July 2016

E E R F he wind

as t

IN NESSMUK’S WAKE Great-greatgreat-grandson Will Madison Recreates the Naturalist’s Solo Adirondack Canoe Trip

Finger Lakes Cheese Festival Corning’s Taste of Summer The Twin Tiers’ Endless Mountain Music Festival

By Brendan O’Meara JULY 2016 1

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Volume 11 Issue 7

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In Nessmuk’s Wake

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

By Brendan O’Meara Great-great-great-grandson Will Madison recreates the naturalist’s solo Adirondack canoe trip.

By Gayle Morrow

Thanks to new partnerships, the Upper Tioga has a cleaner future.

17

Nessmuk

By Don Knaus

Of forest, stream, woodcraft, and camping.

6 From Russia with Love

22

Let’s Jam

By Linda Roller On Route 80, Kavkaz Restaurant serves up the flavors of the Motherland.

By Maggie Barnes

The Endless Mountain Music Festival sweeps back into town, ready to rock.

28

Savoring the Season

By Maggie Barns

Corning’s Gaffer District serves up a Taste of Summer.

20

36

It Takes a Village

Let Them Eat Cheese

By Holly Howell

By Maggie Barnes The 50th Keuka Lake Art Association Hammondsport Art Show takes to the Square.

The 5th annual Finger Lakes Cheese Festival comes to Odessa’s Sunset View Creamery.

Cover by Tucker Worthington.

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w w w. m o u n ta i n h o m e m ag . co m Editors & Publishers Teresa Banik Capuzzo Michael Capuzzo Associate Publisher George Bochetto, Esq. Maggie Barnes O pe r a t i o n s D i r e c t o r Gwen Plank-Button Advertising Director Ryan Oswald Advertising Assistant Amy Packard D e s i g n & P h o t o g r ap h y Tucker Worthington, Cover Design Contributing Writers Melissa Bravo, Patricia Brown Davis, Alison Fromme, Carrie Hagen, Holly Howell, Roger Kingsley, Don Knaus, Cindy Davis Meixel, Fred Metarko, David Milano, Gayle Morrow, Cornelius O’Donnell, Brendan O’Meara, Gregg Rinkus, Linda Roller, Diane Seymour, Kathleen Thompson, Joyce M. Tice, Melinda L. Wentzel C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Mia Lisa Anderson, Melissa Bravo, Bernadette ChiaramonteBrown, Bill Crowell, Bruce Dart, James Fitzpatrick, Ann Kamzelski, Jan Keck, Nigel P. Kent, Roger Kingsley, Tim McBride, Heather Mee, Ken Meyer, Bridget Reed, Suzan Richar, Tina Tolins, Sarah Wagaman, Curt Weinhold, Terry Wild S a l e s R ep r e s e n t a t i v e s Alicia Blunk, Maia Stam, Linda Roller, Joe Route, Richard Trotta T h e B ea g l e Cosmo (1996-2014) Yogi (Assistant)

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In Nessmuk’s Wake Great-great-great-grandson Will Madison Recreates the Naturalist’s Solo Adirondack Canoe Trip

By Brendan O’Meara

T

he Adirondacks are old, geriatric even in the geologic sense.

Will Madison, a recent graduate from Saint Lawrence University, knows this. He minored in geology, knows the nature of the granite and the anothrocite, a rock prevalent on the moon.

Born into it: Like Nessmuk, Madison shares the love of wilderness exploration. A sixth grade school project turned into an exploration in which he had “no control.”

6

See Wake on page 8

7

Personal passage: Madison ends his journey with deeper insight into his own determination, limitations, and a humbled sense of self.

(Inset) This map shows the various canoe and portage points along his retraced expedition.

Wake continued from page 6

When he set his canoe down in any of the rivers in Adirondack State Park, it’s a river long decided by the retreat of glaciers once layered by season upon season for millennia upon millennia with snowfall.

The weight became so great that the snow compressed into ice thousands of feet thick.

Under that mass, the lowest layers of the glacier moved like thick maple syrup.

The southern expansion of the glacier climbed over the mountains pulling boulders with it, erratics. The glacier carved the shape of these old, granite mounds.

These mountains, this landscape, had Madison cite Henry David Thoreau’s Walking, “ When a traveller asked Wordsworth’s servant to show him her master’s study, she answered ‘Here is his library, but his study is out of doors.’”

Madison majored in philosophy at Saint Lawrence University.

When the earth warmed and the glacier pulled back, it left behind kettle ponds and lakes, but also the tire tracks that would form river beds as the water fell from the sky or when the snow melted from on high.

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These rivers, some 30,000 miles of streams and brooks in the Adirondacks, made homes for fish and game, and provided highways for ships for trade and travel, scenic by-ways far from the horse paths and modern-day Interstates, serene with kingfishers chirping or black bear rising on hind legs.

It was in these waterways that, in 1883, outdoor writer, woodsman, conservationist, and poet George Washington Sears, also known by his nomme de plume Nessmuk, paddled his Sairy Gamp some 266 miles.

Fitting that Madison, the great-greatgreat-grandson of Nessmuk, would embark on a similar trip in the wilderness, in the great outdoors.

For Madison also majored in outdoor studies at Saint Lawrence University.

But first, he needed a boat.

Rob Frenette, founder of Raquette River Outfitters in Tupper Lake, New York, is a fourth-generation Adirondacker. He loved wooden boats and, while at college, he noticed his peers ran toward some abstract future to create a modern world. Frenette

didn’t want an “inside job,” as he put it, though part of what he does (boat building and restoration) is inherently indoors, as it must. He saw the direction of that rat race, this zombie horde lurching toward drop ceilings and high rises, water coolers and flickering fluorescent lights. If that’s the modern world, then let the futurists have it. “I reversed and went to the 1800s,” says Frenette, for Frenette is a boat builder.

He familiarized himself with Nessmuk, and, by extension, the work of J. Henry Rushton, an iconic figure in the world of boat building. It was Nessmuk who pushed Rushton to design smaller, lighter boats.

Rushton, a man of regal appearance, tight eyes, a well-groomed goatee, and a high forehead with silver hair, told Nessmuk about the Sairy Gamp, “Now you must stop with this one, don’t try any smaller one. If you get sick of this as a Canoe use it for a soup dish.”

Nessmuk later said, “Her maker had warned me that he would not warrant her for an hour. She may go to pieces like an eggshell. He builded better than he knew.”

