1v ( o. o-i. '&. C> l.o 3-::/- 33 Ernie La Prairie @ 1 M: So Ernie, here we are in your store. Just tell me about yourself and your life up here and your enthuisiasm and whatever you want.. Well 've been living here in the Adirondacks off and on all my life. spent most of my life here. My family's been in the Blue Mountain Lake area for five generations, both on my mother's side of the family and my father's side. They were first settlers in this area. M: When did they first show up? Your ancestors. Dates? Ah--probably around the 1860s in--well at the time Civil War my great great-- don't know if can get all the greats right here--grandfather, great great grandfather, guess, had a farm at the confluence of the ndian River--where the ndian River runs into the Hudson River. M: So you had a farm? Yeah, they had a farm at the--had a farm at the mouth of the ndian River and they sent off sons into the Civil War then came back. Which was kind of unusual for that particular war and that time. My great great grandf ather Blanchard, Charlie--his name was Charlie Blanchard--he froze to death at Green Point in Raquette Lake. The Blanchards actually settled in the Raquette Lake area and the n my great grandfather Charlie came here to Blue Mountain. His original homestead is just below whe re the
Ernie La Prairie 2 museum is located now. n fact the piece of property right next to mine contains the foundation of the house that my mother was born in--the house itself was built by my great grandfather. And that burned when my mother was 2. But 'm engaged in pretty much ta guiding and tourist industry here in the Adirondacks, particularly in Blue Mountain in the summer. manage Hudson River Rafting Company in the spring and the fall and so do a lot of guiding for white water trips on both the Hudson River and the Moose River. M: That's with Pat Cunningham? That's with Pat Cunningham, yeah. train all the guides for our company, also train some of the guides for some of the other companies, particularly on the Moose River. That's a little narrow riv er, it's much more technical than running the Hudson River. t's just a little more difficult to run. That's about all can tell ya. That's about enough. anyway. M: What did you ancestors do, mostly? Recently Well most of my family, at one time or another, were engaged in guiding for--one aspect or another. Either hunting or fishing. That's what really brought the tourists into this area to start with. And that's what's really generated business within the Adirondacks. think they lived here because they, you know, they loved the outdoors
Ernie La Prairie 3 and they loved being outdoors and that's--that's kind of where 'm coming from, you know. like the woods, like being outdoors and like doing things outside. My business in the summer, you know, through guided canoe trips--what try to do with my canoe trips is get away from the traditional guiding aspect of taking people into the woods and, you know, cooking for them, caring for them, singing songs at night, putting them to bed and-- What try to do is to use my guiding trips, or my guided canoe trips as learning experience for people. To try to show them, you know, the best equipment that's available on the market, how to use it properly and mostly specifically to try to instill in them a love and respect for the wilderness and for the outdoors, you know, look around you, see what's there. Really appreciate it, you know. There's very little of it left. And we're living in a real unique situation here within the Adirondacks in that we have all this wilderness area available to us. n most of it, most people don't see more than a quarter of a mile away from a given road or a trail. Very few people who actually get into these wilderness areas and experience them. M: Do most of your clients--are they eager to learn about the woods and-- They are, you know, that's why they come to me. They--well to start with most of em have enough
Ernie La Prairie 4 discretionary income that they can afford the service that r offer. But they come because either they don't want to invest in equipment to do this or because they come looking for my knowledge of the area. They're-- M: How many days would you be out to usually? Well 'll do anything from an overnight trip to 7 days. What try to do is design a trip to meet the person's needs. M: Somebody watches the store when you do that? Yes. M: see. How canoes would be on a trip like this? won't work with more than 6 people. M: see, so it would be 3 canoes and you'd be- 3 canoes, no and would have a sole canoe. would paddle along. That way can bounce around from canoe to canoe and-- M: Do you supply the tents and so forth? supply everything. The only thing that my guests are required to supply is there personal gear and they have to supply their own sleeping bag and sleeping mat. don't supply those. M: You do the cooking for all six of you? Everyone's required to pitch in and help. That part of the experience. M: Do you get into virgin territory, or do you always
Ernie La Prairie 5 stumble into other campers when you get to some neat place? Well it's getting harder and harder to find areas that aren't being used. When we find one don't generally tell anyone about it. M: Have you ever taken any long trips yourself, independent of clients, that were interesting? Yes, Torn Warrington and took a trip in think it was 1976, and we paddled from Old Forge to the St. Lawrence River which is diagonally north and east across the Adirondacks. We followed oh--the chain of lakes into the Raquette River. We run down the Raquette River and then carried over into the Saranac Lakes, went through the Saranac Lakes and down the Saranac River into Lake Champlain. Then we went north along Champlain into the Ressilu to the St. Lawrence and that was a real interesting trip. t took us seven and a half days. M: Seven and a half days? That's pretty quick. We covered about 40 miles a day, was our average. easy? M: Were there any big portages, or most of them pretty There were a few long portages. Most of them were really pretty easy because the trails were all established or we were going along a road. The whole trip from-- Well the trip on the Saranac River, once we got
Ernie La Prairie 6 below--well once we got below Katyville there was just one dam after another so that was not nearly as interesting as the beginning of the trip. The beginning of the trip we did, this, in the early part of September. So there was no one here. No bugs, perfect time of year to do a trip like that. M: What kind of canoe did you have? kell. We had a small ~~~~~-, it was a fiberglass M: How long was that? Sixteen and a half feet--, M: see. And that was big enough for the two of you and the gear? Yeah, at the time--if. had my choice would have used a longer canoe but jus~ didn't have the means to-- M: go hopping from lare to lake to lake with these little tiny canoe. Does any~ody still do that? Not to that degree, but even, don't know. literally needed a light canoe, he only weighed a 102 pounds or so. Yeah, basically if go out that's what use. use the lightest canoe can find. And this again is what 'm trying to teach my clients when they go out, is to use the lightest material that's around. There's no r eason to work any harder than you have to. f you're--especially if
