Dennis Dixon is heading West!: Winslow Homer's "Mink Lake, Adirondacks"

Wednesday, Sept 16, 2020 - After 2 days of hiking in the Adirondacks (read about that here), I wanted to take advantage of being "out here", and not just head home:

The Adirondacks have been a favorite destination of many of the artists I love:

William Sonntag - "Coming Storm in the Adirondacks", ca. 1865 [Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH] (I have not seen)

Homer Dodge Martin - "An Adirondack Lake", n.d. [Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA] (I saw October 24, 2015)

William Trost Richards - "Bouquet Valley Adirondacks", 1866 [Biggs Museum of American Art, Dover, DE] (I saw May 1, 2014)

Edmund Darch Lewis - "Mirror Lake, Adirondacks", 1870 [Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH] (I have not seen)

Sanford Robinson Gifford - "A Twilight in the Adirondacks", 1864 [Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME] (I saw August 12, 2014)

I've been thinking a lot about Winslow Homer these days, and he did many paintings in the Adirondacks. One of his 19 pieces out at The Cleveland Museum of Art is "Mink Lake, Adirondacks", 1892 watercolor:

It turns out that the current name of Mink Lake is "Mink Pond", and that is where the North Woods Club is located. Other "North Woods Club" pictures by him include:

"North Woods Club, Adirondacks (The Interrupted Tete-a-Tete)", 1892 watercolor [The Art Institute of Chicago]

"The Lone Boat, North Woods Club, Adirondacks", 1892 watercolor [The Art Institute of Chicago]

So I printed out my map, my driving instructions, plus the image:

and headed down the road from the Super 8 in Ticonderoga early Wednesday morning.

By 8:30 AM I was on a nice dirt road deep in the Adirondack State Park:

Very nice going over the Boreas River:

Going along the north side of "Huntley Pond":

I reached the (wide open) gate for the "North Woods Club" at 8:53 AM:

When Winslow Homer visited here in 1892, the Club had only been established for 6 years.

I reached the lower end/outlet of Mink Pond at 9 AM:

I parked and walked around to the clubhouse/boathouse. Not another soul was anywhere nearby:

It certainly was a privilege to be at this beautiful place in the calm of late summer/early fall. I can just picture Winslow Homer out there, a century-and-a-quarter ago.

And then I headed on home (with quick stops at the Bedford, MA Library and the Salem, MA Library) - Thank You God for a Great little adventure!!

Driving music:

On these cold-mornings-in-the-mountains, I have the windows rolled up. That means I can listen to books-on-tape. Neal Stephenson (a sci-fi author I really like) wrote his opus Cryptonomicon in 1999, and I'm starting cds 1 + 2 today: