John Brown's Body

One of the reasons we find ourselves in the Adirondacks is because the highest point in New York is here—Mount Marcy. Some people collect stamps, others teapots, and others Carnival glass or old cars. I collect highpoints and Mt. Marcy will be number 20 for me. It is not really high in the scheme of things, but it is a long day hike above timberline and you just don’t go without some preparation. We will be starting our hike very early and we don’t want to waste any time trying to find the trailhead or run into any surprises on our way there. So we drove over to the High Peaks Information Center just to check out the distance and time from our campground to the parking lot, to check out the procedure for parking in a fee area when there is no attendant on duty, and to find the exact location of the trailhead. We got the information we wanted and on our way home, since we were so close, we stopped by to pay our respects to John Brown.

John Brown's Farm House

This was like a continuation of a story started a couple years ago when we were visiting Harper’s Ferry. It was at Harper’s Ferry, W. Virginia (Virginia at the time) that John Brown took his stand against the Federal Government. He, along with several others, went down to Harper’s Ferry and captured the federal arsenal along with a rifle factory. It was his idea to capture the arsenal and rifle factory to arm the slaves for their great uprising for freedom. Two men whose names you will surely recognize were detached to Harper’s Ferry to deal with Mr. Brown—Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart. Of course, there was a stand off which eventually ended in the demise of John Brown. In my humble opinion, Brown’s undoing was the result of the slaves (I’m sure to his great disappointment) failing to uprise. The ever hopeful John Brown hung around until he got himself hung.

John Brown's Grave

Statue of John Brown

Right here, just outside of Lake Placid is the farm of John Brown and it is here that his body “lies a mouldering in the grave”.

For a more accurate and complete picture of this famous raid you might want to visit the W. Virginia History Site at www.wvculture.org/History/jnobrown.html