1780s, then re-proposed in 1807, a survey was authorized, funded, proponents of the project gradually wore down opponents, its construction began in 1817. The canal has 35 numbered locks, plus the Federal Black Rock Lock, and it opened on October 26,1825. In a time when bulk goods were limited to pack animals and it was faster than carts pulled by draft animals, and cut transport costs by about 95%. The canal fostered a population surge in western New York and opened regions farther west to settlement and it was enlarged between 1834 and 1862. The canals peak year was 1855, when 33,000 commercial shipments took place. In 1918, the part of the canal was enlarged to become part of the New York State Barge Canal, which ran parallel to the eastern half of the Erie Canal. Mainly used by recreational watercraft since the retirement of the last large ship, the Day Peckinpaugh in 1994. This was not unique to the Americas, and the still exists in those parts of the world where muscle power provides a primary means of transportation within a region. An equally ancient solution was implemented in many cultures — things in the water weighed far less, passengers and freight had to travel overland, a journey made more difficult by the rough condition of the roads. In 1800, it typically took 2.5 weeks to travel overland from New York to Cleveland, the principal exportable product of the Ohio Valley was grain, which was a high-volume, low-priced commodity, bolstered by supplies from the coast. Frequently it was not worth the cost of transporting it to far-away population centers and this was a factor leading to farmers in the west turning their grains into whiskey for easier transport and higher sales, and later the Whiskey Rebellion. In time, projects were devised in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, the successes of the Canal du Midi in France, Bridgewater Canal in Britain, and Eiderkanal in Denmark spurred on what was called in Britain canal mania. Two men, Gouverneur Morris and Elkanah Watson, were proponents of a canal along the Mohawk River. Their efforts led to the creation of the Western and Northern Inland Lock Navigation Companies in 1792, by 1788, Washingtons Potomac Company was successful in constructing five locks which took boats 4,500 feet past the Potomac Great Falls. However, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal superseded the Potomac Canal in 1823, christopher Colles surveyed the Mohawk Valley, and made a presentation to the New York state legislature in 1784, proposing a shorter canal from Lake Ontario. The proposal drew attention and some action, but was never implemented, jesse Hawley finally got the canal built
38.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
39.
Charles Sprague Sargent
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Charles Sprague Sargent was an American botanist. He was appointed in 1872 as the first director of Harvard Universitys Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts and he published several works of botany. The standard botanical author abbreviation Sarg. is applied to plants he identified, Sargent was the second son of Henrietta and Ignatius Sargent, a Boston merchant and banker who grew wealthy on railroad investments. He grew up on his fathers 130-acre estate in Brookline, Massachusetts and he attended Harvard College, where he graduated in Biology in the class of 1862. Sargent enlisted in the Union Army later that year, saw service in Louisiana during the American Civil War and he traveled in Europe for three years. Having returned to his familys Brookline estate, Holmlea, Sargent took over its management as a horticulturist, influenced by his cousin Henry Winthrop Sargent, by the end of 1872, Sargent became the first Director of the Arnold Arboretum, a post he held until his death. He was also Director of the Botanic Garden in Cambridge, on November 26,1873, Sargent married Mary Allen Robeson. They had two sons and three daughters, one of married the architect Guy Lowell. Their son Charles S. Sargent went to New York, where he became a partner in a securities firm, even by the standards of Boston society of the early 20th century, Charles Sprague Sargent was unusual. He was colder than the surrounding, and notoriously chilly, Boston society, had nothing to do with local government and he concentrated on his arboretum, and always was at work during his waking hours. In this career, Sargent came of age as a dendrologist and his influence was felt nationally on the conservation of American forests. He was a member of the National Forest Commission under President Grover Cleveland and he was chairman of a commission to examine the Adirondack forests and devise measures for their preservation in 1885. Sargent became professor of arboriculture at Harvard in 1879 and he planned the Jesup Collection of North American Woods in the American Museum of Natural History of New York City in 1880. In 1888 he became editor and general manager of the weekly Garden and Forest, a journal of horticulture, landscape art and he was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1896. These include, Catalogue of the Forest Trees of North America, Pruning Forests and Ornamental Trees, translated from the French of A. Des Cars, Reports on the Forests of North America, The Woods of the United States, with an Account of their Structure, Qualities, and Uses, and The Silva of North America. It would be hard to find anyone who did more to protect trees from the vandalism of those who do not appreciate the contribution that they make to the beauty, empire Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism. Cambridge, UK, New York, Cambridge University Press, Works by Charles Sprague Sargent at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Charles Sprague Sargent at Internet Archive Article, Plant Science Bulletin,21 February 1975
40.