In this spirit, Frenette traveled to Maine where he attended boat building school and learned the finer art of crafting canoes. Boats lack straight lines, so building them takes patience, skill, and experience.

In 1980, Frenette went to work on his first wooden canoe, inspired by the Rushton design, though slightly sturdier than the Sairy Gamp. Frenette cites a joke that Nessmuk said about Rushton’s small boats, “‘You’ve got to part your hair down the middle and chew gum split in each cheek so you don’t tip over.’”

Frenette used cedar planking for his boat, with the keel and gunwales (or gunnels) in oak. He made the ribs from white oak—though Rushton preferred elm—and used copper clenched nails to fasten the ribs to the planks, as Rushton would. He installed a cedar seat with a single thwart as a backrest.

When he finished, he unofficially named her Nelly, after one of his mother’s favorite dogs.

Frenette, having read of Nessmuk’s voyage in the Adirondacks, harbored visions of taking Nelly through the same rivers and streams, retracing the path in his Rushton-inspired vessel. How perfect that would be. He even read Christine Jerome’s An Adirondack Passage (a book recounting Christine, in a Kevlar canoe, retracing the Nessmuk journey) and figured that was something he could do.

“When I built it,” says Frenette, “I wanted to take that trip with the boat. I was always working. I never got to do it and write about it.”

Along came Madison, born some fourteen years after Frenette built Nelly, who crashed with Frenette’s brother.

Madison had visions of following in his great-great-great-grandfather’s watery path.

The Frenettes convened, learned Madison was related to Nessmuk, and that Frenette had a boat inspired by the same maker of Nessmuk’s famous canoe.

In Madison, Frenette saw a vicarious opportunity. “I never had the time,” says Frenette. “At least my boat could go.”

Madison spent much of his youth in the Boy Scouts, which, “Got me into the wilderness,” he says, “no video games. I spent other ways keeping busy: drumming, juggling, lots of random things. It’s a fun way to get out on camping trips with a fun group of guys.”

Detroit

ELM Philadelphia

Atlanta St. Petersburg/ Clearwater

Orlando/ Sanford

See Wake on page 10 9

Wake continued from page 9

When he was six years old, right around the time a boy of that age would enroll in Boy Scouts, he had a writing project for school. He chose his great-great-great-grandfather as the subject: George Washington Sears, better known by his Forest and Stream pen name Nessmuk (Native American for Wood Drake).

Madison starts his project by writing of Nessmuk, “He was a little bit famous, so I decided to write about him.”

Madison noted how slight Sears was, barely over five feet tall, 110 pounds, which means he’d have his hands full with a well-fed fifth grader. Then again, in Nessmuk’s words, “It wouldn’t take a strong rope to hang me, but a bear trap on one leg and a grindstone on the other wouldn’t drown me in ten fathoms.”

In the report, Madison revealed Nessmuk’s secret recipe for “bug stuff”: three ounces of pine tar, two ounces of castor oil, one ounce of pennyroyal oil, then simmer over a slow fire. “He put it on his face and skin. Each day he added a new layer. He said, ‘Don’t fool with soap and towels where insects are plenty.’ He must have gotten pretty smelly.”

In closing, Madison writes, “Some day, when you drive by Mount Nessmuk in Pennsylvania, you can think of this story about my great-great-great-grandfather.”

That story, in a few year’s time, would also be Madison’s.

“To be honest, I don’t want to gloat about it,” Madison says.

“I was just born into it, no control. It was a good excuse to go on a long canoe trip.”

Madison could, if he wanted to, wave the Nessmuk flag, but he keeps it close the chest. Instead, he paddles the paddle, and when he learned of Nessmuk’s 266-mile canoe trip through the Adirondacks, he sought his own course in the wild, looking up into those mountains from the depth of the riverbeds.

It conjures, yet again, Thoreau, how one draws nourishment from the outdoors, “For I believe that climate does thus react on man—as there is something in the mountain air that feeds the spirit and inspires. Will not man grow to greater perfection intellectually as well as physically under these influences?”

Madison believes this, and it is why he sets out on his own.

“He had the drive and the ability,” says Anne Fleck of Raquette River Outfitters. “He did lots of paddling trips. He’s an outdoor enthusiast. He knew how to pack his gear. He did that on his own.

It helped to work at an outfitter all summer.”

Madison had most of the gear he needed.

Thanks to Frenette, Madison had the boat.

Thanks to his age, having just graduated from college with little tying him down, Madison had the time. “If I get too involved in,” life, work, family, you name it, he may not do it and then it’ll be, “I’ll do it next year, I’ll do it next year,” he says. “There may be too many things tying me down.”

All Madison needed was fuel, five days of food at a time: pastas with onions and sausages, pizzas, good potato soups, oranges, eggplant and cabbage.

Weighing 185 pounds himself and towing a sixty-pound pack, Madison entered the water, wearing a smile as wide as the Sairy Gamp herself. Madison’s long, amber beard recalls images of Nessmuk from his 1883 voyage 133 years ago.

Madison started in Old Forge and the Fulton Chain Lakes as the boat wobbled a bit as he centered himself. The gunwales See Wake on page 12 10

The same, but different: Nelly, the sturdier 1980 version of Rushton’s Sairy Gamp, was created by boat builder Rob Frenette.

Having little time to make the voyage himself, Frenette saw an opportunity to fullfil a personal dream in Madison’s interest.

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Nessmuk continued from page 10

were a few inches above the surface of the water as he thought, “What the heck have I gotten myself into?”

It was also exciting, that first day, September 11, 2015, “I felt blessed to do something like that in twenty days and have so much fun.”

The trip wasn’t a given, of course.

Weather and the wild, portages and rougher currents, but he made it through that first day and at 9:22 p.m. he wrote in his journal: “Pretty overwhelming day 1 as a whole…mostly because I’m thinking about what day 2 holds. I’ve got about a 20-mile day ahead to get to Tom Thatcher’s. Work took longer this morning than planned and took a bit to get the boat/gear dialed.

First time paddling the boat with gear, little nervous about facing big winds in it.

Gunwales are riding a little low. I brought a stupid amount of food, just way too much.

And I would like to cut down on gear but am not really sure where to start, will keep pondering it. I’m half thinking what have I gotten myself into + half thinking wow this is really cool. Camping at Decamp Island (Treasure Island) since I got such a late start.

But will get up at 5 am tomorrow morning + want to hit the water by 6 am. Am Guessing I average 2 miles an hour with the portages, but hope to cruise + and do better. Lots of rain in the forecast the next few days. But I will say we do need it + it could save me some portages.”

