On July 7, I -- along with 35 other educators from across the country-- traveled to Cortland, New York where I had the pleasure of being part of the National Endowment of the Humanities week long "Forever Wild" workshop. Centered on Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains this workshop explored the variety of issues concerning the wilderness during the Gilded Age. Political, socio-economic issues, gender biases, land use, and private property ownership rights all came into play during this sometimes contentious era. We started this experience at SUNY Cortland, the sponsoring organization. On our first day we met SUNY Cortland faculty and our hosts for the week Randi, Kevin and Gonda, who put this amazing experience together for us. AND we attended a reception at the home of SUNY Cortland president, Dr. Erik Bitterbaum. (We fancy, yo!)
On Monday, the 8th our education began in earnest with lectures by both of our faculty hosts, Dr. Randi Storch and Dr. Kevin Steele We started the day at SUNY Cortland and participated in thematic breakout sessions. My theme was "ethnic lives". My perspective of the Gilded Age began to shift, as I had previously only thought about it from the viewpoints of urban problems. The issues of the wilderness, and the rural people I had never before considered. Following our morning lectures and group breakout sessions we split into two groups and visited the historic 1890 House and did a city tour. As part of our preparation for this workshop we were required to complete several readings, one of which was the novel "A Northern Light" by Jennifer Donnelly. The city tour took us past the old industrial section of town, through the Italian section, and past the former homes of Chester Gillette and Grace Brown, the two people around whom's story the novel was based.
The 1890's house is located on Tompkins Street, which was once the wealthiest section of town. It was
built by industrialist Chester Wickwire and passed to his second son, Frederic, after Chester's death. The 1890s House now operates as a museum. The house to the right, now the Cortland Alumni House, was built by Charles Wickwire, Chester's older son. And to the left is the Fitzgerald House. The daughter of the house, Mabel Fitzgerald, would grow up to marry her childhood friend Charles Wickwire.
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| The Fitzgerald House |
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| Charles Wickwire House |
July 9thWe arrived last night to Camp Pine Knot, the first great camp built on Raquette Lake by William West Durant, son of railroad tycoon Thomas Clark Durant. Originally intended to be Durant’s vacation residence, it was later sold to C. P. Huntington to pay for Durant’s debts and renamed Camp Huntington. The Great Camps were wealthy New York City dwellers way of being close to nature without having to deal with all of the hardships of one who lived in nature. Located on a peninsula in Raquette Lake Camp Pine Knot was to be our home for the week. My room was in Hemlock Lodge.
We then received a history lesson about the great camps from the camp staff who explained how the camp was built. The camps were designed to look as though they sprang from the forest floor. Color schemes are all reminiscent of those found in nature. Each building served a different function and the various functions of life were even separated into different spaces in the buildings. He relied heavily on he knowledge of the people native to the area when it came to planning and building his camps. Parts of the buildings are built Lincoln log style while the later sections of the building were built using birch trees and covering the outside with whole sheets of birch wood. This was a technique that had been used by the Iroquois in constructing their longhouses. Construction of the camps was arduous. Any non local materials had to travel by train then over rocky roads in order to get to the building sites. Large panes of glass had to be transported by foot because they were too delicate to for the bumpy roads. 