New York State Legislature
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New York State Legislature refers to the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U. S. state of New York. The New York Constitution does not designate an official term for the two houses together and it says only that legislative power is vested in the senate and assembly. The session laws are published in the official Laws of New York, the permanent laws of a general nature are codified in the Consolidated Laws of New York. The legislature is seated at the New York State Capitol in Albany, legislative elections are held in November of every even-numbered year. Both Assembly members and Senators serve two-year terms, the Assembly consists of 150 members, they are each chosen from a single-member district. The Senate, in accordance with the New York Constitution, varies in its number of members, Senate districts are currently between two and three times more populous than Assembly districts. As of 2009 the New York State Legislature has 2700 employees, the Assembly is headed by the Speaker, while the Senate is headed by the President, a post held ex officio by the State Lieutenant Governor. The Lieutenant Governor, as President of the Senate, has only a casting vote. More often, the Senate is presided over by the Temporary President or by a senator of the Majority Leaders choosing, the Assembly Speaker and Senate Majority Leader control the assignment of committees and leadership positions, along with control of the agenda in their chambers. The two are considered powerful statewide leaders and along with the Governor of New York control most of the agenda of state business in New York. The New York State Legislature currently have split party control with a Democratic majority in the Assembly, following the 2010 elections, Republicans gained two seats in the Senate to regain control after two years in the minority. Republicans also gained nine seats in the Assembly, fracturing the veto-proof supermajority, to begin the 2009 session, Democrats had a 32-30 seat majority in the State Senate and, in the Assembly, Democrats have a 109-41 seat supermajority. However, the Republicans were able to control of the Senate during a leadership coup. The Democratic Senators regained control of Senate leadership on July 8,2009, until 2009, the State Senate had been in Republican hands for decades. Economic troubles and population loss in upstate New York are also a factor, in the past, Democrats would occasionally switch parties when they ran for the Senate so they could sit with the majority. The Assembly has been dominated by Democrats for about 30 years, between 2002 and 2005, the Republican conference dropped from 53 seats to 45. Republicans even lost some districts that historically have been reliably Republican, the Republican conference was increased by nine seats beginning with the 2011 session. The Legislature is empowered to make law, subject to the power to veto a bill
41.
Wilderness Act
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The Wilderness Act of 1964 was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. It created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, when Congress passed and President Lyndon Johnson signed the Wilderness Act on September 3,1964, it created the National Wilderness Preservation System. The current amount of areas designated by the NWPS as wilderness totals 757 areas encompassing 109.5 million acres of federally owned land in 44 states, when Congress designates each wilderness area, it includes a very specific boundary line—in statutory law. Once a wilderness area has added to the system, its protection. The basics of the set out in the Wilderness Act are straightforward. Wilderness designation is a protective overlay Congress applies to selected portions of forests, parks, wildlife refuges. Within wilderness areas, the Wilderness Act strives to restrain human influences so that ecosystems can change over time in their own way, free, as much as possible, from human manipulation. In these areas, as the Wilderness Act puts it, “the earth, but the law limits uses to those consistent with the Wilderness Act mandate that each wilderness area be administered to preserve the “wilderness character of the area. Along with many uses for the American people, wilderness areas are popular for diverse kinds of outdoor recreation—but without motorized or mechanical vehicles or equipment. Scientific research is allowed in wilderness areas, as long as it is non-invasive. Specifically, mining, grazing, water uses, or any other uses that don’t significantly impact the majority of the area, can remain in some degree. When the Wilderness Act was passed, it ignored lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management because of uncertainty of policy makers surrounding the future of those areas, some argue that the criteria to determine wilderness are vague and open to interpretation. For example, one criterion for wilderness is that it be roadless, congressional bills are pending to designate new wilderness areas in Utah, Colorado, Washington, California, Virginia, Idaho, West Virginia, Montana and New Hampshire. The U. S. Forest Service has recommended new wilderness designations, Wilderness Week in September, and the National Wilderness Conference. “Making Wilderness Work, Frank Church and the American Wilderness Movement. ”The Enduring Wilderness, conducting Wilderness Characteristics Inventory on BLM Lands,15 March 2012 Jeffrey 0. Struggle Over Utahs San Rafael Swell, Wilderness, National Conservation Areas, the Promise of Wilderness, American Environmental Politics since 1964
42.
