Verplanck Colvin

Verplanck Colvin (1847–1920) was a lawyer, author, illustrator and topographical engineer whose understanding and appreciation for the environment of the Adirondack Mountains led to the creation of New York's Forest Preserve and the Adirondack Park.

Born on January 4, 1847 in Albany, New York to Andrew James Colvin, a wealthy lawyer, and his second wife, Margaret Crane Alling; his first name was his grandmother's maiden name. He was tutored for several years before entering The Albany Academy; then, during the Civil War the family moved to Nassau; there he attended Nassau Academy, where he excelled in the sciences, and graduated in 1864. Although he preferred attending West Point Military Academy, he joined his father's law office in Albany and was later admitted to the bar. Working in real estate law gave him his first experience in surveying.

In 1865, when Colvin was 18, Alfred Billings Street gave him a copy of his 1860 book, Woods and Waters, about his adventures in the Adirondack Mountains. The next three years, Colvin spent his summers exploring the Adirondack wilderness. By 1869, he had formed the idea of doing a geological survey of the Adirondack region. To gain experience, he recruited friend Mills Blake for a trip to nearby the Helderberg Mountain; he wrote an illustrated report of the trip that was published in Harpers New Monthly Magazine, a national publication.

During the summer of 1869 he climbed Mount Marcy, and in 1870 made the first recorded ascent of Seward Mountain. During the ascent of Seward, Colvin saw the extensive damage being done by lumbermen in the Adirondacks. His report of the climb was read at the Albany Institute, where it garnered the attention of state officials, and was printed in the annual report of the New York State Museum of Natural History. In it, he tied clear-cutting of Adirondack forests to reduced water flow in the state's canals and rivers, an idea that had first appeared in George Perkins Marsh's Man and Nature, published in 1864.

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