On he paddled through the latter parts of the beginning stages, through Raquette Lake, Forked (pronounced Fork-ED) Lake, Raquette River, into the big widening of Long Lake, and continuing down the Raquette River.

Through Brown’s Tract Inlet, Madison looked up at the clouds clinging to the mountaintops with the trees painting autumnal colors against the coniferous evergreens. His boat low in the water, he paddled with smooth, guided, precise strokes as the water rippled out in a V behind him.

This was Nessmuk’s path, and Madison was well on his way.

By and large, Madison spent the bulk of the trip alone. He met some people along the way: friends, kindred spirits, reporters, photographers, but when they left, he kept

paddling.

It echoed a similar sentiment Nessmuk felt in his travels when he wrote, “I like the sort of woods life…that has a spice of convenient civilization mixed up with it, where, for instance, I can visit with intelligent men from different sections of the country, and get in [my canoe] and paddle in an hour to a secluded spot where I may camp for a month without seeing a human face.”

During one challenging portage, Madison met two sightseers by chance.

While portaging, his pack, which he conceded was too heavy for this trip, came unbuckled at the waist and shoulders. The only one intact was his chest strap, and it yanked him back and nearly strangled him.

One could almost imagine the ghost of Nessmuk standing there beside Madison saying, as Nessmuk once wrote, “Each and every camper has gone to his chosen ground with too much impediment, too much duffle; and nearly all have used boats at least twice as heavy as they need to have been.

The temptation to put this or that bit of indispensible camp-kit has been too strong,

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Right of passage: After Will’s voyage, he had the opportunity to meet Chris Jerome, author of An Adirondack Passage, who made the same journey, in a Kevlar canoe, in 1990.

and we have gone to the blessed woods, handicapped with a load fit for a pack-mule. This is not how to do it. Go light; the lighter the better.”

It was as if Nessmuk gave Madison the equivalent of an atomic wedgie from beyond the grave.

“Nessmuk would’ve been laughing at me,” Madison says.

“He was all about go light, go light.”

Madison would shed ten pounds of gear for the remainder of the trip, still with far more than the one shirt, one extra pair of socks Nessmuk brought with him in his fifteen-pound pack aboard the Sairy Gamp.

Through the middle of the trip, Madison found his groove. All systems were in order and his biggest worry from dawn till dusk was where to camp and where to eat dinner.

At times he paused to fish, other times he let the water carry him along as he looked up at the setting sun. He even saw a black bear along the river’s edge, and it stood up on its hind legs and looked at him “like a squirrel would out of curiosity.”

He soon traveled to and through Upper Saranac Lake, Lake Clear, the Seven Carries, Upper and Lower Saint Regis, turned around at Paul Smiths, back to the Raquette River, Tupper Lake, Round Pond, Little Tupper, shuttled to Forked and back to Old Forge, 200 miles and twenty days in total.

Before he finished, on a cold and wet day, he detoured to Blue Mountain Lake and, instead of hiking the mountain, “after paddling so far, I opted for the warmer museum,” Madison says.

He entered the Adirondack Museum where the Sairy Gamp is on display, all nine feet and 10.5 pounds of her.

He stood beside a cutout of George Washington Sears, and Madison put his arm around his great-great-great grandfather, the two sporting similarly long beards, sharing similar looks of outdoorsmen, men of the same era, separated by time. “It was crazy, powerful to see how far he went in that tiny boat,” says Madison.

On the final night before Madison finished his trip, he wrote, “Hard to believe it’s all over tomorrow, but I do feel as if I accomplished a feet [sic]. It’s the longest trip I’ve ever been on.

It’s the longest time I’ve ever spent by myself, and I also planned everything on my own. Not to say I didn’t have help as I do owe gratitude to many, but nobody was holding my hand, If I didn’t pursue it it wouldn’t have happened.

This trip + my recent trip to the Adk Museum has me wondering once more if I was born into the wrong time. I’ve been told by many who were not aware of the others telling me I am an ‘old soul.’ And I suppose they’re right. I’m bad with technology, but good in the woods. That’s not really as marketable as it once was. I do believe Nessmuk to be a great woodsman, but I’d like to think I could keep up with him at least.”

For those who have spent time in the woods, time humbled by the remoteness of the outdoors, of imposing peaks, hooting owls, and the chirping of crickets, few things sound better than the crack of a campfire or the gentle plunk of the oar entering the stream.

Award-winning writer Brendan O’Meara is the author of Six Weeks in Saratoga: How Three-Year-Old Filly Rachel Alexandra Beat the Boys and Became Horse of the Year.

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Photo courtesy Ttioga County Concerned Citizens Committee

O U T D O O R S

Tenacious Tioga: The rocks of the Tioga River reveal the colors of pollution. After years of sterility caused by untreated industrial acid drainage, the Upper Tioga River has a chance at renewed life, from an unexpected source.

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Thanks to New Partnerships, The Upper Tioga Has a Cleaner Future

By Gayle Morrow

T

here is a swimming hole just off the road to Ogdensburg.

Thanks to acid mine drainage, the water in this part of the Upper Tioga River has been sterile for years, clear as new glass all the way to the stones on the bottom. I remember taking my kids there to swim—we called it The Temp then, but I think now it goes by Pirate’s Rock—and thinking, “well, we don’t have to worry about anything in the water because nothing can live in it.” This was thirty years ago; it didn’t occur to me then that I could or should do something about it.

Shane Nickerson, Blossburg’s mayor, has a similar memory.

“I grew up here, and I just accepted that the river was polluted,” he says.

We were not alone in that mindset. But, as was evidenced by a recent celebration involving dozens of people who, over the past nearly twenty years, have done the work of launching the Upper Tioga’s renaissance, those days of resignation are gone. One of those people was Andy Gavin, deputy executive director for the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC). He recalled that sixteen years ago one of his first jobs with the SRBC was to come to Tioga County and assess the “legacy coal issues” associated with the Tioga and other waterways. It was a rather dismal assessment.

This May day, though, he was with a group of more than 100, ready to take part in an on-site ribbon cutting to mark

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the official start-up of an acid mine drainage treatment system for Fallbrook Creek. Fallbrook is part of the Upper Tioga River watershed, which is, in turn, part of the Susquehanna and Chesapeake Bay watersheds. (The Tioga River originates in Armenia Township, Bradford County, and eventually becomes part of the Susquehanna.) The fact that the long-discussed treatment system had actually become a reality was enough of a dazzler but, as Gavin pointed out, “it takes people to put these systems in the ground…it’s rare that you have a group with that sort of stamina.”

