7 1
Geography and Environment j4j
Hampshire, and Rhode Island, however,
chose to remain independent and to this day
lack any affiliation with the national organiza-
tion.
Originally concerned exclusively with bird
protection, the Audubon program currently
focuses on much broader conservation issues.
Member groups now take an active role in en-
vironmental advocacy issues, maintain sanctu-
aries and nature centers nationwide, sponsor
educational outreach opportunities, and pub-
lish journals and various scientific materials.
0;e of the National Audubon Society's most
visible programs is the annual Christmas Bird
Census, an ongoing survey ofwinter bird pop-
ulations that has been conducted since 1900.
Land protection is an especially important
function of the Audubon movement. The
Massachusetts Audubon Society, for example,
protects more than z8,ooo acres in that state;
several other states also have extensive acreage
under Audubon stewardship. This continuing
legacy of bird protection and conservation
makes the Audubon movement one of the
oldest and most important environmental ini-
tiatives in the United States.
Frank Graham, The Audubon Ark: A History ofthe
NationalAud71bon Society (1990);Christopher Leahy,
John Hanson Mitchell, and Thomas Conuel, The
Nature .f~Massachusetts(1996).
Wayne R. Petersen
Baxter State Park Baxter State Park, a
wilderness preserve of 201,018 acres, surrounds
5,271-foot Mount Katahdin, Maine's highest
mountain and the northern terminus of the
Appalachian Trail. T h e park is located zo
miles northwest of MiUinocket in east central
Maine and contains an outstanding diversity
of wildlife, plants, and landforms. Katahdin,
meaning "main mountain," was important to
Abenaki legend as home to the malevolent
spirit Pamola and had been climbed only a few
times when Henry David Thoreau compiled
his vivid account of a partial ascent in 1846. A
distinctive feature of Katahdin is its glacial
basin, along the edge ofwhich the Knife Edge
Trail proceeds to Baxter Peak, the highest of
Katahdin's several summits. The mountain's
mystique was enhanced by a rich folklore of
logging and river driving on the Penobscot
River's West Branch. Theodore Winthrop's
Life i n t h e Open Air (1876) and Frederic E.
Church's paintings added to the mountain's
reputation. Construction of the Bangor and
Aroostook Railroad at the turn of the century
facilitated access to the mountain. and the rail-
road promoted wilderness recreation through
its annual guide, In t h e M a i n e Woods.
In 1905 the Maine Federation of Women's
Clubs proposed a federal forest reserve around
Katahdin, linking their campaign to a similar
proposal for the White Mountains. Percival P.
Baxter, the scion of a family ofwealthy philan-
thropists, had first become interested in pre-
serving Katahdin in 1903 during a fishing trip
to the region. H e was elected to the state legis-
lature in 1905 and introduced the first of many
unsuccessful bills calling for a state reserve in
1919. When Governor Frederick H. Parkhurst
died in office in 1921, Baxter, as president of
the Senate, succeeded him. Baxter continued
to promote the park concept until he left office
in 1925.
In 1930 Baxter purchased 6,000 acres of
timberland, including Katahdin, from Great
Northern Paper Company and deeded it to
the state. I t was designated Baxter State Park
in 1931. Baxter continued purchasing land
around the peak, deeding the parcels to the
state as soon as each title was clear. Since tim-
berlands were held in common and undivided
interests by a number of owners, including
multiple heirs of the original landowners, ne-
gotiations were complex. Baxter completed
the last purchase of 7,764 acres in the summer
of 1962, finally realizing his dream of a vast
wilderness park at age 87. Baxter's practice of
deeding over individual parcels as he acquired
them created a variety of management prob-
lems. The land was to be "forever. . .left in the
natural wild state," but over the three decades
during which the deeds of trust were drafted,
Baxter altered specific regulations to accom-
modate local pressures, various landowners'
conditions, and his own changing attitudes
toward park use. Vacillations regarding forest
management, roads, firearms, snowmobiling,
hunting and trapping, aircraft, and predator
elimination heled incessant controversy.
