Verplanck Colvin Bare Summits
Verplanck Colvin, in doing the surveying that lead to the creation of the Adirondack Park, cleared the summits of a number of mountains, leading to erosion that today makes them bare peaks, and thus popular hiking destinations. Among these are Noonmark, Hurricane Mt., St. Regis and Ampersand mountains. I assume there must be more-- anyone know which ones?
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The Adirondack Wilderness ... is a vast natural park, one immense and silent forest, curiously and beautifully broken by the gleaming waters of a myriad of lakes, between which rugged mountain ranges rise as a sea of granite billows. -- Verplanck Colvin -
Most Adirondack summits in their natural state cannot grow trees much taller than that--the culprits being thin soils and harsh weather conditions. But of the mountains that Verplanck surveyed, the following are pretty well forested today:
- West Mountain near Raquette Lake. That one has some bare spots still, but the trees are quite big. There's not much of a view left.
- Dial has one of Verplanck's bolts but is pretty much wooded.
- The Seward Range has more than its share of trees.
- Ditto for Santanoni.
On the other hand, not all of the bald summits can be blamed on Verplanck. Some (like Marcy) are naturally bald, and others (like the Jay Range) were burned by forest fires.
But yes, "Verp" did his share of summit clearing. However, "clearing" did not always mean torching the summit as he did accidentally on St. Regis. Snowy is one that he cleared in 1872, and this was what he had to say about the process:
Except for the ledge where the ranger cabin was, and a couple other ledges here and there, Snowy's summit forest has also recovered well.The forest on the summit was in some places small and dwarfed, but was nevertheless too high to give a perfect view of the whole horizon.
A place being selected, the trees were chopped away by the guides, and the theodolite work was commenced.Comment
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So you seem to be saying that Noonmark, Hurricane Mt., St. Regis and Ampersand may be it-- there are no more bald summits attributable to Colvin? (And I can't seem to find a source on Noonmark, though I'd swear I've read it somewhere.)
There is this source (pdf) saying that "in the 1870s Verplanck Colvin 'cleared all but a few' of the summits in the high peaks region", though clearly not all suffered subsequent complete soil erosion. Equally certain is that not all needed clearing, and that some that he cleared might have recovered if not for subsequent, unrelated fires.
Incidentally, I'm not casting aspersions on Colvin-- without his survey, the Park might not have existed. Besides, though clearing a summit sounds dreadful, it's hard to get too upset while admiring the views from these peaks!The Adirondack Wilderness ... is a vast natural park, one immense and silent forest, curiously and beautifully broken by the gleaming waters of a myriad of lakes, between which rugged mountain ranges rise as a sea of granite billows. -- Verplanck ColvinComment
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Where'd you get the quote. I'd like to pick up a book about the topic.He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.Comment
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The quote is from an online source: http://www.primalnature.org/ogeast/ny.pdf , a short paper by Mary Byrd Davis on old growth forests.
This looks interesting, though: Van Valkenburgh - On the Adirondack Survey with Verplanck Colvin: The Diaries of Percy Reese Morgan 96 pages, photos, $10 00 pb. From the Essex County Historical Society (http://www.adkhistorycenter.org/boo/historical.html)
This should give a taste of what the full tale is like: http://www.fig.net/pub/fig_2002/HS2/HS2_remele.pdf
Then there are the two books reviewed here: http://www.profsurv.com/archive.php?...32&article=444The Adirondack Wilderness ... is a vast natural park, one immense and silent forest, curiously and beautifully broken by the gleaming waters of a myriad of lakes, between which rugged mountain ranges rise as a sea of granite billows. -- Verplanck ColvinComment
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The book I have is called Adirondack Explorations: Nature Writings of Verplanck Colvin, edited by Paul Schaefer and published by Syracuse University.
I've never actually seen a list of which of today's bald peaks are directly attributable to Colvin. St. Regis may be the only one, and that was accidental--instead of chopping down the trees, the guides started a fire that got out of control.Comment
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The ADK High Peaks Guide says that Ampersand was cleared by Colvin and that subsequently "...erosion set in and washed all the soil away, and now nothing remains but bare rock." So there are at least two.
Based on the Ampersand story, I may have assumed that something similar happened on Hurricane, which Colvin also cleared (same source). I remember once thinking that Colvin might have accounted for the bare summit on Cascade, but later read that a forest fire caused it.
Something has to account for bare summits below tree line, but I guess it might be pretty difficult to know what caused each instance.The Adirondack Wilderness ... is a vast natural park, one immense and silent forest, curiously and beautifully broken by the gleaming waters of a myriad of lakes, between which rugged mountain ranges rise as a sea of granite billows. -- Verplanck ColvinComment
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Fire, weather, steepness, and subsequent human actions are all factors to consider. The vast forest fires of the early 20th century probably cleared more summits in the eastern Adirondacks than Colvin ever climbed. And many of the summits you are listing are/were fire tower summits, so some clearing would have occurred when those structures were constructed--and the concentrated human presence over several decades would have hindered the regrowth of the forest and perhaps encouraged erosion.
