Episode Details

In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re revisiting a conversation that still resonates: our interview with Peggy Lynn and Sandra Weber, co-authors of Breaking Trail: Remarkable Women of the Adirondacks.

For generations, Adirondack history has centered on guides, industrialists, conservationists, and explorers — most of them men. But women were here all along. They were lumber camp cooks and lobbyists, poets and reformers, business leaders and environmental advocates. They shaped communities, protected wild lands, founded institutions, and quietly transformed the culture of the North Country.

This updated edition of Breaking Trail brings their stories back into the light — and invites all of us to ask: whose stories are still waiting to be told?

What you’ll hear in this episode

• How Peggy and Sandy first realized Adirondack women’s stories were missing from the historical record
• Why now was the right time to bring Breaking Trail back for a new generation
• The creative partnership behind the book — and how songwriting helped shape the storytelling
• The mystery of Esther Mountain and the elusive Esther Combs
• Lumber camp cooks, 18-hour days, and women who could go from hip boots to ball gowns
• The legacy of women like Grace Hudowalski and Inez Milholland — now honored with High Peaks
• Why women’s history belongs in the mainstream narrative, not on the sidelines

Resources:

• Notable women mentioned in this episode include Emily Russell, Anne LaBastille, Mary Brown, Margaret Emerson, Alice Patton Green, Lydia Martin Smith, Mother Johnson, Nellie Staves, Esther Combs, Grace Hudowalski, Inez Milholland, Joan Payne, Fran Yardley, Betsy Folwell, and Barbara McMartin.
• Breaking Trail: Remarkable Women of the Adirondacks – available from Purple Mountain Press
• John Brown Farm State Historic Site (Lake Placid)
• Adirondack Experience: The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake
• Paul Smith’s College

Produced by NOVA