T h e Appalachian Mountain Club served
the park by sponsoring annual excursions and
marking and maintaining trails. During the
1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps main-
tained roads and built parking areas, shelters,
fireplaces, and latrines. T h e National Park
Service periodically considered federal pur-
-
chases in the region, a threat that left land-
owners more favorably inclined toward Baxter
and forced the people of Maine to face the
challenge of managing the park In the late
1930s state funds were allocated to hire a
ranger, and the park was put under joint su-
pervision of the state forest commissioner, the
commissioner of inland fisheries and game,
and the attorney general. With meager state
appropriations, administration languished,
but when Baxter died in 1969 his bequest for a
Maintenance and Improvement Fund became
available. A small but dedicated staff met the
challenge of preservation and public use.
I n the years following Baxter's death the
park authority tried to balance his original vi-
sion against the demands of different public
groups. As the environmental movement took
shape during the I ~ ~ Othe S ,authority became
embroiled in controversy over modern ecolog-
ical philosophies. Issues such as the use of
snowmobiles, al-terrain vehicles, motorcycles,
or trailers and campers in the park; spruce bud-
worm control; salvage logging in a 510-acre
blowdown that occurred in 1975; and timber
cutting in the park's Scientific Forest Manage-
ment Area led to a fascinating if sometimes
acrimonious dialogue over the meaning of
wilderness in an eastern context. In recent years,
serious concern over acid rain damage to the
forest and lakes has been added to this list.
John W. Hakola, Legay of a Ljfetime: The Story of'
Baxter State Par& (1981); Henry David Thoreau, The
Maine Woods (1909).
Richard WJudd
Berkshires The Berkshire area of western
Massachusetts includes Berkshire County and
the Berkshire Hills. It is delineated on three
sides by state borders-Vermont to the north,
New York to the west, and Connecticut to the
south; the eastern border is topographical, but
no less distinct. Heading west from the north-
south meanderings of the Connecticut River,
the fertile lowlands of tobacco fields in the Pi-
oneer Valley are quickly left behind, and the
land rises abruptly into the rocky foothills of
the Appalachians. This so-called Berkshire
Barrier slowed western colonial expansion
into the region for loo years. Berkshire retains
a remoteness today, if not in travel time to
nearby cities, then in the insular tendency
among the venerable "Berkshirite."
Independent minds, personal expression,
and individualism are well-entrenched ingre-
dients in the culture of Berkshire. For in-
stance, it comes as no surprise that the Berk-
shire Convention of 1774 voted to boycott
British-made goods, among the first such de-
crees in the colonies. Likewise, most Berkshire
towns still use the time-honored "town meet-
ing" form of government where local citizens
convene to debate and vote on town business.
Any voting citizen may address the meeting,
and people certainly do so, often at length, de-
spite obviously holding a minority opinion.
Although the total population of Berkshire
has never exceeded 15o,ooo, and some of its
towns reached their peak populations long be-
fore 1900, the effect of a succession of singular
personalities, plus distinct and evolving places,
has been particularly formative to Berkshire
culture.
Nineteenth-century Berkshire saw the pro-
liferation of industry-tanning, glass, iron,
paper, and textiles-in the towns dotting the
546 Geography and Environment
hills and waterways. In 1801, Zenas Crane
started a .paper mill and contracted with the
-
U.S. government to supply the special paper
required for currency stock. Such was his suc-
cess that both the family ownership and the
contract continue to this day.
In the mid-19th century, drawn by the pas-
toral landscape, Berkshire became the home
of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote T h e
House of Seven Gables there, and Herman
Melville as he worked on Moby-Dick. Melville
purportedly was inspired as he gazed from his
window by a silhouette of a whale formed by
the slopes of nearby Mount Greylock, the
highest peakin the Berkshire Hills. Other lit-
erary greats soon followed, establishing a liter-
ary legacy in the area.
Among Hawthorne's and Melville's friends
was Samuel G. Ward, a wealthy man who be-
came a summer resident of Berkshire starting. -
in 1846. The area's favorable summer climate
and ease of access by rail from Boston, New
York, and Hartford, led to the "cottage era"-
another key to Berkshire culture. Bridging the
gap between social prominence and literary
importance was Edith Wharton, author ofthe
Age oflnnocence and the first woman to win the
Pulitzer Prize. Wharton became a Berkshire
"cottager" in 1901.The Carnegies, the Vander-
bilts, and others also built and played in the
area. The days of the "Inland Newport" are
now long past, but the resort status of Berk-
shire continues.
