ABSTRACT
This chapter illuminates the shifting articulations and configurations of power and agency in the conflict over the identity of the Adirondack Park. The power of wilderness and the robust ideology that underpins it has historically enjoyed a privileged place in America. It is an idea of place firmly rooted in the history, collective memory, and identity of America. Transcendentalism was arguably one of the most influential movements in the history of American wilderness. America's wild landscapes, through artistic representation, narrative, development, and policy, has secured a nearly sacrosanct position in the contemporary culture of the nation. The superiority of pristine, sacred wilderness is powerfully ideological in America, and has become such an important characteristic of the American identity that it goes virtually unchallenged. Foucault's recodifications are manifested in shifting discourses surrounding the Parks identity and the different ways parties negotiate and renegotiate that identity.
