Gondolas are something many people remember experiencing for the first time. The view from the top is often filled with trees, a bright blue sky and people below who look like ants. For once, you feel as if you are floating on top of the world, without a worry in the world.
View from a Gore Mountain Gondola| Photo by Alex Bucknam
When it comes to New York, many people think of city life — you can thank New York City for that. Others might think of Buffalo (go Bills), or cities like Albany, Rochester and Syracuse. But they do not think of gondolas.
The reason is that outside of the cities, there is land that has little to nothing, maybe a Walmart with a McDonald’s across the street. But within that land is a part of New York that is not talked about enough: Adirondack Park. This area is massive, making it the largest publicly protected land area in the contiguous United States — often noted as larger than Yellowstone and Yosemite combined.
Gore Mountain sits within that land and was home to the first gondola in New York, paving the way for many more and helping create the shared memories people have of riding one.
Now known as a ski resort that opened in 1964 and as a tourist attraction, Gore Mountain has become a prominent part of New York’s history, including the history of the land on which it sits.
Going beyond the consumer experience and business operations on the mountain, the land itself played a role in how Native Americans lived and how European colonizers interacted with the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka. (Mohawk)
The Kanienʼkehá꞉ka did not use this land for permanent settlement. Instead, they used it as seasonal hunting grounds. At times, this area overlapped with the presence of the Alnôbak (Alnobak), as different nations moved through and used the region in different ways, clashes would often happen.
Mountains like Gore were valuable to the different nations because their terrain supported a wide range of wildlife. But wildlife was not the only thing valued in this land. In the Alnôbak mindset the mountains like Gore were animate beings. The beleived moutain ranges had their own sprits like Manogemassak, who acted as a guaridan, to protct the forests and help lost hunters find their way home.
Like much of New York, European settlers eventually displaced Native peoples through misleading and unequal treaties. However, these communities did not disappear. Today, the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka and Abenaki people are still present, and want the space to be treated with respect, rather than just for consumers
When European settlers arrived, Gore Mountain was largely ignored and deemed useless because of its terrain. It was too steep for logging and farming. The name “gore” itself comes from a surveying term, referring to land that was left unmapped or irregular in shape.
Today, Gore Mountain is primarily used as a ski resort and tourist attraction. It is run by the state of New York and operated by the Olympic Regional Development Authority. The resort does not publicly list a land acknowledgment, even as it operates on land with a much longer history than tourism alone.