All Inclusive* Program Prices Starting At:
$725/person - Double Occupancy
$950/person - Single Occupancy
* Includes lodging, meals, program activities and access to optional daily activities and recreational equipment. Learn More about the Great Camp Sagamore experience.
Program Overview
Join us as we explore the legacy of Adirondack visionary, William West Durant! This program includes an in depth exploration of the three camps built by Durant, considered my many to be the father of the Great Camp Style, and their influence in the Adirondack Great Camp movement of the Gilded Age.
During this program, guests will tour three of Durant’s camps, including Sagamore, Pine Knot and Uncas. As we visit each camp, we’ll learn the story of their visionary, William West Durant. He dreamed that by building lakefront luxury estates, he’d attract ultra rich buyers to the Adirondack wilderness. These 1890s compounds were designed with bark-clad siding, native stone, and robust beams of locally harvested timber, but spared no new technology. Equipped with running water, electric light, and other innovations, Durant’s buildings still appear to have risen from the earth. They blend perfectly with the rocky lakeshores of the central Adirondacks. This program allows you to learn, sleep, and dine while immersing yourself in these idyllic examples of rustic architecture.
While visiting each property, you’ll learn about the colorful ensemble of historic characters who once lived there. The lives of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, J.P. Morgan, and Collis P. Huntington, who all purchased one of Durant’s properties, intersected in the piney woods of Raquette Lake. You’ll delve into the story of Margaret Emerson, Alfred Vanderbilt’s second wife, as well as the stories of those who worked at these opulent camps, such as Richard Collins, Sagamore’s first superintendent. These stories intertwine as we discuss the camps’ rich histories.
In addition to the guided tours, this experience includes an introduction to the great camps, a lunch cruise aboard the W.W. Durant steamboat, a sunrise paddle, evening campfire, and all the amenities and opportunities of a stay at Great Camp Sagamore.
Program Activities
Introductory presentation introducing the Great Camps, their history and the historic influencers that drove the creation of Adirondack Great Camps.
In depth tour, including “behind the scenes”, of Great Camp Sagamore, Durant’s masterpiece.
Private, participant only, tour of Camp Uncas grounds, Mohegan Lake shore, and select buildings at Durant’s second camp.
A private tour of Camp Pine Knot, Durant’s first camp, via the W.W. Durant Steamboat including lunch and a an boat tour of Raquette Lake.
Optional tour of Sagamore’s former farm complex.
An evening concert with Adirondack singer, songwriter and stroyteller, Dan Berggren.
Campfire at Sagamore’s historic lean-to. S’mores included!
Program Instructor
Connor Williams - Sagamore Historian
Connor Williams, Great Camp Sagamore’s Historian, has formally trained at institutions throughout the Northeast, including a B.A. in History from Middlebury College, an M.A. in Globalization Studies from Dartmouth College, and a soon-forthcoming Ph.D in History and African American Studies from Yale University. As a public historian, he is pleased to have had many years of teaching and public history experience, including service to the United States Congress.
And as fate would have it (and fittingly appropriate for the Durant's Great Camps program), Connor is also 1/16th Durant; this makes him first cousins, five times removed, with Adirondack Great Camp founder and leading architect William West Durant. On a broad scale and across the board, Connor loves sharing the ever-evolving histories of the Adirondack Great Camps to an ever-expanding group of visitors, members, patrons, and friends.
All Program Sessions
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