Forest and Crag

Forest and Crag PDF

Author: Laura Waterman

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2019-02-28

Total Pages: 980

ISBN-13: 1438475306

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A compelling story of our ever-evolving relationship with the mountains and wilderness. Thirty years after its initial publication, this beloved classic is back in print. Superbly researched and written, Forest and Crag is the definitive history of our love affair with the mountains of the Northeastern United States, from the Catskills and the Adirondacks of New York to the Green Mountains of Vermont, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and the mountains of Maine. It’s all here in one comprehensive volume: the struggles of early pioneers in America’s first frontier wilderness; the first ascent of every major peak in the Northeast; the building of the trail networks, including the Appalachian Trail; the golden era of the summit resort hotels; and the unforeseen consequences of the backpacking boom of the 1970s and 80s. Laura and Guy Waterman spent a decade researching and writing Forest and Crag, and in it they draw together widely scattered sources. What emerges is a compelling story of our ever-evolving relationship with the mountains and wilderness, a story that will fascinate historians, outdoor enthusiasts, and armchair adventurers alike. “Just like a good map is essential equipment for any backcountry adventure, Forest and Crag is an essential read for anyone who enjoys spending time in or is charged with the stewardship of the Northeast’s trails and mountains.” — Michael DeBonis, Executive Director, Green Mountain Club “Forest and Crag stands as the most important history of Northeastern mountain exploration. I marvel at the depth of the Watermans’ exhaustive research and the skill in which they synthesized it. Anyone who cares about and writes about mountains laps up these chapters regularly. I reach for this book all the time. The added photographs and prefaces make this new edition from SUNY even better.”— Christine Woodside, editor of Appalachia Journal and author of Libertarians on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books “No other volume weaves together across landscapes and time both the individual stories and broad themes of the history of hiking in the Northeast. It is not, however, its breadth and depth which makes Forest and Cragunique. Rather, it is the Watermans’ gift for storytelling which makes the reader feel that he or she has been invited to pull up a chair and listen, spellbound, to two masters of their craft. In sharing the stories of those who came to the mountains before, the Watermans invite all to join in preserving the future of these iconic landscapes.” — Julia Goren, Education Director and Summit Steward Coordinator, Adirondack Mountain Club PRAISE FOR FOREST AND CRAG “This is a superb, monumental history. The Watermans are adept at the capsule profile, whether of peaks or persons. A gallery of characters unrolls, as diverse as those in a novel by Dickens.” — Paul Jamieson, former editor, The Adirondack Reader “Written with grace, style, and good humor, seasoned with a refreshing sense of wonder, Forest and Crag reads more like a gripping novel than the serious research work it really is.” — Magnetic North “In its quality, comprehensiveness, and regional orientation, Forest and Crag is unprecedented in American letters. It will become a classic in social, intellectual, and environmental history.” — Roderick Frazier Nash, author of Wilderness and the American Mind, Fifth Edition “Forest and Crag presents an incredible gift for today’s hikers—the opportunity to take a thoughtful and vigorous ramble into the past, and to explore the Northeastern mountains of yesteryear. What an adventure—and what better way to contemplate how we shape the region’s future?” — Peter Crane, Mount Washington Observatory “Forest and Crag traces the Northeast’s human and natural history by following the hiking experience from the early adventurers to the more recent development of an environmental ethic. The Watermans tell this story with clear respect and deep joy for the mountains that shaped the stories of the region’s hikers and hiking clubs.” — Mary Margaret Sloan, Chief Operating Officer, Positive Tracks “The Watermans’ true genius is their ability to string all the facts together in a narrative so lively that even the footnotes and endnotes are read as eagerly as one would devour dessert at the end of a good meal.” — Tony Goodwin, coeditor of High Peaks Trails, 14th Edition

Making Mountains

Making Mountains PDF

Author: David Stradling

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2009-11-23

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 0295989890

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For over two hundred years, the Catskill Mountains have been repeatedly and dramatically transformed by New York City. In Making Mountains, David Stradling shows the transformation of the Catskills landscape as a collaborative process, one in which local and urban hands, capital, and ideas have come together to reshape the mountains and the communities therein. This collaboration has had environmental, economic, and cultural consequences. Early on, the Catskills were an important source of natural resources. Later, when New York City needed to expand its water supply, engineers helped direct the city toward the Catskills, claiming that the mountains offered the purest and most cost-effective waters. By the 1960s, New York had created the great reservoir and aqueduct system in the mountains that now supplies the city with 90 percent of its water. The Catskills also served as a critical space in which the nation's ideas about nature evolved. Stradling describes the great influence writers and artists had upon urban residents - especially the painters of the Hudson River School, whose ideal landscapes created expectations about how rural America should appear. By the mid-1800s, urban residents had turned the Catskills into an important vacation ground, and by the late 1800s, the Catskills had become one of the premiere resort regions in the nation. In the mid-twentieth century, the older Catskill resort region was in steep decline, but the Jewish "Borscht Belt" in the southern Catskills was thriving. The automobile revitalized mountain tourism and residence, and increased the threat of suburbanization of the historic landscape. Throughout each of these significant incarnations, urban and rural residents worked in a rough collaboration, though not without conflict, to reshape the mountains and American ideas about rural landscapes and nature.

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