The group with the stamina is the Tioga County Concerned Citizens Committee (TCCCC), headed by Charlie and Joyce Andrews. They, in turn, take the opportunity whenever they can to credit the people and organizations who have stuck with them over the years and tears of attempting to bring life back to the Tioga. Those partners include the Borough of Blossburg, the Blossburg Municipal Authority, Hillside Rod and Gun Club, the Tioga County Conservation District, the Tioga County Commissioners, Ward Township, the Bureau of Forestry, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Trout Unlimited, SRBC, Pittsburgh-based Hedin Environmental, and, TCCCC’s newest collaborator, the Houston-based Southwestern Energy (SWN).

Why would people working for the third largest supplier

of natural gas in the United States want to help solve an environmental problem in Tioga County, Pennsylvania—a problem they did not create?

Bill Way, president and CEO of Southwestern Energy, offered the explanation. The Appalachian Basin and the Keystone State are major producing areas for SWN, he said. Because one of the company’s major core values is the environment and taking care of it, “we don’t take more than we give back.” Pennsylvania has been a “friendly place for us to invest,” he continued, and “making a positive impact on local communities has always been a key part of our culture.” He said SWN has participated in and completed other conservation projects in Arkansas, West Virginia, and Colorado. Add to that the company’s self-imposed mandate to be “fresh water neutral” by the end of this year. It means, Way said, that for each gallon of fresh water used in operations, SWN will replenish or offset an equivalent amount via conservation and innovation.

“We’re giving back to Mother Nature,” he said, “and we can do much more when we work together.”

That working together came with a $2.5 million price tag which SWN assumed, including a trust fund endowment, to be administered by the Tioga County Conservation District, that will cover the cost of operating the treatment system for the next couple of decades. In the two separate passive treatment systems, built where the town of Fallbrook once thrived, acidic water flows through limestone beds at the rate of about 1,000 gallons per minute. Water stays in contact with the limestone for an average of twelve hours. The limestone dissolves and neutralizes the acidity; the water then flows into polishing ponds where other contaminants settle out before it runs back into the Upper Tioga. Financial loss in fishery resources due to impacts of acid mine drainage into the Tioga River and its tributaries is estimated conservatively to be $287,000 annually. As the pH increases due to the neutralizing action of the limestone, portions of the Fallbrook and the Tioga will again be able to support aquatic life, including stocked trout.

Coal may no longer be king but 100-plus years ago it reigned in places like Fallbrook, Morris Run, Arnot, Antrim.

There was a lot of money to be made and so getting coal out of the ground and to the market as quickly and cheaply as possible was the name of the game. There was no shortage of labor— manpower then was a somewhat expendable commodity. Just ask union organizer Mother Jones or Blossburg’s own William B. Wilson, who went on to become the first Secretary of Labor, as they tackled the labor-related problems associated with coal mining in those days.

But the environmental problems—well, that was another story. That is this story, the one of people working together to solve a problem they did not create but one they did not want to leave for another generation.

As Bill Way mused as he watched one of the youngest attendees enjoy his celebratory luncheon that ribbon-cutting day, “He will have the opportunity to live his whole life here with clean water.”

Let’s hope so.

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Nessmuk’s Sairy Gamp (bottom) is currently on display at the Adirondack Museum.

Nessmuk

Of Forest, Stream, Woodcraft, and Camping

By Don Knaus

I

n 1841, a young Wellsboro man named George Washington Sears and a young New Yorker named Herman Melville shipped out of New Bedford, Massachusetts for whaling grounds in the South Pacific. Both returned home to writing careers: Sears as the famed woodsman, outdoor writer, early conservationist and poet known as “Nessmuk” who has since vanished into obscurity, and Melville as the author of the obscure novel Moby-Dick, a critical and commercial failure rediscovered as a great American novel in the Twentieth Century.

It’s time to rediscover Nessmuk.

George Washington Sears was a bearded, “shiftless,” diminutive, five-foot-three, 109-pound character, a legend in the bars of Wellsboro and on the lakes of New York State, who was a famous American outdoor writer for Forest and Stream magazine, author of the classic book Woodcraft who invented and popularized solo canoeing and light-footed camping, a poet compared to Whitman in his lifetime and called “the hook-and-bullet Thoreau” today, and an early conservationist who was trained in the ways of the woods and waters as a child by “an athletic young brave” of the Massachusetts Narragansett tribe named “Nessmuk.”

Sears was born in 1821 in south-central Massachusetts, the son of a shoemaker. He attended local schools, sparingly, and trained as a cobbler, but it was the young Indian Nessmuk who spoke to his soul, teaching the boy, starting at age five, his secrets of hunting,

fishing, woodcraft and camping. Nessmuk would “carry me around Nepmug and Junkamaug Lakes, day after day, until I imbibed much of his woodcraft, all his love for forest life, and, alas, much of his good-natured shiftlessness.”

The boy’s wild excursions often ended with an “interview” with his “Par” behind the barn, in which an “apple tree sprout was always a leading factor. Gradually, they came to understand that I was incorrigible, or, as a maiden aunt of the old school put it, ‘given over;’ and, so that I did not run away from school, I was allowed to ‘run with them dirty Injuns’…But I did run away from school, and books of the dry sort to study the great book of nature.”

In addition to trying his hand at whaling, young Sears worked in a cotton mill, he wrote, “taught school in Ohio, bullwhacked across the Plains, mined silver in Colorado, edited a newspaper in Missouri, was a cowboy in Texas, a ‘webfoot’ in Oregon, and camped and hunted in the wilderness of Michigan.”

By the time he reached Wellsboro in 1848, Sears opened a cobbler’s shop but spent most of his time in the wilderness, even after he was married in 1857 and had three children. He briefly joined the Pennsylvania Bucktails regiment in the Civil War, but was relieved of duty for the ill health that chased him much of his life, then worked as an editor for The Tioga County Agitator, a Wellsboro newspaper. The self-educated cobbler, a lover of Shakespeare and Byron, published poetry in Atlantic Monthly.

See Nessmuk on page 40

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From Russia with Love

On Route 80, Kavkaz Restaurant Serves Up the Flavors of the Motherland

By Linda Roller

I

nterstate 80 is, by and large, a lonely road, a land of one or two gas stations on the nearly empty interchanges, maybe a tiny Mom and Pop diner. And the slice from the Lewisburg exit to Lock Haven is one of its loneliest stretches.

