Adirondack Experience logoBlue Mountain Lake, N.Y. – January 6, 2020 – Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX), announces its 2020 Cabin Fever Sunday Series beginning Sunday, January 12 at 1:30 pm. Programs are free for museum members and $5 for the general public. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis. Programs are held in the ADKX Auditorium and are subject to change due to weather. Check the ADKX website and Facebook page for day-of-event updates.
 
January 12, 1:30 pm: Tahawus: The National Lead Years with Don Seauvageau
 
In September 1941, the last and most successful mining era at the Hudson headwaters began. The MacIntyre Iron Company sold their remaining interest in the old iron mine to National Lead Company. The mine would reopen not for iron but ilmenite, a form of titanium ore. World War II had caused a shortage of this ore, which is needed to manufacture titanium dioxide, a vital material used in paints and other military material. NL Industries, as it was later known, continued operations until November 1989, more than doubling the years of the first mining company at the site, Adirondack Iron and Steel.
 
Don Seauvageau is a year-round resident of Blue Mountain Lake. A former engineer for General Electric, he is enjoying an active retirement living in the Adirondacks and traveling the world. An avid paddler, he was the 39th person to earn the Adirondack Mountain Club Paddle Pursuit patch. He has visited all the towns and villages within the Blue Line. Don’s first visit to the Adirondacks was in the mid-1980s. As a manager for NL Industries (the former National Lead Company) he was allowed to stay at the Foote Cottage on the Tahawus mine site. He has been fascinated with the history of the area ever since, and has authored several articles about the Adirondacks.
 
January 26, 1:30 pm: Exploring the Look of the 1980 Olympic Winter Games with Alison Haas and guests
 
The Olympic Games are the world’s greatest sport event, so naturally the show spills out beyond the Stadium. Lake Placid welcomed the world once again in 1980 and had the opportunity to celebrate and be creative artistically alongside the sporting action. This program will explore how artists were responsible for creating a recognizable visual signature within the history of the Olympic Games. They gave a sense of what the Adirondack region was about to an audience from around the world. Once the Games were over, there remained an emblem and a visual signature for Lake Placid that has triggered people’s memories for 40 years. Lake Placid Olympic Museum Director Alison Haas, along with other guest speakers involved with the arts during the 1980 Games, will present and discuss a variety of artworks that gave the Games an overall feel and identity with lasting impact.
 
Alison Haas joined the staff at the Lake Placid Olympic Museum in September 2004. In September 2012, she was named the museum’s Managing Director. Alison obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts/Art History from St. Lawrence University and a Masters in History of Design from Kingston University in England. Career highlights have included interviewing 1980 5-time Olympic Gold Medalist Eric Heiden, traveling to Switzerland to view the International Olympic Museum and meeting the President of the International Olympic Committee, receiving the Merit award from the Museum Association of New York, and dressing as the 1980 Olympic mascot Roni Raccoon for community events.
 
COMING UP:
 
February 9, 1:30 pm: Inez Milholland, Martyr of the Women’s Suffrage Movement with Sandra Weber
 
Suffragist Inez Milholland, a graduate of Vassar College, was also a reform worker, athlete, socialite, English suffragette, lawyer, and persuasive speaker. She exhausted herself campaigning for women's right to vote in 1916 and died at the age of 30. Her grave is in the Lewis Cemetery amid the Adirondack hills. After her death, Inez became an iconic symbol that inspired the National Woman’s Party to intensify its efforts for Votes for Women. Using costumes, props, and music, Sandra Weber portrays the life and legacy of the woman who made suffrage fashionable-Inez Milholland Boisssevain.
 
Sandra Weber has authored several books about Adirondack history, mountain hiking, and women. Her book Breaking Trail: Remarkable Women of the Adirondacks (with folksinger Peggy Lynn) profiles the diverse lives of 25 women and Two in the Wilderness (with photos by Carl Heilman) describes the adventures of Sandra and her 11-year-old daughter as they backpack through the High Peaks together. She is also well-known for her dramatic portrayals of Mary Brown in “Times of Trouble,” and of Mother Johnson, Jeanne Robert Foster, Grace Hudowalski and other women in “Mountain Women Can Be Heroes” (with Peggy Lynn). From her base camp in Elizabethtown, Sandra enjoys exploring legends, paddling, and hiking. In 2003, she finished climbing all forty-six High Peaks becoming Adirondack Forty-Sixer #5227.
 
February 23, 1:30 pm: Trout Power, Citizen Science with Jordan Ross
 
JP Ross, Founder of Trout Power, will present data and information on what the organization does to discover new strains of brook trout in the Adirondacks and Tug Hill Plateau. Using catch and release techniques, they catch brook trout and collect a tail tissue sample that is then used for microsatellite genetic analysis to determine if the strain is endemic or introduced, or a hybrid of both.  They have successfully sampled Lost Brook of Raquette Lake, as well as Raquette Lake and Raquette River tributaries, Silver Lake Wilderness, and a section of Tug Hill.
 
Trout Power was established in 2012. Its citizen science efforts seek to identify, map, monitor, and advocate for protection of wild and genetically unique brook trout populations in the Adirondacks and wherever they are found throughout New York State. Trout Power’s documentation and science is recognized by the Sagamore Institute, Cornell University, NYS DEC, and multiple angling groups like Trout Unlimited and the Brook Trout Coalition.

March 8, 1:30 pm: Rural Rosie with Katie Torchetti
 
We all are familiar with the red bandana-clad "Rosie the Riveter" who left her home each day to work in the factories building bombs, weaponry, and other war necessities while men left to fight overseas. But what of the women in rural communities­–the women seemingly protected in the small mountain towns of the Adirondack Park? These women watched their men leave for war the same way that women in the cities did. Find out how they, just like their city counterparts, stepped in to protect their country, keep up the morale of the boys who were fighting, and make a living while they were left to be the breadwinner of the family.
 
Katie Torchetti has a Master’s Degree in Education with an emphasis on Secondary Social Studies Education and History from SUNY Potsdam. She has taught a variety of grade levels in the public school system before taking time off to have a family. Katie currently homeschools her two children and teaches outside the home in a variety of programs including high school history and English with a local learning cooperative, ministry college courses, and she also tutors.
 
March 22, 1:30 pm: Good Husbandry: Growing Food, Love, and Family on Essex Farm
with Kristin Kimball
 
Discover Kristin Kimball’s first-hand account of the many ups and downs of farming and the continuing story of Essex Farm. Kristin is from central New York and a graduate of Harvard University. She worked in New York City for several years at a literary agency and also freelanced for magazines and travel guides. She and her husband Mark founded Essex Farm in 2004 – the world’s first full-diet CSA. She is the author of The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love and has also contributed to O Magazine, Vogue, and Gourmet Live.
 

About Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake
 
Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX), accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, shares the history and culture of the Adirondack region through interactive exhibits, hands-on activities, and culturally rich collections in more than 24 historic and contemporary buildings on a 121-acre campus in the heart of the Adirondacks. The ADKX offers a broad range of programs and activities including special and permanent exhibitions, a 19,000-square-foot Life in the Adirondacks interactive exhibition, a new outdoor hiking and boating experience on Minnow Pond, plus daily activities with artisans-in-residence, workshops, lectures, nature walks, family and educational programs, and signature events like the Rustic Furniture Fair, FallFest, Mohawk and Abenaki Art Market, and the new Adirondack Artisan Festival. The museum is supported in part with donations from the general public, with some general operating support made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. For additional information, call 518-352-7311 or visit www.theADKX.org.
 

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Contact: Tara Murphy                                                                                                            
Acting Director of Marketing
518-352-7311, ext. 109