Old-growth forest
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Old-growth features include diverse tree-related structures that provide diverse wildlife habitat that increases the biodiversity of the forested ecosystem. The concept of tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree heights and diameters. Old-growth forests are valuable, and logging of these forests has been a point of contention between the logging industry and environmentalists. Old-growth forests tend to have trees and standing dead trees, multi-layered canopies with gaps that result from the deaths of individual trees. Depending on the forest, this may take anywhere from a century to several millennia, hardwood forests of the eastern United States can develop old-growth characteristics in one or two generations of trees, or 150–500 years. In British Columbia, Canada, old growth is defined as 120 to 140 years of age in the interior of the province where fire is a frequent and natural occurrence. In British Columbia’s coastal rainforests, old growth is defined as more than 250 years. In Australia, eucalypt trees rarely exceed 350 years of age due to frequent fire disturbance, Forest types have very different development patterns, natural disturbances and appearances. Levels of biodiversity may be higher or lower in old-growth forests compared to that in second-growth forests, depending on circumstances, environmental variables. Logging in old-growth forests is an issue in many parts of the world. Excessive logging reduces biodiversity, affecting not only the old-growth forest itself, a forest in old-growth stage has a mix of tree ages, due to a distinct regeneration pattern for this stage. New trees regenerate at different times from other, because each one of them has different spatial location relative to the main canopy. The mixed age of the forest is an important criterion in ensuring that the forest is a stable ecosystem in the long term. A climax stand that is uniformly aged becomes senescent and degrades within a relatively short time-period to result in a new cycle of forest succession, thus, uniformly aged stands are a less stable ecosystem. Forest canopy gaps are essential in creating and maintaining mixed-age stands, also, some herbaceous plants only become established in canopy openings, but persist beneath an understory. Openings are a result of death due to small impact disturbances such as wind, low-intensity fires. Because old-growth forest is structurally diverse it provides higher-diversity habitat than forests in other stages, thus, sometimes higher biological diversity can be sustained in old-growth forest, or at least a biodiversity that is different from other forest stages. The characteristic topography of much old-growth forest consists of pits and mounds, mounds are caused by decaying fallen trees, and pits by the roots pulled out of the ground when trees fall due to natural causes, including being pushed over by animals
43.
Interstate 87 (New York)
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Interstate 87 is a 333. 49-mile-long Interstate Highway located entirely within the U. S. state of New York, and is part of the main highway between New York City and Montreal. The highway begins in the Bronx borough of New York City, from there, the route runs northward through the Hudson Valley, the Capital District, and the easternmost part of the North Country to the Canadian border in the Town of Champlain. At its north end, I-87 continues into Quebec as Autoroute 15, I-87 connects with several regionally important roads, I-95 in New York City, New York State Route 17 near Harriman, I-84 near Newburgh, and I-90 in Albany. The route is the longest intrastate Interstate Highway in the Interstate Highway System, I-87 was assigned in 1957 as part of the establishment of the Interstate Highway System. North of Albany, I-87 follows the Adirondack Northway, a built in stages between 1957 and 1967. Early proposals for I-87 called for the route to take a more easterly course through the Hudson Valley and these plans were scrapped in 1970 when I-87 was realigned onto the Thruway between Westchester County and Newburgh. I-87 is part of a strategic corridor between New York City, the largest metropolitan area in the U. S. and Montreal. Motorists can connect to multiple highways on I-87 to travel south along I-95 through the mid-Atlantic states. I-87 begins in the Bronx at the approach to the Triborough Bridge. The route heads west from the interchange, paralleling loosely with the Harlem River through Mott Haven, after 1 mile, the highway makes a turn to the north, mirroring a change in the nearby rivers course. It passes by Yankee Stadium on its way to Highbridge, where the Deegan connects to the Cross Bronx Expressway at the approach to the Alexander Hamilton Bridge. The Deegan remains in close proximity to the Harlem River until the waterway turns westward at Kingsbridge to form the edge of Manhattan. North of Kingsbridge, I-87 generally follows an alignment, passing through the center of Van Cortlandt Park as it connects to Mosholu Parkway. Mosholu Parkway also links I-87 to the Henry Hudson and Saw Mill River parkways, past Jerome Avenue, the freeway gains a pair of service roads and heads north to the New York City–Yonkers border. At the New York City–Yonkers border, I-87 changes to the New York State Thruway as the mainline proceeds northward through Yonkers and it connects with Central Park Avenue at exit 1, the first of 12 exits within the county. The first few exits serve various local streets, with exit 2 providing access to Yonkers Raceway, at exit 4, I-87 connects to the Cross County Parkway, an east–west parkway providing access to the Saw Mill River, Bronx River, and Hutchinson River parkways. The north-south parkways and I-95 run parallel to the Thruway through Southern Westchester, the Bronx River parkway leaves to the northeast midway through Yonkers, while the Saw Mill and Sprain Brook parkways follow the Thruway out of the city. All three highways take generally parallel tracks to Elmsford, where I-87 directly intersects the Saw Mill River Parkway at exit 7A, not far to the north is exit 8, a semi-directional T interchange with I-287
