Prices Starting at:
$277/night - Single Occupancy (3-nights)
$202/night - Double Occupancy (3-nights)
* All Inclusive
This session is sold out. Click the link below for additional offerings.
Join us for this three night program as we explore the legacy of Adirondack visionary, William West Durant! This program includes an in depth exploration of the three camps built by William West Durant and their influence in the Adirondack Great Camp movement of the Gilded Age.
During this program, guests will tour three of Durant’s camps, including Sagamore, Pine Knot and Uncas. As we visit each camp, we’ll learn the story of their visionary, William West Durant. He dreamed that by building lakefront luxury estates, he’d attract ultra rich buyers to the Adirondack wilderness. These 1890s compounds were designed with bark-clad siding, native stone, and robust beams of locally harvested timber, but spared no new technology. Equipped with running water, electric light, and other innovations, Durant’s buildings still appear to have risen up out of the earth. They blend perfectly with the rocky lakeshores of the central Adirondacks. This program allows you to learn, sleep, and dine among these idyllic examples of rustic architecture.
While visiting each property, we’ll learn about the colorful ensemble of historic characters who once lived there. The lives of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan, and Collis P. Huntington intersected in the piney woods of Raquette Lake, where they all purchased Durant’s properties. We’ll delve into the story of Margaret Emerson, Alfred Vanderbilt’s second wife, as well as the stories of those who worked at these opulent camps, such as Richard Collins, Sagamore’s first superintendent. These stories intertwine as we discuss the camps’ rich histories.
On top of the guided tours, this experience includes an introduction to the great camps, a lunch cruise aboard the W.W. Durant steamboat, a sunrise paddle, evening campfire, and all the amenities and opportunities of a stay at Great Camp Sagamore.
Instructor
Connor Williams, Sagamore Historian
Connor Williams is the Staff Historian at Great Camp Sagamore. He has formally trained at institutions throughout the Northeast, including a B.A. in History from Middlebury College, an M.A. in Globalization Studies from Dartmouth College, and a soon-forthcoming Ph.D in History and African American Studies from Yale University. As a public historian, he is pleased to have had many years of teaching and public history experience, including service to the United States Congress. As a New Yorker born in Saratoga County and now a year-round resident of the Adirondack Park, he continues to enjoy establishing his Adirondack bona fides, including approaching the achievement of 46er status and searching out every swimming hole and waterfall that the Blue Line holds.
And as fate would have it (and fittingly appropriate for the Durant's Great Camps program), Connor is also 1/16th Durant; this makes him first cousins, five times removed, with Adirondack Great Camp founder and leading architect William West Durant. On a broad scale and across the board, Connor loves sharing the ever-evolving histories of the Adirondack Great Camps to an ever-expanding group of visitors, members, patrons, and friends.
In short, stewarding Sagamore by helping visitors find enduring human experiences within the complexity of its multilayered past--and sharing the stories of the Adirondacks more generally--represents all those aspects of history Connor finds most compelling. He hopes you'll join him on this program to learn and explore intertwining histories of environment, industry, architecture and preservation.
Schedule Overview
Sunday: Check-in runs from 4:00 to 6:00 pm followed by dinner and camp orientation. We’ll end the night with a presentation introducing the Great Camps.
Monday Morning: Early risers may choose to join a guided paddle on Sagamore Lake’s calm water before breakfast. After breakfast we’ll learn about Great Camp Sagamore, Durant’s masterpiece, by exploring the buildings and grounds with our historian.
Monday Afternoon: After lunch, we’ll travel two miles down the road by car to visit Camp Uncas. Participants must transport themselves. At Uncas, we’ll tour the grounds, visit the shore of Mohegan Lake, and learn more about the rustic buildings of Durant’s second camp. Upon return to Great Camp Sagamore, there will be free time before dinner to bowl on the open air lanes, paddle, hike, or relax.
Monday Evening: After dinner, join Adirondack singer, songwriter and stroyteller, Dan Berggren, for songs and stories in the Playhouse.
Tuesday Morning: An early morning continental breakfast will be served in the Dining Hall. At 8:00 am, we’ll depart for the hamlet of Raquette Lake. Participants must transport themselves. From 8:15 – 8:30 am we’ll board the W.W. Durant Steamboat and cross Raquette Lake to arrive at Camp Pine Knot. At Pine Knot, we’ll discuss William West Durant’s first use of the rustic style while touring the buildings and grounds. Following the tour, we’ll board the steamboat at Pine Knot and enjoy lunch as we cruise around Raquette Lake. We’ll return to the dock at Raquette Lake Village at 1:00 pm.
Tuesday Afternoon: Head back to camp for an optional guided historic hike to the site of Sagamore’s former farm complex or relax and enjoy free time before dinner.
Tuesday Evening: Settle in around the camp fire at Sagamore’s historic lean-to. S’mores included!
Wednesday Morning: Breakfast and check-out at 10:00am.
