- January 11, 1942 – Alvin Whitney to JSA –
Dear Mr. Apperson:
We are glad to have the clipping you sent about the proposal for the establishment of a “park district” at the outlet of Lake George. Mrs. Whitney and I have just re-read it carefully, and are delighted with your (as always) masterful rejoinder to a tricky proposition. Whoever is at the bottom of the sly suggestion, it gives one opportunity to hammer home the facts of the situation, and publicly.
Well, I see the all-out war has not diverted you completely from the problems of peace. Mrs. Edge, too, I notice, is watching conservation interests with a critical eye. For the devil never sleeps; he is omnipresent, indefatigable.
On the front page of the Society Section of the Sunday New York Times today is an article describing the $236,000 mountain ski center at North Conway, its “ski mobile,” snow-conditioning machines, etc., its present huge popularity with attendant snow trains from New York and Boston; and the local realization that “skiing has become a big industry.”
The popularity of the aerial tramway on Cannon Mountain in Franconia Notch, is turning the head of the New Hampshire people. They are now about to install one on Mount Sunapee reservation, and others are pretty sure to follow. Therefore we must expect a campaign for similar contraptions in the Adirondacks and Catskills, so our skiers will require a minimum of exertion. Think how much more they will enjoy the scenery!
Just in case the world war should take a turn and prove to be short, our promoters and the Conservation Department can be depended on to speedily carry out the “people’s mandate” with respect to the ski center on Whiteface. Meanwhile what is being done to make that impossible?
It was a great pleasure to receive your greeting from Virginia, in the form of native holly and mistletoe. What a wealth of berries they bore this season. –I think a good deal about Huddle Bay and Dome Island, and skate-sailing, and the flying squirrels at your camp these mid-winter days; and hope you’re enjoying the sports of the season, at least on Sundays. I’m getting a little more active, slowly but steadily, and by next spring I hope to be back to normal, or nearly so.
With kindest regards from us both,
Sincerely yours,
Alvin G. Whitney