But, at the Jersey Shore Exit, there is a new respite for traveler and diner alike—an Armenian/Azerbaijani/Russian restaurant.

And, as luck would have it, this restaurant is open later than any restaurant in the county—until midnight, in fact (only a twentyfour-hour gas station is open later). Welcome to Kavkaz Middle Eastern Restaurant, located at Exit 192 (3379 E. Valley Road in Loganton, to be exact; (570) 725-2323).

The restaurant, owned by Jack Galachyan, an Armenian who arrived in this country in the 1980s, has been open only eight months. The sign outside says Middle Eastern cuisine, but that is to tell people not familiar with food from the Russian Federation what to expect. For this restaurant is here to serve a special clientele.

There are many Russian truckers on the road, Jack explains, “Uzbek, Russian, Armenian, Georgian, Azerbaijani...many Russian people drive trucks.”

It explains the hours, for Kavkaz opens at noon, and the truckers start arriving at around 3 p.m.

Russian truck drivers? Indeed. It seems that our national trucking industry has attracted people who hail from the old USSR, much like Greeks in restaurants, and South Asian families in the hotel business. Even Time magazine did a short article a few years ago about the need for more truckers in a nation that

20

delivers the majority of its goods by truck, and about the ethnic Russian Federation men who were helping to fill the employment gap in this industry.

With big truck stops only thirty-five to fifty miles away, why would a trucker stop on this desolate stretch of road? Why, for the food, of course. Everything, but everything, is made fresh to order, and seasoned just like they do in the Motherland. For the Moldavian truck driver that stopped, it’s a welcome change from fast food and a place where he can have a meal “like my country.”

But this is not just good Russian food. This is simple, good food.

The shashliki (like shish kebob) is marinated for a day, then grilled over a hardwood charcoal fire and offered with rice. They offer chicken, pork, beef, lamb, and halal lamb. There are homemade soups, including Borscht, salads, several hot dishes like chicken plov, and a simply delicious dish called homade (filled with potatoes, meat, and vegetables). As Jack explains, although there are so many dishes that come from the Caucuses (the region of the Russian Federation that borders Turkey, where he’s from), the dishes he puts on the menu are beloved all over the region and beyond to the rest of Russia.

But any meal at Kavkaz must include the amazing homemade breads baked to order on the premises. A brunch specialty is khachapuri ajarski, which is two eggs and a mixture of cheeses wrapped in a bread that is baked, then filled and baked again. It is a meal in itself. There are breads filled with meat, with cheese, with tomatoes and cheese, and just plain.

To create this little piece of Russia away from home, Jack has two chefs, one from Moscow, one from St. Petersburg, who can not only create this love letter to the Caucuses, but can create many other types of cuisine. And, if they can grow the little restaurant/truck stop, there will be even more. For Jack loves this little piece of Pennsylvania, up in the mountains, so much like the land he left. “I like it here. More trees, more nature…” But a remote location means it takes more work and time for people to find you.

His staff shares the passion. Mark Smith from McElhattan started a short time ago and has moved from dishwasher to cook, and says that the folks who work here will do whatever job needs to be done to keep Kavkaz running and serving people. “It’s like a family,” he says.

But don’t expect a lavish dining area. This crew spends the money on the creation of great food. But do expect room for a party, large or small. The restaurant is BYOB, so you can bring along some beer or wine. And, if you need to hurry on your way, call and order ahead. Many of the breads take thirty to forty-five minutes from order to table—they really are baking to order! Do look at the chef specials, often with ingredients foreign to Americans, and delicious. If you can, come with friends and order several dishes to share. The staff and Jack will be happy to help you and tell you about this cuisine. After all, they came from half a world away to bring it to you.

Mountain Home contributor Linda Roller is a bookseller, appraiser, and writer in Avis, Pennsylvania.

Relish in Russian: Kavkaz serves fresh Middle Eastern foods, like borscht (above) to a growing Russian trucking industry.

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Two’s company: Corky Siegel (left) and Bram Wijnands return to the EMMF.

Let’s Jam

The Endless Mountain Music Festival Sweeps Back Into Town, Ready to Rock

By Maggie Barnes

A

world-renowned classical pianist, a Kansas City blues musician, and a riotous Celtic band walk into a bar.

It’s not the opening of a joke, but it could actually happen this summer in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania.

As the baton drops to open the 11th season of the Endless Mountain Music Festival, the lineup of guest artists and performances reflects a true realization of Music Director Stephen Guzenhauser’s goal to offer a variety of music.

“Our philosophy has always been to include all types of music, as long as it is well performed,” the Maestro said.

While the festival has a tradition of swinging from Beethoven to the blues, this year’s menu of sound may be the epitome of a full audio smorgasbord. Stephen likens it to good food. “Any food that is well prepared can be enjoyed.”

To say that the schedule has something for everyone is too cliché to let stand without a thorough review of the concerts involved. Sixteen events in as many days cover genres both compatible and contradictory.

Opening night on Friday, July 22 is a product of Stephen’s fertile imagination. That program, Heroes and Villains, is a marriage of great Hollywood movie footage and the music written to bring it to life. Scenes from Batman, Star Wars, Frozen and The Wizard of Oz will be featured, among others. Children will be the VIPs at

this opening, as they are invited to a costume contest to celebrate their favorite movie characters. (Parents with those creative kids will be admitted for half-price, while the kids get in free.) As the Director of the Lancaster Symphony, Stephen has conducted this program before and calls the combined effect of sight and sound “spectacular.”

The first night of the festival also includes STEM Makes Music, a partnership with the Regional Science and Discovery Center (SDS). Children will spend days creating musical instruments out of “stuff and junk,” as Coordinator Pat Dann says. Cans, bottles, string, pots, pans, and tree branches will reveal their hidden sounds.

This “recycled orchestra” will open the concert with a special piece, composed by Tina Davidson.

The emphasis later shifts quite a distance from Hollywood, with the music of the Middle East. On Thursday, July 28, Journey West: East West Consort, featuring the Max Bukholtz Ensemble, will present the exotic sound of instruments including mandolin, oud, and nay. The group believes in the unifying power of music in our troubled world. One of their members lived through such turmoil in Iran, coming to the United States as a child to escape oppression.

