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.TRUE PLACES 85 Even though living in Manhattan limited his ability to find unbrokenwildness, Robert Marshall s appreciation for nature soon included the Adir-ondack Preserve.His father s activism on behalf of the Adirondacksstemmed, in part, from a desire to protect Knollwood, his family s retreatnear Lake Placid Village.To his friends, Marshall described Knollwood inthe contemporary vernacular as a camp. In truth, the family holdings inthe preserve were more like a small estate, complete with a staffed mainlodge and multiple outbuildings.The Marshalls vacationed in good compa-ny.Not far from their camp stood luxury hotels, exclusive rod-and-gunclubs, and the private estates of Harry Whitney, Alfred Vanderbilt, J.P.Morgan, and William Rockefeller.35 Marshall spent every summer of hisyouth at the family complex.He filled his days with baseball and swimmingand, when he grew older, hiking and climbing.As he remembered, his firstexposure to Adirondack nature began with the exploration of an expanseabout three quarters of a mile by three eighths of a mile surrounding thefamily lodge.Here in this tiny stamp of nature, Marshall felt beyond thesounds of civilization and found what was to his young mind real wilder-ness. Although only a short walk from the family compound, Marshallrelished the opportunity to explore an area as exciting as the unexploredcontinent which I had missed by my tardy birth. 36These boyhood Adirondack wanderings profoundly affected Marshall snatural philosophy.From a young age, he was fascinated with the idea ofconquest and the experience of probing what he termed virgin nature. Hedelighted in the thrill of exploration, but he also connected mental andphysical adventure into empty nature with happiness, improved humanwelfare, and social stability.Captivated by the notion of using the physicalworld for personal adventure and civic improvement, Marshall would spendevery opportunity, whether tramping about in the Adirondacks, or later inlife, exploring the Alaskan Arctic, in search of blank spaces on the map.37Marshall was not as overtly nationalistic as Clarence King, but in devotinghis life to filling these spaces, he visualized his life in nature as the product of an imperial civilization built on acts of discovery made by individualmen. 38 As a boy, he dedicated summers to Adirondack exploration, and ashe grew older, he turned to natural science with a similar intensity.In bothcases, he purposefully laid claim to natural places and, in the process,created an ideology of natural appreciation justifying his presence in thephysical world while establishing the parameters of who belonged in natureand who did not.Summers in the Adirondacks also exposed Marshall to mountain climbing,a life-long passion that influenced his aesthetic toward nature.In 1916, heclimbed Ampersand Mountain, his first Adirondack high peak. By hissophomore year in college, he had climbed every Adirondack mountainhigher than 4,000 feet.39 The Adirondacks did not match King s favored86 ROBERT MARSHALL AND THE REDEFINITION OF PROGRESS Figure 4: Young Robert Marshall in Adirondack Park.Courtesy of Adirondack Museum.Sierras in size, but Marshall still found in climbing a most satisfying andmasculine activity. There is nothing comparable in its demands for physicalcompetence and deftness and stamina and courage, he wrote.Climbing is aTRUE PLACES 87 thrilling adventure involving perfect coordination of all parts of the body,perfect equilibrium while calmly holding on by toes and fingers to the cracks ofa rock wall overhanging several thousand feet of sheer drop, perfect judgmentconcerning which route is possible and which unconquerable. Death and extinction are always a possibility and while climbing is possible withoutthese perils, to the man who is capable.there comes a real feeling ofaccomplishment. The great majority of people who go to the woods areincapable of such feats, Marshall concluded, as the percentage of the humanrace which is capable of this true mountaineering is very small. He includedhimself within this small percentage and he continually sought out naturalexperiences demanding self-sufficiency and self-assurance.The reward was an elation.which nothing could equal [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.TRUE PLACES 85 Even though living in Manhattan limited his ability to find unbrokenwildness, Robert Marshall s appreciation for nature soon included the Adir-ondack Preserve.His father s activism on behalf of the Adirondacksstemmed, in part, from a desire to protect Knollwood, his family s retreatnear Lake Placid Village.To his friends, Marshall described Knollwood inthe contemporary vernacular as a camp. In truth, the family holdings inthe preserve were more like a small estate, complete with a staffed mainlodge and multiple outbuildings.The Marshalls vacationed in good compa-ny.Not far from their camp stood luxury hotels, exclusive rod-and-gunclubs, and the private estates of Harry Whitney, Alfred Vanderbilt, J.P.Morgan, and William Rockefeller.35 Marshall spent every summer of hisyouth at the family complex.He filled his days with baseball and swimmingand, when he grew older, hiking and climbing.As he remembered, his firstexposure to Adirondack nature began with the exploration of an expanseabout three quarters of a mile by three eighths of a mile surrounding thefamily lodge.Here in this tiny stamp of nature, Marshall felt beyond thesounds of civilization and found what was to his young mind real wilder-ness. Although only a short walk from the family compound, Marshallrelished the opportunity to explore an area as exciting as the unexploredcontinent which I had missed by my tardy birth. 36These boyhood Adirondack wanderings profoundly affected Marshall snatural philosophy.From a young age, he was fascinated with the idea ofconquest and the experience of probing what he termed virgin nature. Hedelighted in the thrill of exploration, but he also connected mental andphysical adventure into empty nature with happiness, improved humanwelfare, and social stability.Captivated by the notion of using the physicalworld for personal adventure and civic improvement, Marshall would spendevery opportunity, whether tramping about in the Adirondacks, or later inlife, exploring the Alaskan Arctic, in search of blank spaces on the map.37Marshall was not as overtly nationalistic as Clarence King, but in devotinghis life to filling these spaces, he visualized his life in nature as the product of an imperial civilization built on acts of discovery made by individualmen. 38 As a boy, he dedicated summers to Adirondack exploration, and ashe grew older, he turned to natural science with a similar intensity.In bothcases, he purposefully laid claim to natural places and, in the process,created an ideology of natural appreciation justifying his presence in thephysical world while establishing the parameters of who belonged in natureand who did not.Summers in the Adirondacks also exposed Marshall to mountain climbing,a life-long passion that influenced his aesthetic toward nature.In 1916, heclimbed Ampersand Mountain, his first Adirondack high peak. By hissophomore year in college, he had climbed every Adirondack mountainhigher than 4,000 feet.39 The Adirondacks did not match King s favored86 ROBERT MARSHALL AND THE REDEFINITION OF PROGRESS Figure 4: Young Robert Marshall in Adirondack Park.Courtesy of Adirondack Museum.Sierras in size, but Marshall still found in climbing a most satisfying andmasculine activity. There is nothing comparable in its demands for physicalcompetence and deftness and stamina and courage, he wrote.Climbing is aTRUE PLACES 87 thrilling adventure involving perfect coordination of all parts of the body,perfect equilibrium while calmly holding on by toes and fingers to the cracks ofa rock wall overhanging several thousand feet of sheer drop, perfect judgmentconcerning which route is possible and which unconquerable. Death and extinction are always a possibility and while climbing is possible withoutthese perils, to the man who is capable.there comes a real feeling ofaccomplishment. The great majority of people who go to the woods areincapable of such feats, Marshall concluded, as the percentage of the humanrace which is capable of this true mountaineering is very small. He includedhimself within this small percentage and he continually sought out naturalexperiences demanding self-sufficiency and self-assurance.The reward was an elation.which nothing could equal [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]