The Adirondacks, Illustrated: Containing Description of Notable Features of the Region; Forestry and Its Forests, Their Condition and Needs

by Seneca Ray Stoddard

Excerpt from The Adirondacks, Illustrated: Containing Description of Notable Features of the Region; Forestry and Its Forests, Their Condition and Needs

I made my first trip to the heart of the Adirondack Wilderness in 1873, covering in a series of loops its more noted sections and routes, and gave the results of the experience the following year in narrative form On this narrative thread has been annually strung the changes of succeeding years.

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

256 pages, Hardcover

Published February 6, 2018

Reviews

[David Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a travel guide of the Adirondack mountains from 1874. It's a great snap-shot of the past, from an era where the Adirondacks of upstate New York were still fairly unknown and wild. Though it's a travel guide, it's written as a travellouge, focused around Seneca Ray Stoddard (a locally famous Adirondack photographer of the day) and a friends of his, as they tour what are not the norther and central regions of the Adironndack park. The fun of this book comes in comparing then to now. Anybody familiar with the Adirondacks will recognize the landmarks and natural features, which haven't really changed much. But the descriptions of the towns is fascinating. This is an era where more towns were a large sporting hotel and surrounding outbuildings, many of the run by figures who are now established pieces of Adirondack history. Maps weren't that great then, so you had Adirondack guides, several of the more famous of whom have given their names to places and towns in the Adirondack mountains. It's neat to see them interacted with and written about as actual people, instead of the distant historical figures they are now. The writing of the book is also interesting, much more floral and descriptive then you'd see in a modern book of this sort. Given the difficulties in printing images back then, I suppose this was necessary to get images across. It all creates a very romantic vision of the mountains and the people in them. Only downside to this reprint was the engraved images weren't that clear. A great book for fans of the Adirondacks and their history.