Most of us have heard William Faulkner’s famous line about the past not being dead. His wisdom is nowhere more apparent than in the Adirondack Mountain village of Saranac Lake. Here, from the 1880s to the 1950s and a little bit beyond, tuberculosis patients arrived from near and far to rest on porches, breathe crisp pine-scented mountain air, and get well or die trying. Antibiotic therapy eventually put the village’s sanitariums and cure cottages out of business. Still, in architecture, memory, story, and a heart-breaking poem penned by a brilliant young woman who didn’t get well, the village’s rich past remains vibrant and alive.
This edition of ‘Curiously Adirondack’ was created as a compliment to the WGBH produced American Experience documentary The Forgotten Plague: Tuberuculosis In America. Television’s most-watched history series, American Experience has been hailed as “peerless” (Wall Street Journal), “the most consistently enriching program on television” (Chicago Tribune), and “a beacon of intelligence and purpose” (Houston Chronicle). Be sure to watch the latest episodes right here on Mountain Lake PBS.
ON THE WEB: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/
Produced for Mountain Lake PBS by Josh Clement (http://www.joshclementproductions.com) and Ed Kanze (http://edwardkanze.com).
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SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING FOR THEIR INVOLVEMENT AND SUPPORT OF THIS PROJECT:
Historic Saranac Lake
On the web at http://www.historicsaranaclake.org.
The Saranac Lake Free Library
On the web at http://www.slfl.org.
Saranac Village at Will Rogers
On the web at http://saranacvillage.com.
Amy Catania, Debbie Kanze, Karen Lewis, Marsha Morgan, and Paul Willcott.