A Century on the Adirondack High Peaks

Celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the first ADK 46ers!

Herb Clark (#1) guided brothers Bob & George Marshall (#2 & #3) on their climbs of all 46 High Peaks in the Adirondacks, becoming the first ADK 46ers on June 10, 1925.

On August 1, 1918, Herb Clark guided Bob, George, and their friend Carl Poser on a hike up Whiteface Mountain. At home in Manhattan, during the winter of 1920/1921, Bob and George hatched the plan to climb the Adirondack peaks over 4000 feet. In the summer of 1921, back at their summer camp on Lower Saranac Lake, they shared their plan with Herb, and he agreed to guide them through this challenge. It took a few summers, but they completed their challenge on June 10, 1925, on Mount Emmons. Bob was 24, George was 21, and Herb was exactly a month shy of turning 55 years old.

Unlike today, when even the herd paths are quite easy to follow to unmarked summits, only 12 summits had established trails. The remaining 34, the trio completed as bushwhacks! Herb Clark had a talent for making it up unmarked summits quickly and efficiently.

“He was the fastest man I have ever known in the pathless woods. Furthermore, he could take one glance at a mountain from some distant point, then not be able to see anything 200 feet from where he was walking for several hours, and emerge on the summit by what would almost always be the fastest and easiest route.”

– One of the Marshall Brothers on Herb Clark’s skills (I’ve seen the quote attributed to both Bob and George).

Bob and George’s time in the Adirondacks shaped much of their life’s work. Bob received degrees in forestry and plant physiology and went on to work for the US Forest Service, spending significant time in Alaska. In 1935, he helped found The Wilderness Society. Bob suffered a fatal heart attack in 1939 on a train back to NYC to visit family at the age of 38. He left a long-lasting legacy across the United States. In Montana, there is the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area (established in 1940), The Gates of the Arctic National Park (established in 1980), is named after what Bob Marshall called the area back in 1929, and in his home state, in the Adirondacks, the Bob Marshall-Oswegatchie Wilderness (established in 1990).

Bob was known for his grueling mileage days, and if you want to experience one of his legacies, you can complete the Bob Marshall Traverse. It covers 32 miles, 15,000 feet of elevation gain, and 14 peaks, in 24 hours! And I can’t get enough of his quote about this achievement.

Thus I have carried a little farther the fantastic pastime of record climbing, adding three to Malcolm’s total of eleven…. In fact, it would fit perfectly in a class with flagpole sitting and marathon dancing as an entirely useless type of record, made only to be broken, were it not that I had such a thoroughly glorious time out of the entire day.

-Bob Marshall

George worked as an economist and constitutional lawyer. He was dedicated to environmental conservation. He was on the board of directors and served for a time as president of The Wilderness Society; he was a founding member of the Adirondack Mountain Club; and he served in numerous capacities, including president of the Sierra Club. In 1950, George spent three months in federal prison for contempt of Congress because he refused to turn over papers from the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties to the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

My favourite of the trio, I think, is Herbert Clark. He seems like he was a larger-than-life character in everyone’s stories of him. As a young man, he worked hard and played hard. The stories go that he worked farm jobs from sunup to sundown and could then be found at the local watering hole partying well into the night. For five summers, he rowed the freight boat, sometimes loaded as heavy as 2,200 lbs, the 24 miles between Bartlett’s and Ampersand and back in the morning and then guided in the afternoon! He held the record for rowing the most miles in a day, hitting 65 miles. He was one of the top paddlers in the local Saranac races, beating people half his age. He was known for his sense of humor and his fish tales. For 30 years, he had a mountain named for him, Herbert Peak. However, it was determined that geographic spots couldn’t be named after living people, and upon the death of Bob Marshall, it was renamed to Mount Marshall. Herb died in 1945 at the age of 74.