By the 193os, the next great period of Berk-
shire was beginning to flower, bringing leisure
pursuits and entertainment of the highest or-
der to the emerging middle class. he snowy
winters and gentle hills of the Berkshire Hills
were ideal for the new sport of skiing. Facili-
ties were pioneered on Berkshire slopes, and
the area became busy with skiers taking ad-
vantage of the landscape in a new way.
Under the direction and vision of Serge
Koussevitzky, the Boston Symphony Orches-.
tra established a great musical institution on
the land once occupied by Samuel Ward's
summer estate. The Berkshire Music Festival
in Tanglewood, Mass., has become a world-
class attraction where audiences enjoy excel-
lent music in an outdoor setting. Tanglewood
has become synonymous with musical greats
such as Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein,
Seiji Ozawa, and John Williams.
Through these changes, Berkshire culture
has been adept at adaptation and preservation.
Some of the early cottages were razed, and
some have remained private residences; but
others have found new life as schools or health
centers. Edith Wharton's home, The Mount,
was saved from the wrecking ball by director
and actress Tina Packer. 1; the iq7os she
founded a professional theater group, Shake-
speare & Company, which performed theater
outdoors on the grounds of The Mount for
more than 20 years before moving down the
street to another former cottage, allowing the
property to be transformed yet again into a
Wharton museum. In the ~ggos,the Gug-
genheim Museum, searching for a site for
its oversized collection of contemporary art,
transformed some long-disused and massively
scaled 19th-century Berkshire textile mills
into stunning display space. The result is a
postmodern mix of old and new: high-tech
film and computer companies flourish along-
side art galleries, all housed within the ram-
bling manufacturing space of a now vanished
era.
Modern mentalities may encourage short
memories and emphasize rapid change, but
Berkshire culture runs counter to both. T h e
Berkshire area, just 49 miles north to south
and ranging from only 12 to 24 miles in
breadth, Iemains distinct. Owing to its unique
landscape, small population, and the history of
visionary individuals, Berkshire remains a re-
silient, vibrant, and unique cultural realm.
Sam Bittman and Steven A Satullo, eds., Berkrhire:
Seasonr of Celebration (1981); Carole Owens, The
BerRrhire Cottages:A Vanishing Era (1984); Roderick
Peattie, ed., The BerRrhirer (1948); Richard Wilkie,
HistoricalAtlar .fMarrachusettr (1991).
George Roberson
Bird's-Eye -ews Bird's-eye views are
aerial landscape perspective drawings of set-
tlements, generally cities, towns, and villages,
published by itinerant graphic artists largely
during the 19th century. They show the gen-
eral spatial structure of these urban places by
Bz7di-eye wzew ofB7 unswzch and Topsham, Mazne, i877
depicting streets, buildin@, landmarks, and
land uses seen obliquely from an imaginary
vantage point high above and just beyond the
town. Most of the surviving prints of New
England localities, nearly 800 in number and
covering just over 500 different places, are
monochrome lithographs prepared from pen-
cil-and-ink drafts, though many contain a
color wash for accent and a few are poly-
chrome. Whiie they range in size from book
illustrations to large, framed wall panoramas,
their usual size approximates 19 by 25 inches.
They were produced for local sale by advance
subscription, with artists soliciting sales di-
rectly or through a paid agent.The artist made
a view by rendering the town's general layout
in perspective on a master drawing and then
filling it with simplified representations of the
buildings previously sketched from the street,
a process whose duration ranged from a few
days to a few weeks, depending on the size and
complexity of the town and the artist's skill.
The genre enjoyed national appeal from
1835 to 1915 because lithography brought land-
scape art in this form, priced between 61.50
and $3.00, within reach of the broad middle
class. As parlor decorations and public ad-
vertisements, bird's-eye views portrayed the
unique urban character that a community had
achieved at the time of printing. I n addition,
marginal vignettes and numerically indexed
features in the main view highlighted many
businesses, institutions, and prominent resi-
dences that swelled personal and local pride.
Bird's-eye views had their roots in the low-
angle perspective drawings of large towns cre-
ated during the 18th century, such as the Lon-
don-engraved prospects of Boston produced
i