Then, hang on to your compass, as the festival wings off to the Emerald Isle with the music of Across The Pond, an authentic See Let’s Jam on page 25

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Celtic group that Maestro Gunzenhauser met—the stereotype be damned—in a bar. Bring your best tapping toe on Monday, August 1 and be transported to an Irish pub. You can tell these guys are the real thing. It’s the hats.

Stephen often refers to the Endless Mountain Music Festival as “summer camp for musicians.” He invites them to spend a bit of their summer in Wellsboro, they fall in love with the scenery and the appreciative audiences and the hook is set to get them back again.

That played out to the extreme in the case of Bram Wijnands, the famed Kansas City jazz pianist. He met and married a festival violinist, all under the blue umbrella of a mountain summer. While he has played many times in Wellsboro, this year he is bringing the entire Bram Wijnands Jazz Band for the group’s inaugural visit.

The music will flow like bourbon at the Penn Wells Hotel on the night of Tuesday, August 2.

Two nights later, the energy level will be doubled when Bram is joined on stage by Corky Siegel, jazz harmonica player extraordinaire. Corky is a favorite at the Endless Mountain Festival and never fails to bring down the house. Winner of several international awards, Corky’s pedigree as a blues man was honed playing in clubs alongside Willie Dixon, Little Walter, and Muddy Waters. The combination of blues and jazz at this level might just threaten the structural foundation of the Keystone Theater in Towanda, but let’s do it anyway.

Corky then gets a couple of days rest in before the preview of a world premiere of new music he has written. He joins with the Endless Mountain Music Festival Orchestra for the celebration at the Corning Museum of Glass on Saturday, August 6.

There is so much more: Wideman International Piano Competition winner Xixi Zhou playing Rachmaninov, Serbian violinist Diana Seitz, a “Wish Upon A Star” concert at Cherry Springs State Park, and so on—for two weeks of heavenly sound.

Ask Maestro Gunzerhauser how he corrals such world-class talent to a small Pennsylvania mountain town and he replies, “I have many friends.”

And isn’t it fun when they all come over to play?

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Tastefully tailored: The Taste of Summer show is more than just great summer food.

It’s an opportunity for crowds to experience an assortment of local flavor from the Gaffer District.

d e l e ! c 7 n 1 a C n 20 i k c a B Savoring the Season

Corning’s Gaffer District Serves up a Taste of Summer

By Maggie Barnes

Verb: taste; 3rd person present: tastes; past tense: tasted; past participle: tasted; gerund or present participle: tasting 1. Perceive or experience the flavor of.

T

he folks at Dictionary.com were smart to include the word “experience” in this definition. When it comes to describing the Taste of Summer event in Corning’s Gaffer District, experience helps to explain that it is about more than just fabulous summer food.

Taste of Summer, set for July 21 from 5 to 9 p.m., will celebrate all the good things in the Gaffer District—food, retail, and music included. The unique nature of the Gaffer District is emphasized at Taste of Summer, as the featured businesses are exclusively from the district. This is only its second year, but local merchants are enthusiastic about the reception the debut event received. More than thirty businesses have risen to the challenge to move out in the sweet summer air and offer their best products of summer enjoyment.

Taste of Summer will happen on Bridge Street, which will be closed from Riverside Drive to Pulteney Street, but the bridge

28

will be open for traffic. The shops and restaurants on the street will be open for business when everyone wants to sit for a bit and sample the summer-inspired drinks and desserts. But the rest of the action will be on the street itself, where a large stage will be constructed and the best of local bands will provide a soundtrack for the fun. Virgil Cain will play from 5 to 6:30 p.m. and The Silver Arrow Band from 7 to 9 p.m. The kids will have a lot to keep them busy with fun activities and face painting. Wegmans is sponsoring a watermelon-eating contest to find the true lovers of that warm-weather treat.

Nothing tastes better than munching your favorite summer foods in the open air, but forget funnel cakes and hot dogs. The menu at Taste of Summer is far more open-air bistro than carnival.

Imagine the aroma of fresh half-pound Angus burgers, grilled squash, pulled pork with homemade barbeque sauce, and veggie and chicken shish-ka-bobs. And that’s just from The Site Cyber Bar and Grill, one participant. Poppleton Café and Bakery will be making crepes. Sorge’s offerings include meatball sliders and chocolate chip cannolis. This is not your grandfather’s country fair!

Gaffer District restaurants will be stationed under tents in front of storefronts, encouraging walking and tasting.

One of the highlights of the evening is the Taste of Summer Fashion Show. The Bridge Street stage will turn into a runway for

d e l e ! c 7 n 1 a C n 20 i k c a B

the finest of summer wear from Gaffer District shops like Pips and Posh.

The story behind the models walking the runway is inspiring.

Journey Fitness invited their members who have undergone body transformations to take a sort of victory walk and celebrate their success. Journey Fitness uses a combination of diet and exercise to help people lose weight, increase their strength, and manage chronic illnesses.

When the fashion show came up last year, Posh owner Courtney Leonberger, a member of Journey Fitness, suggested using folks there as the models. Journey Fitness Director of Success Jeremy Purifoy says they were only open about six months when Taste of Summer happened for the first time, and he wasn’t sure what kind of response that request would receive. But, about a dozen people took him up on it and used the occasion to acknowledge just how much their bodies, and their lives, had changed.

“Some of our members were pretty shy normally, but they had a great boost in confidence after their weight loss. They wanted to share with others what was possible to achieve,” Jeremy relates with a smile. “We announced how much weight they had lost when they came out, and you could hear the audience gasp.”

Tiffany Chapel was one of them. She lost fifty pounds with the help of Journey Fitness and felt she could be an inspiration to others by participating in the fashion show.

“It’s a wonderful way of bringing the community together and introducing the fashion shops we have right here,” she said.

And a perfect way to savor a summer day.

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Fancy fencework: The emphasis of the Hammondsport Art Show has always been on inspiring young artists. In this photo from the 1970’s Michael Moretti and student Cheryl Sawdey set up artwork.

It Takes a Village

The 50th Keuka Lake Art Association Hammondsport Art Show Takes to the Square

By Maggie Barnes

I

n the world of art, eight people and fifty feet of snow fence make for pretty humble beginnings. But those were the modest components of the first Keuka Lake Art Association Hammondsport Art Show. Keep that in mind when you walk through this year’s fiftieth anniversary event, set for July 9 and 10 on the village square. (The show opens on Saturday and the judging is Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. www.keukalakeartassociation. com.)

