While the Adirondack mountains have been around for the last 5 million years, they were not formally named until 1837, when Ebenezer Emmons was given the honor after summiting Mount Marcy. Up until this point, the range had been referred to as the “Rontaks” as spelled by a French missionary, Joseph-Francois Lafitau (pictured below). He explained that this term was derived from the Mohawk word “haderondah,” which meant ‘eaters of trees’ and was a derogatory term Iroquoians used to describe Algonquians who struggled to farm and thus had to eat tree bark to survive in the winters. However, the irony in Emmons being given the honor to name the mountain range and name Mount Marcy is that he was not responsible for the expedition’s success, and he blatantly ignored the preceding name of Mount Marcy.

Up until the 1830s, Mount Marcy had been called Tahawus, meaning cloud splitter, as it was named by the Mohawks many years before. However, Emmons ignored this earlier name and paid homage to governor William Marcy, who approved Emmon’s expedition. This decision is still widely criticized for many reasons, with the most common reasons being that William Marcy never saw this peak and now has his name etched there forever. And the second most significant reason for criticism is that another part of the native’s history was taken away from them and disregarded by white explorers who had just discovered the land and could not lay claim that they had been living in this land for hundreds of years. Emmons did choose to keep the name of the range similar to its last name electing to keep it as is, just with a more defined spelling. But he was given the honor to do so because of his partnership with William Marcy. For a brief moment, Emmons would have had the power to erase even more of the history of the land by changing the name of the region.

On top of this, Emmons took the credit for the expedition as he had been the man hired by the state to lead the trip, but the men behind the scenes were just as if not more responsible for the trip’s success. When looking at the group makeup from the trip, there were fourteen other men, yet only some of their names live on. Emmons and a few others had mountains named after them, and some had their names engraved in a plaque atop Mount Marcy (pictured below). However, arguably the three most crucial men in the group, the guides, were only referred to as “three unknown woodsmen” and whose names have been overlooked by all since their first trip. So even though this had its pros and cons, the Adirondack region likely would not exist in its state today without the work of Ebenezer Emmons, and perhaps that is why he was tasked with naming the region.

References:

December, & Cameron, S. (2019, April 22). What’s in a name? Lake Placid, Adirondacks. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://www.lakeplacid.com/story/2011/12/whats-name.

Mount Marcy: The high peak of New York. Adirondack Explorer. (2013, March 7). Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/book_reviews/mount-marcy-the-high-peak-of-new-york.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, May 5). Ebenezer Emmons. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebenezer_Emmons.

Mount Marcy: The name, the climb, the legacy –. The Adirondack Almanack. (2020, December 18). Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2020/12/mount-marcy-the-name-the-climb-the-legacy.html.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, September 20). Adirondack Mountains. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adirondack_Mountains.