LOCALadk Magazine

57 Fall 2016 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk Soft light shed from an uncased bulb illuminates the horseshoe that hangs above the entrance of Camp Wesley. The Adirondack twilight is dreary and a cold drizzle falls. Hunters begin to stir. One by one, men pull on wool socks and leave the bunk rooms. The early risers start the fire, turn on the coffee maker, and re- place yesterday's filters. Above the wood stove, a drying rack is fastened and loaded with boots, socks, flannel shirts and pants with suspenders. Bacon and sausage cook slowly in cast iron pans on the stove top. Warm mugs of cof- fee are poured and conversations revolve around yesterday's hunt and the forebod- ing weather hidden behind outdated pais- ley curtains. Located in Arietta, a small town in the southern Adirondacks, Camp Wesley has been used as a hunting camp since 1921. A pale yellow two story with green trim, the structure was originally built in Fort Plain and used as a cheese house before it was disassembled and carted north. Black and white photographs of yesteryear's hunters and recipients of Turk Smith's big buck award hang on the walls. Before it became known as Camp Wes- ley — named after a well-known member Wesley Wood — it was referred to as the Mohawk Club. For ninety-four years, men have journeyed to this camp and partaken as share holders. It's incred- ulous to think about all that can change in ten decades. And it's remarkable to consider what hasn't—like a group of hunters sit- ting by a fire with cups of coffee and plates of bacon, waiting for the day's hunt to unfold. Traditionally, the Adirondacks was hunting grounds of the Haudenosaunee, Algonquin and Abenaki native peoples. In 1645, a Mohawk diplomat by the name of Kiotsaeston described what would eventually become the state park as "full of fish, venison, moose, beaver, and game of every kind." The white-tailed deer population of the Adirondacks rose in the 1800s due to the activity of loggers, farmers, and miners, which expanded their favored habitat of clearing and forest. Deer and moose meat was taken to feed the workers in the lum- ber and mining camps. The area received its first influx of American hunters in the 1870s after the publication of William Murray's Adventures in the Wilderness, in which he described the land as vast and challenging. Guiding became a popular profession and many Adirondack locals be- gan leading wealthy city clients into the wilderness in pursuit of fish and game. During the age of hunting guides, one of the best known was John Cheney. Throughout his time as a guide, he killed 600 deer, 48 bear, 19 moose, 400 martens, 30 otters, seven wildcats, six wolves and one panther, not to mention a tall tale of him fighting off a bear with his bare hands. These were the days when hunt- ing parties gathered around campfires and one could still hear Teachers Of The Woods By Bethany Garretson

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