Maggie Bryan

Adirondack Park is a place of great diversity in many senses: ecologically, recreationally, and ideologically (to name a few). Cleavages divide the Park’s residents and visitors by outdoor activity preference, socio-economic level, and stance on conservation. When it comes to race, however, the division is still there, but diversity lacks.

Most protected outdoor recreational areas in the U.S. tend to be used by predominantly white groups of visitors. In the Adirondacks, the number of white visitors and residents is especially pronounced, considering that New York is one of the most diverse states in the U.S. White residents of Adirondack Park make up about 92% of residents in most areas of the Park, compared to 63% nationally and 58% in the state of New York (Bauer). A 2017 survey of visitors in the Park by the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism found that 95% identified as white (Levine). Despite overwhelming whiteness, the Park has seen a 30% increase in non-white residents since 2010 (Bauer). Increases in diversity coupled with a national confrontation with race issues has led to a reckoning within the Adirondack community.

Census data for Essex and Hamilton Counties compared to the U.S. and New York State demonstrates that Adirondack Park is much whiter than N.Y. state and the country (Bauer).

For centuries, people of color have been experiencing racism in the Adirondacks. In the 1890s, black workers were recruited from the deep South to work on a railroad through the Adirondacks. They were lied to about pay, weather, and labor conditions, ultimately facing practical slavery (Terrie). Aggressions continue today. Aaron Mair, former director of the Sierra Club, was doing a photoshoot for the magazine Adirondack Life, when a group of rafters yelled racial slurs at him. Mair feared the group would become violent, and worried he would need to defend himself and the (non-white) photographer (Silvarole). In 2020, the valedictorian of Saranac Lake High School delivered a speech about being called names like,“squinty eyes” in a town where the Asian population lies next to zero (Silvarole). For black recreationalists in the park, it isn’t uncommon to be met with an unusual level of curiosity about where they’re from — infamously, “No, where are you really from?” Microaggressions like these explain  the low numbers of BIPOC visitors to the park, perpetuating a positive feedback loop of ignorance, racial isolation, and microaggressions. 

Saranac Lake High School valedictorian Francine Newman’s speech on microaggressions she experiences in Saranac Lake as an Asian American (Gosling).

Nicole Hylton-Patterson moved from the Bronx to Saranac Lake as the first director of the Adirondack Diversity Initiative in December 2019. She’d been living in the Adirondacks for just six months when someone spray painted “Go back to Africa f*****g n****r” on her daily running route. Hylton-Patterson says she knew immediately that the message was directed at her (Silvarole). She moved away from Saranac Lake shortly after the incident, but has continued her work with the Adirondack Diversity Initiative (ADI). ADI was founded in 2014, and in 2019, New York allocated $250,000 of its budget to the initiative, allowing it to hire Hylton-Patterson as the first director (Kauer). Since then, the ADI has hosted workshops, symposiums, meetings, and trainings with local leaders and groups in efforts to minimize racial bias within the Park. In conjunction with the ADI, Adirondack Diversity Solutions (ADS), “a consulting firm dedicated to diversifying the workforce,” has consulted with local businesses on inclusive hiring practices and bias-minimizing strategies (Brown).

Nicole Hylton Patterson, first and current director of the Adirondack Diversity Initiative (“Nicole Hylton-Patterson, Director, Adirondack Diversity Initiative.”)

The ADI and ADS struggle to connect with the  residents of the Park most in need of their services. It is hard for members of the community to confront their own racism when they rarely encounter people of color, and when living in ideological bubbles. Luckily, organizations saw a new wave of  interest after the murder of George Floyd, which led to small protests and Zoom meetings in the area. For the first time, issues of race are being exposed to the Adirondack public and the park has the opportunity to change for the better. 

Works Cited

Bauer, Peter. “Myths & REALITY 1: Census Data Show That ADIRONDACK Residents Are Older than Just about Everywhere Else and It’s the PARK’S FAULT.” Protect the Adirondacks!, 22 Apr. 2013, www.protectadks.org/1-census-data-show-that-adirondack-residents-are-older-than-just-about-everywhere-else-and-its-the-parks-fault/. 

Bauer, Peter. “US Census: Saratoga, Hamilton and Warren Counties All Post 2020 Population Gains in First Release of New Data.” Protect the Adirondacks!, 17 Aug. 2021, www.protectadks.org/us-census-saratoga-hamilton-and-warren-counties-all-post-2020-population-gains-in-first-release-of-new-data/. 

Brown, Donathan L. “Services.” Adkdiversity, ADK Diversity Solutions LLC, 2018, www.adkdiversity.com/services.

Christopher, Gosling. “2020 SLHS Graduation Valedictory Address.” YouTube, Good Guys Production, 9 July 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkns61SmGDU.

Hill, Michael. “In White Adirondacks, Racism May Be Toughest Hill to Climb.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 14 Sept. 2020, apnews.com/article/new-york-lakes-new-york-city-race-and-ethnicity-racial-injustice-50ba653f96e95d05a1ecdd53d817a3b2.

Kauer, Rupinder. “History.” Adirondack Diversity, Adirondack Diversity Initiative, 2021, www.diversityadk.org/history.

Levine, Justin. “Tourism Study: Adirondack VISITORS Overwhelming White, Upper Middle Class.” The Post Star, Adirondack Daily Enterprise, 14 Aug. 2018, poststar.com/outdoors/tourism-study-adirondack-visitors-overwhelming-white-upper-middle-class/article_950a41d5-c941-54a4-aa60-1091069c50d1.html.

Silvarole, Georgie. “Being Black in The Adirondacks: Why the Drive to Boost Diversity Is Complex, and Personal.” Being Black in the Adirondacks: Diversity Push Is Complex, and Personal, The Journal News, 18 Aug. 2020, www.lohud.com/in-depth/news/2020/08/18/adirondacks-tourism-black-people-of-color-nicky-hylton-patterson-saranac-lake/5544379002/.

Silvarole, Georgie. “Being Black in The Adirondacks: Why the Drive to Boost Diversity Is Complex, and Personal.” Being Black in the Adirondacks: Diversity Push Is Complex, and Personal, The Journal News, 18 Aug. 2020, www.lohud.com/in-depth/news/2020/08/18/adirondacks-tourism-black-people-of-color-nicky-hylton-patterson-saranac-lake/5544379002/.

Terrie, Philip. “Blacks in The Adirondacks: A History.” Adirondack Explorer, 1 Nov. 2017, www.adirondackexplorer.org/book_reviews/blacks-adirondacks-history.

“US Census Data-Hamilton County, NY.” Explore Census Data, 2020, data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=hamilton+county%2C+ny&tid=DECENNIALPL2020.P1.

“Yellowstone National Park Visitor Study.” Social Science Program National Park Service, University of Idaho Park Studies Unit, 2006, sesrc.wsu.edu/doc/178_YELL_rept.pdf.

“Yosemite National Park Visitor Study.” Social Science Program National Park Service, University of Idaho, 2009, www.nps.gov/yose/learn/nature/upload/Visitor-Use-Summer-2009-Study.pdf.