Description: "(Colvin) changed the wreckage of devastated woodlands to marvelous lands healed by nature, with great forest and watershed values recovered; and as time goes on, rivers and lakes all continue to benefit from the original ideas that he proposed that would maintain forever the wild forest character of the Adirondack region". -- Paul Schaefer, from the Foreword

Verplank Colvin worked twenty-eight years as the superintendent of the Topographical Survey of the Adirondack Mountains. This collection of essays reveals his many perspectives on the Adirondack Mountains, one of the last great frontiers of the East.

Colvin's Adirondack work, written over a twenty-year period, has been carefully selected and edited. His writings reflect an outdoorsman's appreciation of the wilderness, with a poet's unerring sense for its beauty. An early advocate for the preservation of the Adirondacks Mountains, one of Colvin's best-known contributions involved sharpening surveying techniques, thus making property boundaries clearer and taxes fairer. Colvin's work encompasses a considerable political component, as he became the force behind Governor Hill to pass the Forever Wild statute of 1885 and the establishment of the Park itself in 1892.

Until now Colvin's work has been overlooked by all but the most knowledgeable conservationists. This book stands as a testament to his lifelong work.

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