For the Love of Virginia – Part 5

As teenagers, Dad and his older brother Jim spent many summers at the lake helping their uncle repair docks, riprap shores (a technique of protecting shores from erosion by constructing rock walls at the water’s edge), and generally absorbing the latest news about their uncle’s conservation battles.  John and Jim listened to their uncle’s stories about growing up in Smyth County, Virginia, while they practiced their skills – cooking on a wood stove, constructing skate sails and sleeping bags, or reading maps and planning extended hikes into the mountains.

Uncle John had transferred his love of Virginia into a passion for preserving all that was good in his new home state.  Having loved the mountains and undeveloped expanses near his childhood home, he recognized, immediately on his arrival there in 1900, the inestimable value of the Adirondack mountains, lakes and streams.  His devotion and his passion for Lake George were rooted in his love of Virginia, and in the lessons instilled in him from his parents and relatives back home. He was effective as a conservationist because of his knowledge (his engineer’s attention to details and accuracy), his integrity (establishing a reputation for honesty and unselfishness), and his enthusiasm and capacity to persuade others to help.  He passed along his techniques and his passion to a devoted group of associates who have maintained his legacy throughout the four decades since his death, in 1963.

Uncle John had transferred his love of Virginia into a passion for preserving all that was good in his new home state.  Having loved the mountains and undeveloped expanses near his childhood home, he recognized, immediately on his arrival there in 1900, the inestimable value of the Adirondack mountains, lakes and streams.  His devotion and his passion for Lake George were rooted in his love of Virginia, and in the lessons instilled in him from his parents and relatives back home. He was effective as a conservationist because of his knowledge (his engineer’s attention to details and accuracy), his integrity (establishing a reputation for honesty and unselfishness), and his enthusiasm and capacity to persuade others to help.  He passed along his techniques and his passion to a devoted group of associates who have maintained his legacy throughout the four decades since his death, in 1963.

For me, Lake George represents a triumph of the human spirit, yet, as the same time, great heartache and disappointment.  The successes of my great uncle are over-shadowed, for me, by the realization that both my father and my uncle Jim could never quite figure out how to keep their uncle’s dreams alive and preserve his legacy.  I feel compelled to write about the conservation efforts at Lake George to contribute, in some small way, to the cause.

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