Hammondsport High School art teacher Michael Moretti taught a painting class to area adults in 1966. So enthused were the students, they asked their teacher about showing their work in a public setting. Cue the snow fence. Within five years, the art show had grown to encompass more than just paintings. Sculptures, fiber, acrylics, and photography have grown in representation, keeping pace with the show. The impact of the event has also grown, including the inclusion of student work with a reduced entry fee.

For many, the juried Hammondsport show is their first taste of competition. More than three thousand dollars in cash prizes are

awarded to exhibitors annually by the show, as well as the Jeanne M. Lent Scholarship, awarded to high school and college students in memory of the Hammondsport art lover who was one of the show’s first committee members.

The range of categories offers a visual feast for art lovers both seasoned and casual: drawings and graphics, pottery, jewelry, photography, and sculpture are open to all original work. In two categories—oils and acrylics, and watercolors—there are separate competitions for amateurs and professionals. Consider it homage to that original group of eight amateurs who found their artistic voices with Michael Moretti’s help.

That influence also helped shape the Moretti family, all of whom have creative tendencies. Their children grew up at the Hammondsport Art Show, from helping to set it up to being old enough to enter their own work. Today, son Tony Moretti and his wife Gwen Quigley organize a “Children’s Corner” where kids can put their summer energy into making creations from natural materials. Inspiring future generations is a family tradition.

See Keuka Arts on page 35

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Keuka Arts continued from page 30

Fine art fenceline: Fencing remains an integral part of the Art Show; tying the past to the present.

Keuka Arts continued from page 32

Michael modestly calls the enterprise “successful” and is reluctant to receive the praise alone. “There is a core group of volunteers who make it happen year after year. And the Village of Hammondsport is very supportive.” So is the art community.

Many regional artists mark it in their calendars in ink. One of them is Leah Corey, who lives in Bath and makes textural beadwork jewelry and sculptures of all sizes (including miniatures for doll houses). She has been a part of the Hammondsport happening for twenty years. “I am thrilled to have such a high quality event in my own backyard. The energy and creativity fostered by this show, and the fact that it was conceived and supported by artists, has positioned it to remain a popular and viable event for fifty years. And no doubt, fifty years to come!”

A summer day on the village square is a work of art in itself. The shade trees, the charming shops and restaurants, the lake shimmering nearby—it all makes for a picture as pretty as those on exhibit. The Keuka Lake Art Association knows how to make a good thing better. Guitarist Bill Groome will be on the bandstand Sunday, and local favorite pianist Ed Clute will tinkle the ivories both days of the show.

Besides the aesthetics of the art itself, the Hammondsport Art Show is very important to the town itself. Chamber of Commerce President Ken Corey, husband of Leah, calls the event “an integral part of the fabric of the Hammondsport area.”

Familiar with its simple beginning, Ken notes that the circle of artists involved grew with each year. He credits the direct involvement of artists for keeping the quality of the work so high. “An art show that is juried by artists will attract excellent work, work that people buy to display

or gift. It elevates the event.”

Such events are partly responsible for the steady flow of visitors to Hammondsport. The year-round count of voting adults is 750. That number plumps up like a Finger Lakes grape to 20,000 during the warm months. Happenings on the square anchor activity for tourists who are also coming for the lake and the wineries. Come December, the locals will enjoy a Christmas celebration on the square that will feel like a family party with the decreased traffic.

That surge in population also feeds a unique combination of world-class shopping and dining that normally isn’t found in small towns. Add it all up and it equals a summer experience that one resident calls “unspoiled,” an enjoyment of all the best things in life in a setting out of a painting.

After fifty years, what is the future of the Hammondsport Art Show? Michael is uncertain. That core group of volunteers is aging and he isn’t sure of who will be there to step up. He retired from teaching in 1990, though his impact as an educator will be felt for generations to come. At ninety-two, he is starting to think about slowing down. That’s a concept that doesn’t sit well with some of his board members. One of them informed Michael that his “retirement” would have to wait for a slightly more significant event—the stepping down of Queen Elizabeth. When the Queen hangs it up, Michael can turn the hanging of regional artwork over to a successor.

It’s very clear whom Hammondsport would miss more.

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Hand-made heaven: Artisinal cheese makers gather to showcase quality and flavor.

Let Them Eat Cheese!

The 5th Annual Finger Lakes Cheese Festival Comes to Odessa’s Sunset View Creamery

By Holly Howell

W

hat could be cooler? In the midst of the most beautiful maze of wine trails, in the highly acclaimed Finger Lakes region of New York State, you can visit more than a dozen artisanal cheesemakers. Talk about the perfect pairing. And just as the wineries come together each year to throw a huge wine party, the cheeseries do the same. This year the big event—the 5th Annual Finger Lakes Cheese Festival—is taking place on Saturday, July 23rd (www.flcheesetrail.com).

As a seminar presenter at the previous festivals, I can give you an eyewitness report that this is not to be missed. There is something for everyone. Music, wine, beer, cider, cheese, jams, jellies, salsas, barbecue, ice cream, art and much more—all of it home grown in the Finger Lakes.

But the focus is on the incredible cheeses. Hosting this year’s event is Sunset View Creamery, located just outside of Watkins Glen in the town of Odessa. Operated by the Hoffman family, Sunset View is one of the members of the cheese trail, and specializes in delicious Cheddar, Monterey Jack, and Parmesan style cheeses.

This farm is well worth visiting just on its own. But on festival day, you will be able to experience not only Sunset Views cheeses, but a taste of other stellar cheese producers like Tin Fish Farm and Side Hill Acres (both produce outstanding goats milk cheeses, or chevres). Kenton’s Cheese Company makes a creamy Brie that is one of the first soft-ripened cheeses to be made here. Shtayburne Farms offers an eclectic mix of flavored cheddars and curds for the 36

adventurous that include Blazin Buffalo Wing, Horseradish, and Jalapeno. Bring it!

Also in attendance will be Crosswinds Farm and Dairy and their mouthwatering fresh and alpine cheeses. Engelbert Farms has built a reputation on its organically made fetas and goudas. Finger Lakes Dexter Creamery makes a very unique cheese from kefir cultures, and is completely raw milk based. Heaven Scent Farm is focused on jack cheeses. And the newest member of the trail is Parulski Farms, whose homemade wares include spicy Cajun cheese curds, a raspberry flavored jack, and a garlic sriracha cheddar. Is your mouth watering yet?

