The great nature writer John Burroughs once wrote with curmudgeonly spleen that the automobile was a "demon," able to "seek out even the most secluded nook or corner of the forest and befoul it with noise and smoke."
That was before Henry Ford gave him one. Local writer Will Nixon wrote in the Woodstock Times in 1998:
...Henry Ford didn’t respond by calling Burroughs a Luddite, tree-hugger or environmental wacko. Instead, the savvy industrialist, who was also an avid birder, sent Burroughs a fan letter followed by a Model T.
At first, Burroughs struggled behind the wheel. After all, he was 75 years old in an automobile without power steering, power brakes or the other conveniences that now make driving easier than walking. He soon rammed a locust tree inside his front gate. Then, trying to park in the barn, he drove himself halfway through the wall, smashing through the timber boards like an explosion. But Burroughs had not risen from his humble origins as a Catskill farm boy to become a friend of Teddy Roosevelt and other great figures of his day by letting fear stop him. After several months on Ulster County’s roads, he had the demon firmly under control. “His granddaughters still recall many nerve-rattling drives with their grandfather, who came eventually to take great joy in high acceleration,” Renehan writes. The Catskills most famous naturalist was also one of our region’s first reckless drivers.
On Saturday, April 28, a group of auto enthusiasts from the Model T Ford Club of America stopped by Woodchuck Lodge, Burroughs's former home in Roxbury, to pay homage. Woodchuck Lodge's Diane Galusha sent us the photo above, and writes about the unlikely friendship between the naturalist and the industrialist:
Burroughs and Ford became fast friends after the 1913 gift, though the aging writer had several accidents with the vehicle (“The blind, desperate thing still scares me. How ready it is to take to the ditch, or a tree, or a fence!,” he wrote in his journal in May of 1913.) Ford visited Burroughs at the Lodge, helped him pick rocks from a field, and actually owned the property for more than 20 years after Burroughs’ death in 1921.
The Lodge opens for tours this weekend, May 5 and 6, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. Follow signs from NYS Route 30 to Hardscrabble Rd., just north of the hamlet of Roxbury.