Ernie La Prairie 7 you're doing a number of carries. The lighter your gear the easier it is going to be. M: Have you ever raced guide boats or canoes? Did a lot of canoe racing. Both white water racing and marathon racing. That's really enjoyable. M: You really grew up with that so- Yeah, love it. M: That's really competitive. Yeah. M: How did you do? Did you win? Yeah, won--not often--but did win. always finished, you know, second or third, sometimes first. M: What about any of the guide boat races? Never raced guide boats. M: n the movie you're paddling--you're rowing two of them after you've blown a-- Yeah, we were fortunate enough to use the Sable Club in--the blue boat was one of their boats that belonged to the club. And the clear guide boat belonged to Art Gates. M: Oh yeah, the one down here. Yeah. Art has let me use his boats a number of times to do stuff like that. He's real kind like that. Real generous like that. M: Now they have the-- think July 6th--they have the
Ernie La Prairie 8 Hander Guide Boat Classic coming up. guess everybody turns out for that one. Yeah, that's a big race. M: How many guide boats would race in that? guess there'd be maybe different classes or something? Or different ages groups or-- For different age gfoups. don't know--'d say probably you'd see a total turn out of maybe 30 boats. M: t's not just one race df thirty boats in it is it? No, no, they'll bre~k that into different l classes, you know, different ages groups and-- M: You ever use guide boats in your own out guiding operation? No, don't. don't have the access to the boats and a traditional boat is just--well you just don't want to use it. t's worth too much money and if you damage it the cost to repair it is just jphenomenal. fragile. M: Yeah, and those that ar~ built lightly are pretty Yeah. M: Sort of ironic that the original use for which they were intended is that you can't do with them now because they're too precious. Right, but there are more boat builders around--you could still do it. John Blanchard, think,
Ernie La Prairie 9 sold his last guide boat for $201. M: But he--what ances--how was a related to you? He was my grandfath,r's brother. There's a good story that Art tells about John Blanchard but the last boat that he built for Bakland down here--bakland--john was very proud of his workmanship, he was a real craftsman. And.. 1.. Bakland came into his shop and said "Now John " said "that, - boat that you built for me, that'ls not gonna leak is it?" John has his jackknife there, he l s working on something. Turn around and said, "Now Mr. B kland that goddamn boat even sheds a tear 'll buy i ri ht back from you. thought that was pretty good if it even sheds a tear. M: Well you family was som thing with the Hopeshield people for a long, guess. Did you mother cook for Harold Hopeshield? Yes, yes she did. Gook for Harold and don't know for how many years, for a mlmber of years. And then when he died and the center was- ~ or the building was given over to the Blue Mountain Center she went to work for them. M: She's mentioned in Adams' book think. Was referred to, sort of read it quickly and didn't know your mother then and so-- don't know-- M: Talk about the cooks and-- don't know, have no idea. But my dad worked
Ernie La Prairie 10 for both Mr. Harold and the Sirguesques. Well don't know how long he worked for them, but you know, when he was a youngster, this was when the country club was still in full swing, he used to-- M: Your father was a youngster? Yeah. When my father was a youngster he used to caddy at Eagle's Nest. M: Oh, it was a golf c Yeah, it was a rs,' then? lf!course, yeah, yeah. So he worked there, you know, off d on throughout his life. M: When did it become e Blue Mountain Center? How long ago? Oh don't know.' M: Any people ever get ~ost out here camping? Do you have to look for them or anything? t's one thing that wouldn't happen if you were 'th them. Yeah. Usually you have someone lost within the area it's in the fall of he year or sometimes-- sometimes hikers do get lost in the summer. Yeah, am involved with the forest ranger here in their search and rescue team. M: How do you start unless you know where they went? Well usually, you know, you have someone that's reported that they're missing. And they have some sort of an idea of where they went in. And you just--you work it
Ernie La Prairie 11 from there. Each case, you know, varies--it varies from person to person. You have to take into account, oh, whether it's a youngster, whether it's a middle-aged person or old person, you know, you just kind of start figuring all these factors in. Then look at the terrain, see what, you know, what their destination was, what kind of, you know, anticipated troubles-- M: f you ran into somebody are they required to say at least which direction they are going, so they don't come back you know somethin' anyway. Yeah, you have, you know, you have to have some sort of a handle on where they're going, you know, so-- And most of the people that are going on a canoe trip, they register, you know, either with the local ranger or had a put in site, like of the put in sites have a register put there by the state of New York so you can sign in as the trip leader or the group leader or whatever and you put in the date and time that you are checking in, what your destination is and, you know, the estimated time that you are going to be out so that-- M: Are the guides still licensed or is that only--only pertain to hunting? No the guides licensing thing has just gone through a big change. They rewrote the law t wo years ago s o now guides are classified in five different categories. So
Ernie La Prairie 12 you have to be licensed for each particular category that you're going to be guiding in. Prior to that you went and you applied for a guides license and you were a licensed guide and then you can go and do anything you wanted. You could guide for hunting, for fishing or whatever. That's no longer the case. And at this point--at this point there's really no guides license. The law's in effect, hold what is called a contingent guides license. was a licensed guide up until the time the law went into effect and then was able to put in my application and they issued me a a contingent guide's license which is good until they figure out a test.