ABSTRACT
Introduction The power of wilderness and the robust ideology that underpins it has historically enjoyed a privileged place in America (Cosgrove, 1984; Lewis, 2007; Nash, 2001; Sears, 1989). Few places in the United States better illustrate this than the Adirondack Park in Upstate New York, a nearly six million acre area known for its wilderness tourism (Figure 6.1). Historically, the struggle over the Park’s identity has been dominated by the rhetoric of the sublime and the wilderness as ideology, as championed by the state of New York, nature tourists, and environmental groups. However, in recent years this same struggle has been characterized by a less structural, more diffuse operation of power and discourse in which local communities and residents have increasingly sought voice in co-constructing the Park’s identity as more than an aesthetic resource offering recreational opportunities for tourists. While nature tourists continue to exercise tremendous influence over the identity of the Adirondacks as wilderness, their role in defining the Park’s identity is continuously challenged by local officials and residents of the Park. And while the wilderness as ideology still undoubtedly enjoys a privileged position in the Adirondack Park, alternative truths are increasingly being voiced and considered as part of broader conversations address.