Each mountain no doubt has a different story to tell.Comment
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A look at the original reports of Colvin's survey would give you a good indication of what peaks were cleared by Colvin. These may be available at local libraries in the Adirondacks. He was pretty thorough with his details of what peaks he was on and what he encountered/did while up there. There are even pictures and photographs of what the summits looked like in these reports. I know that Colvin's report for 1873 has a picture and detailed description of the summit of Hurricane Mountain. According to this report the summit looked pretty much like it does today when Colvin first climbed it in 1873.
A good drawing of Colvin's party on the summit of Lyon Mountain shows the clearing that his crew did to open views to other summits the area. There was extensive cutting on this summit. I can't remeber which report/year this was in.
As one of the others had mentioned, many of the bare summits are due to fires that occurred around the turn of the century, or possibly earlier.Comment
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Verplanck Colvin
Having climbed Graves Mt. far to the west, it is easy to see why he chose this barren face for surverying.
More info:
"Well, you know he rammed that shot through—and many more across the "High Peaks" and far to the west, to Graves Mountain, his westernmost triangulation station. But the full story of the hardships endured by Verplanck Colvin and his crews would fill entire issues of Professional Surveyor.
One of the goals of the present day Colvin Crew is to condense Colvin's extensive reports to the Legislature into a popular read. In the meantime, there exists Footsteps Through the Adirondacks which was written by Nina Webb and published by North Country Books, Utica, NY. In a more lighthearted vein is On the Adirondack Survey with Verplanck Colvin: The Diaries of Percy Reese Morgan, edited by Norman J. Van Valkenburgh and published by Purple Mountain Press, Fleischmanns, NY.
Colvin Crew membership is open to all. Please send $20 to George Butts, Camp Clerk, 169 Holden Road, Chittenden, VT."Comment
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My intuition leads me towards skepticism. Just doesn't make sense to me. I'd be interested in seeing the sources for these statements.
Other responses, such as below, seem more reasonable. But again, I'd have to see the sources to be sure.
Scooting here and there
Through the woods and up the peaks
Random Scoots awaits (D.P.)
"Pushing the limits of easy."™Comment
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I gave the sources back in the thread, but here they are again, with page refs:
The ADK High Peaks Guide, 2004 edition, p. 182, says that Ampersand was cleared by Colvin and that subsequently "...erosion set in and washed all the soil away, and now nothing remains but bare rock."
Page 5 of this source says: "E. H. Ketchledge reports that in the 1870s, Verplanck Colvin cleared 'all but a few' of the summits in the high peaks..."
I'm not clear what doesn't make sense to you. I don't see how one would go about surveying the Adirondacks with 1870s technology without clearing some peaks. The bigger question in my mind is how many suffered subsequent soil erosion that hindered subsequent regrowth.
And just in case my point of view isn't clear from the foregoing, I think that even though scalping a summit sounds dreadful (and I guess I'd be opposed anyone doing it today) it would be hard to stand on the summit of Ampersand or St. Regis Mountain today and say, "Gee, if only this mountain was heavily forested, it would be way better!"The Adirondack Wilderness ... is a vast natural park, one immense and silent forest, curiously and beautifully broken by the gleaming waters of a myriad of lakes, between which rugged mountain ranges rise as a sea of granite billows. -- Verplanck ColvinComment
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I came across a copy of of Nina Webb's Footsteps through the Adirondacks, the Verplanck Colvin Story, and on p. 131 it has a copy of Verplanck's drawing of his work on Lyon Mountain, mentioned by Keaton, above. It looks like several acres were clear-cut. And on p. 134, she writes "Some of Colvin's clear-cut summits, such as Blue Mountain, remain open today, and reward climbers with panoramic views."
Granted, as Wildriver said, it would be hard to know what happened on any given mountain-- there could have been regrowth followed by fire. For that matter, a subsequent fire, even years later, could have done more damage when it hit slash left by the clear-cutting-- burning hotter and igniting the duff due to all the low-lying fuel.
Anyway, it's clear that I'm not quite alone in thinking that we have Colvin to thank not only for the Park itself, but for some of the easier 360-view hikes to be found in it today.
Sorry if I'm
The Adirondack Wilderness ... is a vast natural park, one immense and silent forest, curiously and beautifully broken by the gleaming waters of a myriad of lakes, between which rugged mountain ranges rise as a sea of granite billows. -- Verplanck ColvinComment
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FWIW, I believe Cascade's open summit is due to a non-Colvin fire... but I have no reference(s) other than knowing I've heard that from several different, and at the time reliable, sources.
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