But the real celebration here is all about our hard-working artisanal producers. Artisanal cheese refers to a cheese produced “by hand” using the traditional craftsmanship of skilled cheesemakers, as opposed to cheeses made in factories using more highly automated processes for mass production. Artisanal cheeses are known to be much more complex in taste and personality. Many are aged and ripened in small individual batches, resulting in very unique flavors. This contrasts with the milder flavors of factory produced cheeses that are made on a larger scale and often shipped and sold immediately. Some artisanal cheeses are also referred to as “Farmstead” cheeses. This means that the cheese is made by hand, with milk from the producer’s own herds of cows, sheep, or goats. Which in turn means awesome quality and a signature flavor that is impossible for any other cheese to imitate. As with See Eat Cheese on page 39

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Hands-on know-how: Visitors can enjoy the experience of cheese making, from handmilking and cooking to pairing classes and seminars.

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superior performance benefits to minimize energy costs, reduce carbon emissions, and

winemaking, cheese making is a labor of love, and each and every product is a signature of its terroir.

The Finger Lakes Cheese Trail connects all of the cheese making dairies throughout the region. It is difficult to travel the entire trail by car, and the visitor hours are limited depending on the farm. So having the cheese makers all in one place on the same day is a wonderful treat.

In past years, as I walked the festival, I often heard the phrase “I can’t believe this is being made right here in New York!” But believe it, because you can attend seminars and classes and pairings all day (some free, some for $2), or just wander the food stalls and graze. You can feast on pork barbecue and wood-fired pizza.

Macarollin’, the gourmet mac and cheese truck from Rochester, will be driving in for the event. Chef Christopher Bates, of FLX Weinery, will teach a class on cooking with cheese (as well as sell his gourmet hot dogs). Chef Brud Holland of Finger Lakes Made will do a cheese-making demo. Julia Lapp, an Ithaca College professor who teaches, among other things, courses on food and society, will present a seminar on the history of New York State cheese with Ann Duckett, of Little Bleu Catering & Events in Rochester. (Julia and Ann are working on a book on the same topic, which will also provide a map of New York cheese makers.) The Village Bakery will be on hand with hand pies, as well as a gourmet cotton candy maker. And this is only a sampling!

For this wine and cheese lover, I must admit that the highlight of this festival is getting to meet the animals that make it all happen. You can even try your hand at milking a goat. Kids (the human ones that is), get in free if they are under twelve years old.

Adults are $5 in advance, and $8 at the door. Now that is one great way to spend a day.

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Holly Howell is a Certified Specialist of Wine (by the Society of Wine Educators) and a Certified Sommelier (by the Master Court of Sommeliers in England).

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BRADFORD CO. Nessmuk continued from page 17

But it was in the 1880s that Sears gained national fame, writing a popular column for Forest and Stream magazine, the outdoor magazine of the day, under the Nessmuk Bradford County, Opportunities forpremier Everyone of All Ages • Developing Bradford County within its borders • Growing tourism outside our borders pseudonym, and referring to himself in the third person as • Assisting Bradford County’s 501c3 and c6 • Non-profit agency organizations through room tax grant program. funded by hotel occupancy tax “The Old Woodsman.” The Old Woodsman was the pride of Wellsboro, where he frequented the saloons and the locals Bradford County, Opportunities for Everyone of All Ages Bradford • Developing Bradford County within its borders • Growing tourism outsideCounty our borders affectionately tagged him with the nickname, “Bacchus,” the • Assisting Bradford County’s 501c3 and c6 • Non-profit agency Opportunities for Everyone organizations through room tax grant program. funded by hotel of occupancy All Agestax name of the Roman god of wine.

• Developing Bradford County within its In his column Nessmuk “taught readers the best way to borders.

• Assisting Bradford County’s 501c3 and light a fire, pitch a tent, catch a frog, cut hemlock branches c6 organizations through room tax grant program. for bedding, cook a johnnycake...and carry in only what was Bradford County, Opportunities for Everyone of All Ages • Growing tourism outside our borders.

• Non-profit agency funded by hotel absolutely necessary,” according to ExplorePAhistory.com. “Go occupancy tax. light,” he advised, “the lighter the better.” Heart-broken by the clear-cutting of the great trees along the Pine Creek ten miles from Wellsboro, he was one of the first to sound a warning of Farm Fresh Milk the industrial blighting of the wilderness, what he called the & Dairy Products! “poison” of factory runoff, and pioneered the idea of entering the wilderness for peace and leaving it undisturbed. “We do not HORMONE-FREE • ANTIBIOTIC-FREE go to the green woods and crystal waters to rough it,” he wrote ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY in Woodcraft, the first how-to book on what we know today as ALL GRASS FED camping. “We go to smooth it.” ...still available in old-fashioned Especially beloved were his first-person accounts of his returnable glass jugs! adventures on three long canoe trips in 1880, 1881, and 1883 A Full Line of Grass Fed Beef & Pastured Pork Products! through the Adirondacks (the treks that would inspire his greatDon’t forget to bring your coolers! great-great grandson, see the cover story), each in successively lighter canoes than the seventy-five-pounders then the standard.

16867 Route 14 • Troy, PA (570) 673-5651 Nessmuk persuaded Henry Rushton, a master canoe builder www.milkywayfarms.net in Canton, New York, to build him light canoes, including the legendary Sairy Gamp, now part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

Named after a drunken character in Dickens’ novel Martin Chuzzlewit who “took no water,” the Sairy Gamp weighed just ten pounds and was nine feet long. “She’s all my fancy painted her, she’s lovely, she is light,” Nessmuk wrote. “She waltzes on the waves by day and rests with me at night.”

His book Woodcraft, reputed to be a source for the original Boy Scout Handbook, was an immediate success, and in 1886, the magazine published a collection of his poetry, Forest Runes.

Nessmuk was “an American of the Americans and woodsman among woodsmen,” wrote an admiring reviewer at The Nation.

“His poetry is…more genuine than Walt Whitman—that of a man who lives in the open air and speaks his mind.”

In the winter of 1886, in failing health with malaria, tuberculosis, and asthma, Sears made a last major trip for Forest and Stream, along the east coast of Florida. He died in 1890, he uTure oF rillinG is ere and was buried in Wellsboro. He is remembered in town by a Nessmuk plaque on the town green, and an exhibit of his artifacts • Control Your Grill across the street at the Tioga County Historical Society, as well from Your Phone as nearby Nessmuk Lake, and Mount Nessmuk. Woodcraft is • Set Grill and Food still in print, and the Sairy Gamp is on permanent loan to the Temperature at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, New York.

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