On October 10, 2021, the Hornbeck Boat that the League of Extraordinary Adirondack Gentlemen built on August 30, 2020 was finally raffled off in Saranac Lake by the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation, bringing in over $40,000! It was a wonderful tribute to the late Peter Hornbeck, whose idea it was to build a boat in lieu of a camping trip, due to the the-raging COVID pandemic.
I was honored to participate in a four-member panel discussion at the Adirondack Experience Museum in Blue Mountain Lake on Monday evening July 12th. Here is the link: Wartime Recovery in the Adirondacks | Adirondack Experience (theadkx.org) As part of this summer's exhibit celebrating the massive participation of Adirondackers in the effort to defeat the Japanese Empire and Nazi Germany in World War II, the panel discussed how the Adirondacks provided a healing environment to the veterans, many of whom suffered from PTSD. My part focused on the WWII veterans I have met and cared for as their physician, many of whom I photographed and wrote about in my third book. The other panelists spoke about more recent conflicts as well as the experiences of women veterans. The museum will be offering copies of my book "We Were There; World War II Stories from the Adirondacks' Greatest Generation' for sale.
approximately 85 gravestones at the Boquet Cemetery in New Russia NY were pushed over on or around May 10th, including five of my ancestors' graves. Lucy, Amy, Annette, Bainbridge and Bolivar Bishop, whose lives spanned eight decades from the 1820's to the 1900's, were the second generation of Bishops to live in the industrious little village just south of Elizabethtown in northern Essex County NY. They were artists, inventors, musicians, scientists, millers and business owners. Lucy Bishop was my mother's father's mother's mother who lived from 1825 to 1900, and was the first female botanist innthe US to have her research published, and she was the mentor to Liberty Hyde Bailey, who would go on to become the first Dean of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University. Bainbridge Bishop was an artist and inventor who invented an unlikely instrument called a color organ. It's main claim to fame was that, of the three specimens ever made, one belonged to P T Barnum who proudly installed it in his Long Island mansion. Unfortunately, it's wiring must haveUpload an Image overheated, causing a fire which not only destroyed the organ, but the mansion as well!
Lucy Ann Bishop
Bainbridge Bishop
Anyway, the town of New Russia has rallied heroically to restore the desecrated graves, andmy cousin Rick Garrett and I will be there hopefully on July 15th to personally restore the Bishop graves. Margaret Bartley, the town historian and a published author of a wonderful book entitled "Grisha" has led the way in marshalling the town's forces to get the job done!
It took Tom Bessette and wife Kim, Ann Hornbeck, myself and the staff of the Tannery Pond Community Center three hours to hang 42 paintings and photographs in the gallery. The exhibit will open tomorrow morning, May 19th and run through June 26th. The combined visual synergy of the different styles depicting the same theme is powerful and a feast for the eyes! For more details about the exhibit and reception, please open this link below. Check it out!!
https://tannerypondcenter.org/.../gallery-bessette.../
The Adirondack Loon Center in Saranac Lake, which was the recipient of the unique Hornbeck Classic canoe created by our League of Extraordinary Adirondack Gentlemen in late August 2020, has announced that they will be raffling it off through their website at https://www.adkloon.org/hornbeck-canoe-raffle. Raffle tickets can be ordered at this link: Hornbeck Boat Raffle Dntn Card 2-21.pub (squarespace.com). Tickets are $20 each, or 6 for $100. You can download the ticket order form and use it to call the center to order tickets, or use it to mail a check for the number of tickets you want. )Note- you can't buy them directly on line because it violates New York State gambling laws.) The gaming comission has decreed that the sales cannot be officially started until April 8th, but you can download the form and prepare your purchase sooner if you want.
This is not only a great opportunity to win a unique Hornbeck pack canoe, but in the process you will be giving critical support to an organization dedicated to the rescue, preservation and protection of Loons in the Adirondacks. Loons need all the help they can get- facing nest predation and flooding, fish hooks and sinkers in the mouths of the fish they prey on, migration accidents, boat traffic and loss of habitat. It was important enough to Peter Hornbeck that he called upon the LEAG to devote our 2020 gathering to this worthy cause. Only a limited number of tickets can be sold, so don't miss this opportunity to buy as many as you can afford. If you have enough boats but still want to make a donation, the order form allows you to make a separate donation in Pete's memory. Where else can you save loons and honor an Adirondak Legend at the same time?
Daniel Way