"I think the biggest challenge to tell John Apperson's story is there is just so much," Chirnomas said Thursday during the exhibit's opening. "So many documents and photographs and correspondence, and there's so many different stories that relate to him." Chirnomas became familiar with Apperson's work while he was researching his Dome Island book, which made him a prime candidate to work with the Lake George Historical Association on the exhibit.
"If not for Apperson, Dome Island would not have been preserved and left in its natural state," he said. "This exhibit's really going beyond Dome Island, that one accomplishment." Apperson actually bought Dome Island to keep a hotel from being built on it and then donated it to the Nature Conservancy.
The exhibit focuses on several key aspects of Apperson's involvement with the preservation of Lake George. This includes his early days camping on West Dollar Island and his one-man crusade to save it from eroding through riprapping the shoreline one stone at a time. Most Lake George islands now have riprapping, that is collections of small boulders along the island's shoreline, protecting the delicate earth, grasses and tree roots from the lake's waves.
The riprapping work was often completed in winter, as the rocks were taken by truck and slid into place along the ice and allowed to drop into the water during the spring melt. Apperson made it his mission to protect all the lands in and around Lake George. He would put his own well being in jeopardy at times by confronting and removing squatters cabins from the islands.
He even "kidnapped" New York Gov. Al Smith in 1932 to convince him to reroute a highway which was planned to cut through Tongue Mountain. He grew his grassroots movement into a formidable political force, which literally changed the landscape of the lake as well as the whole Adirondack Park.
"When the Adirondack Park was created back in 1892, Lake George was not included within the Adirondack Park boundaries," Chirnomas explained. "(Franklin Delano Roosevelt) was elected governor of New York in 1928. In 1931, he passed legislation to extend the Adirondack Park boundary, also known as the 'blue line' to include all of the lake.
Apperson's acquaintance with FDR likely influenced the eastern expansion of the 'Blue Line.'" Apperson's work driving public awareness of the natural beauty of Lake George is something of a double-edged sword for researchers like Chirnomas. His extensive documentation and detailed correspondence regarding the lake and its islands proved to be daunting task to wade through.
Albeit a welcome one. "I approached the (exhibit) with first trying to identify what were the most important stories and projects that Apperson fought for on the lake," Chirnomas said, highlighting the importance of Apperson's own photographic campaign to tell Lake George's story. "Over 30-cubic-feet of his documents, letters, (and) photographs are all at the Adirondack Research Library in Niskayuna.
" He also enlisted the help of his "Dome Island" book collaborator Ellen Apperson Brown, who is also a prolific Apperson author. "This exhibit could not have been done without Ellen Apperson's work. She's (been) the leading historian on John Apperson for the last few decades," Chirnomas said.
Ellen Apperson Brown is the great grandniece of John Apperson. One of the biggest takeaways for Chirnomas was the persistence Apperson showed, and the change he inspired. "Apperson inspires me to be a leader and to persevere," Chirnomas said.
Chirnomas, who is entering his junior year at college, is currently working on his second book, which will explore the history of all the named islands along Lake George. "This is just my passion," he said. "I really enjoy Lake George history.
(It's) something I love." The four-panel exhibit is now part of the permanent collection on display at the Lake George Historical Association housed in the old Warren County Courthouse, located at 290 Canada St. in Lake George.
Alex Portal is a staff writer. Contact: 518-742-3274, [email protected] .
.
