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James N.
Colonial Militia
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 24 2007
Status: offline
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 Posted - November 19 2009 : 3:16:42 PM
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Last month I revisited the Upstate New York area which served as the setting for our "favorite" film, and managed for the very first time to see this "sight/site", known as Cooper's Cave. I'd managed to miss it on both my previous visits. You can no longer really get out to it ( no doubt for reasons of "safety", protection from vandalism, and probable lawsuits arising from idiots! ); but can go this far, enough to "see" and photograph it. But there is a wealth of signage describing it, Cooper's relation to it, and its role in the story of Last of the Mohicans; all of which goes a long way to answering certain questions raised here in the Forum.
According to the signs, Cooper visited the "island" ( really, just a rock positioned mid-stream at the rapids known as Glen's Falls ) serving as tour guide for a couple of English Visitors. One of them supposedly suggested it would be a good setting for some kind of "wilderness adventure" and Cooper said he would use it in the future; hence the Cave Scene. Cooper later went on to do just that, using this and other sites he was familliar with, like the Adirondacks. Supposedly his idea was that the Huron villiage WAS located somewhere there; which we now know to have been historically impossible, reasons for which we have discusssed here before. This of course would GREATLY affect the timeline between capture and negotiation for the release of Cora, Alice, and Heyward. So it would appear that not too surprisingly, Cooper based elements of his novel on either incomplete or incorrect information!
If you've never seen this in person, it's rather disappointing, and is more of merely a cleft in the rock rather than a "real" island cave. It also doesn't help that it's now beneath a highway bridge over the Hudson right in the middle of downtown Glens Falls amidst a couple of paper mills, one of which you can make out in the background of the accompanying photo. But if you REALLY strain and use your imagination, I'm sure it was much more impressive in the days when steamboats ruled the river and "progress" lay in the future.
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Monadnock Guide
Council of Elders
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
March 14 2005
Status: offline
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Posted - November 19 2009 : 7:00:46 PM
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| Good post James, - I do a fair amount of canoeing in the warmer months here in New Hampshire. On some of the less populated ponds & lakes, - all you have to do is look around at the shoreline or mountains and see EXACTLY what the first settlers saw when this WAS the frontier. While many things have changed over-all, the remote shoreline and mountains views are no different, - impressive, NEVER tire of it. |
you can keep "The Change" |
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James N.
Colonial Militia
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 24 2007
Status: offline
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Posted - November 22 2009 : 1:23:41 PM
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Now that I have the "hang" of posting photos on this site, here are a couple more of Cooper's Cave showing more of its urban industrial background, plus the way imbeceles can't resist using EVERYTHING for a GARBAGE CAN!
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Cooper's Cave, Glens Falls, N. Y.
