1. “The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter
acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed
by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands.
They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or taken
by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the
timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed….”
Art. VII, SEC. 7 N.Y. State Constitution (1935)

2. Philip Terrie – Forever Wild
As Frank Graham, Jr., has effectively shown, many people have
fought a number of efforts to dilute the protections provided by Article
VII, Section 7; as early as the 1930s, men like Paul Schaefer, John S.
Apperson, and Robert Marshall were going to court, lobbying the
legislature, arousing public opinion, and doing everything they could to
keep dams, truck trails, and highways from compromising wilderness in
the Forest Preserve. We know that, in fact, it was wilderness they wanted
to save, that they were thus working from assumptions entirely different
from those of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation and David
McClure, who were originally responsible for the forever-wild provision.

3. In other words, beginning in the 1930s a wilderness lobby
existed whose chief mission was the defense of wilderness in the Adirondacks,
and whose chief tool in that defense was the language of Article VII, Section7.
The activities of this lobby have involved arguing before the legislature,
convincing voters of the value of wilderness, and insuring that the protections
of the forever-wild clause were written into subsequent constitutions. The
important point is that a preservation lobby existed at all. Before the 1930s it
did not – at least not in any appreciable degree. Yet the existence of the
preservationist philosophy is now taken for granted, both in the Adirondacks
and nationally. Its political skills have increased, its money-raising techniques
have become more sophisticated (though preservationists seldom have more
than a fraction of the financial resources available to developers and other anti-
wilderness forces), and its ranks have grown. It has learned how to use the
media and how to get out the vote. But its mission and rationale have
remained essentially the same since the 1930s.
Philip G. Terrie, Forever Wild: A Cultural History of the Wilderness in the
Adirondacks, 1994

4. Removing Squatters… Apperson was
responsible for saving the islands in Lake
George for public use. The story is incredible
and I cheerfully compliment William M. White
of Van Curler Avenue, Schenectady, for
bringing Apperson’s efforts to the attention of
thousands who, while using the islands, never
realize that once their access was in grave
jeopardy because of greed and politics.
There [were] individuals who began
occupying the state owned islands and
building summer homes on them, despite the
fact they possessed no valid deeds. On the
contrary, their only right, if it can be called
that, was based on “knowing the right
politician.” The situation did not sit well with
Apperson …*who+ decided to do something
about getting rid of what he considered
squatters. (Barnett Fowler, Times Union, 1983)

5. (Cont.) Starting off with a sympathetic state official in 1917 he visited
island after island, delivering proper legal papers, telling the squatters,
some of whom lived in rather ornate summer homes, to get off the
islands or he would return the following week with friends to “take their
camp down.”…Campers who had taken over the public lands often tried
to bully Apperson with the announcement they “were going to get him, “
and that “they knew a top state official,” but this was merely a blast of air
as far as Apperson was concerned…
Upon his second visit, the Apperson war party used sledge
hammers and other equipment on the island homes, a move which
usually convinced occupants their presence on the islands as “owners”
was not desired – nor healthy. On many visits Apperson furnished a
barge to transport demolished buildings. In one instance, a family
departed albeit willingly, floating not only furniture, but horse and calf!
Barnett Fowler, Times Union, Nov. 29, 1983

6. …The Lake George Narrows island beauty was
preserved by early environmental activist John
Apperson, a General Electric Engineer, who
secured legislation to evict squatters and
wealthy down-state vacationers who were
building cottages on many islands…
Frank Leonbruno, The Chronicle, February 27,
1997

7. His life was one project after another and
each, completed, served only as a springboard
into the next: he thrived on controversy: he
was a selfless loner who with only a few
occasional associates, conducted a constant
one man warfare against what he termed
“encroachment” into the Adirondack
wilderness preserve by “outside” interests.
Barnett Fowler, Times Union, February 10,
1963

8. French Point, once owned by GE, is state land
today because of him. Several miles of
shoreline on the East side of Lake George, once
part of a huge estate, is state owned today
because of his repeated efforts to rouse the
state to buy those miles. In this he was ably
helped by the late Assembly Speaker Oswald
D. Heck, whose love for Lake George was
equally profound.
Barnett Fowler, Times Union, February 10,
1963

9. Tongue Mountain, once privately owned, is
state owned because of his efforts. At one
time he had a small camp on the west side of
the mountain which he dubbed “Woodchuck
Temple.” It was his retreat.
Barnett Fowler, Times Union, February 10,
1963

10. A man of positive opinions, Mr. Apperson
never was quite satisfied with the man-made
level of Lake George – a level created by the
blasting away of a natural stone dam and the
construction of another barrier at the lake’s
outlet at Ticonderoga. He fought through
courts to have the artificial dam removed and
the natural stone dam reinstated. He never
did win that fight but his persistence blew up
the systolic of many of his opponents.
Barnett Fowler, Times Union, February 10,
1963

11. He was an individualist. He formed and was
president of the New York State Forest
Preserve Association, which attacked every
proposal which he thought might eliminate the
“forever wild” atmosphere of the Adirondacks.
He was the dean of the implacable
conservationist, the man who wanted the
woods as God made them. He drew about him
a hard core of others with the same desires
and throughout his career, he made his power
good.
Barnett Fowler, Times Union, February 10,
1963

12. Entries in the diary of Irving Langmuir…
1916 : Apperson came in evening. He wants to
start agitation to get the Federal Government
to make the Adirondacks a national park…
1923 : Mr. Coffin called me in to talk re: Lake
George and Mr. Apperson. Mr. W. J. Knapp had
previously seen Mr. Coffin and tried to get Mr.
Coffin to stop Apperson. I spoke for some time
and convinced Mr. Coffin that our course (Lake
George & conservation) was a good thing.
1928 : (Langmuir in New York City to receive
the Perkins Medal) Go to see Nathan Strauss
and Raymond Ingersoll to seek their support
for Apperson’s plan to get 300 acres of Knapp’s
land for Lake George Park.

13. 1941 : (Langmuir in Washington attending meetings of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science – of which he was
president that year – and the National Academy of Sciences) Appy calls
in the evening re the purchase (by the state of NY) of Knapp’s land at
Lake George. I spend the evening calling Hugh Bennett. I try to get
Eleanor Roosevelt and VP Wallace but can’t. (Next day) Telephoning
again re Knapp Bill. I find that Eleanor R. is on the Pacific Coast. C.R.
Wilson calls me and tells me that he has had a long talk with Lehman.
I suggest responsibilities of the GOVERNOR and public resentment at
the lumbering of the land if it occurs on Black Mountain.
1944 : Meeting of the Executive Committee, Board of Directors of the
Lake George Protective Association of which I am president. Now 100
members. We retain counsel to prevent legislation or to prepare
injunction if bill passes to intervene on the side of the state in the suit
against the Paper Co.

14. DOME ISLAND
MEMORIAL SANCTUARY
IN MEMORY OF
JOHN S. APPERSON
AND HIS ASSOCIATES
HE GAVE THIS ISLAND TO THE
NATURE CONSERVANCY TO PRESERVE
FOR THE VISUAL ENJOYMENT OF THE
PUBLIC AND AS AN EXAMPLE OF
UNINTERRUPTED NATURAL PROCESSES
A.D. 1956