The beauty of the Adirondacks has been admired by humans for hundreds of years. With sprawling forests, pristine lakes, and majestic mountain ranges, these rugged landscapes first captured the imagination of 19th-century city dwellers seeking respite from urban life.
According to Smithsonian Magazine, it is in that “forever wild” land that the summer vacation was born in America.
A book titled, “Adventures in the Wilderness” by William H.H. Murray, was published in the spring of 1869 as one of the first guidebooks to a wilderness area. While excursions in nature were then thought of as treacherous endeavors, Murray described the Adirondack Mountains as a place that could be enjoyable to spend leisure time in. He claimed its unsullied nature could be the cure for those living in crowded, hectic cities.
The story of this utopia, whose scenery “rivaled Switzerland,” Murray said, became a bestseller, selling 10 editions in four months. A new train line to the mountains had also opened a year prior, making this magical world accessible from New York City or Boston if you were willing to travel 30-40 hours.
Summer of 1869 saw an influx of Gilded Age city slickers traveing to the Adirondacks, woefully underprepared for the rustic outdoors, from the way they dressed to being frightened of deer and bear tracks.
For some men, it was even worse, women were making the trip into the forest to camp.
The hotels, who saw mainly a few hunters each summer, were overwhelmed by the crowds and the weather was rainy and abysmal that year. Black fly season lasted into August, biting raw the skin of the summer throng.
Despite the critics, Murray held fast to his prediction that the Adirondacks would become America’s “great Summer resort.” And it did.
According to the Smithsonian, by 1900, the Adirondacks’ summer population had risen to around 25,000 from 3,000 in 1869.
It would be an annual pilgrimage, where the New York City elite would “vacate” their densely packed, overheated homes for their private summer retreats in the Adirondacks. Soon, the term “vacation” replaced the British “holiday” in everyday vocabulary.
As America became more industrialized, the middle class grew and it was more than just the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers who could enjoy the luxury of a break from work and everyday life.
And thus, the American vacation was born.