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Adirondack Experience
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The Adirondack Museum, located on NY-30 in the hamlet of Blue Mountain Lake in Hamilton County, New York, is a museum dedicated to preserving the history of the Adirondacks. The museum is located on the site of a summer resort hotel, the Blue Mountain House, built high above Blue Mountain Lake in 1876 by Miles Tyler Merwin. The museum consists of 24 buildings,121 acres, and 60,000 square feet of exhibition space, the opening of a brand new 19,000 square foot exhibition, Life in the Adirondacks, is scheduled for July 2017. The Adirondack Museum is open late-May to mid-October,10 a. m. to 5 p. m. daily, including holidays, with extended hours until 7,30 p. m. in July and August. The museum offers special events, traditional workshops, demonstrations by artisans-in-residence, the museum contains a research library which is accessible year-round, its publication program has produced 65 books of Adirondack history, art histories, and museum catalogs. The museum was created in 1947 by Harold K. Hochschild as an effort to protect the steam locomotive, within a year, the Adirondack Historical Association was formed. In 1963-64 the museum sponsored the archaeological exploration of the Wiawaka Bateaux Site by Terry Crandall, other material includes, A fine art collection that contains over 2500 works including oil and watercolor paintings, prints, and artists sketchbooks. The largest collection of historic inland wooden watercraft in the United States, more than 70,000 historic photographs including the work of Seneca Ray Stoddard, Alfred Stieglitz, and Eliot Porter. The largest public collection of furniture in North America. The museum owns many pieces created by Joe Bryere, a local woodworking artist, the Museums library claims the most comprehensive repository of books, periodicals, manuscripts, maps and government documents related to the Adirondack region. NY-346, Excursion Launch Mountaineer, Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, Hamilton County, NY,3 photos,2 measured drawings,4 data pages,1 photo caption page
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Blue Mountain Lake, New York
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Blue Mountain Lake is a rural hamlet in the Town of Indian Lake of Hamilton County, New York at the intersection of New York Routes 28 and 30. Blue Mountain Lake also refers to the lake on the banks of which the hamlet is situated, Blue Mountain Lake is about 90 miles north of Utica, New York and about 90 miles northwest from Albany, New York. The place is named after the peak, Blue Mountain. The Adirondack Museum is located just outside the hamlet of Blue Mountain Lake within walking distance east on Route 30, the Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts provides year-round theatre and music performances, art galleries, workshops and classes. Adirondack Museum Blue Mountain Lake Photos 1874-1950 Adirondack Lakes Center for the Arts
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The Nature Conservancy
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The Nature Conservancy is a charitable environmental organization, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. Its mission is to conserve the lands and waters on all life depends. The Conservancys work focuses on the priorities of Lands, Water, Climate, Oceans. Founded in Arlington, Virginia, in 1951, The Nature Conservancy now impacts conservation in 69 countries, the Conservancy has over one million members, and has protected more than 119,000,000 acres of land and thousands of miles of rivers worldwide. The Nature Conservancy also operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally, the organizations assets total $6.71 billion as of 2015. The Nature Conservancy is the largest environmental nonprofit by assets and by revenue in the Americas, the Nature Conservancy rates as one of the most trusted national organizations in Harris Interactive polls every year since 2005. Forbes magazine rated The Nature Conservancys fundraising efficiency at 88 percent in its 2005 survey of the largest U. S. charities, the Nature Conservancy is led by President and CEO Mark Tercek, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs. He is the author of the Washington Post and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling book Nature’s Fortune, How Business, the Nature Conservancys Chief Scientist is Australian Hugh Possingham, who was named to this position in 2016. The current board chairman is Craig McCaw, the Chairman & CEO of Eagle River Inc, other current members include former U. S. Senator Bill Frist, chairman of the Alibaba Group Jack Ma, the Nature Conservancy developed out of an older organization known as the Ecological Society of America. The latter society was founded in 1915 and two later formed a Committee on Preservation of Natural Areas for Ecological Study, headed by Victor Shelford. The divide in viewpoints led the society to dissolve the committee, the latter group eventually took the name The Nature Conservancy, in emulation of the British agency of that name, which pursued a mission of conserving open space and wildlife preserves. The Nature Conservancy was incorporated in the United States as an organization on October 22,1951. The Nature Conservancy takes an approach to conservation, setting goals that describe the results it wants to achieve for biodiversity. The Nature Conservancy sets both long-term and near-term goals for conserving the abundance and geographic distribution of species and ecological systems. The organizations overall goal is to ensure the survival of all biodiversity on Earth. The Nature Conservancy works with all sectors of society including businesses, individuals, communities, partner organizations, the Nature Conservancy has pioneered new land preservation techniques such as the conservation easement and debt for nature swaps. A conservation easement is a way for owners to ensure that their land remains in its natural state while capitalizing on some of the lands potential development value
