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In memory of Nellie

The state Conservation Council is accepting donations in Nellie Staves' name. The intention is to donate something in Staves name to The Wild Center in Tupper Lake. Send to New York State Conservation Council, 8 Main Street, Ilion, N.Y., 13357, or call 315-894-3302.

TUPPER LAKE - Nellie Staves arrived in the Adirondacks six decades ago as an unknown logging camp cook. On Wednesday, she died at age 92 as the "The Queen of the Adirondacks," as she was known to friends in outdoor sporting circles.

Staves' only child, Beverly LaMere, with whom she lived, said Staves was still active until she died in her sleep Wednesday.

Staves was inducted to the New York Outdoorsman Hall of Fame in 2006 and was the first and only woman to serve as a president of the Tupper Lake Rod and Gun Club, Franklin County Federation of Fish and Game Clubs and the Adirondack Conservation Council.

Bob Brown, executive program director for the Conservation Council, often worked with Staves on outdoor sports advocacy. He first met her about 40 years ago and recalled a couple of chance meetings with her that exemplified different parts of her personality at that time. The first came as he was driving through Tupper Lake.

"As I was driving by, there was this woman coming out of the swamp with a bunch of muskrats and a bunch of traps over her shoulder," he said. "And I recognized it was Nellie, so I stopped and talked to her for a little bit."

Shortly after the chance meeting, Brown ran into Staves at a formal event in Saranac Lake. This time, Staves was dressed completely differently, having left her waders and hunting attire at home.

"I go in, and there's Nellie in a beautiful evening gown," Brown said. "It kind of talks about Nellie in a way."

That combination of being close to the land but also being sophisticated when necessary allowed Staves to thrive as both a sportswoman and a leader. Her influence extended throughout the Adirondacks and beyond.

"She could pick up the phone and talk to anyone," said state Department of Environmental Conservation Region 5 Director Betsy Lowe. "People knew that if they talked to Nellie, their message would get around the Park because she knew so many people and talked to so many people, including the senator's office, Senator (Ron) Stafford, and others."

Saranac Lake resident Ron Moses was a representative of the Franklin County Federation of Fish and Game Clubs with Staves for years. She spearheaded fish and game stocking initiatives, including a pheasant stocking program, he recalled. To be engaged was part of her life's philosophy.

"She was a firm believer that wildlife management is accomplished not only through the Department of Conservation but through the people who actually hunted and fished and trapped," Moses said.

Together, Moses and Staves would lobby on behalf of Adirondack sportsmen. Moses said Staves would support bills that encouraged young adults to hunt and also was a firm believer in allowing hunters and anglers access to the lands and waters of the Adirondacks.

Tupper Lake resident Mike Savage, a member of the Tupper Lake Rod and Gun Club, can attest to Stave's desire to fight for sportsman's rights.

"Anything that was sportsman related, she was always fighting to be sure our interests were well represented," Savage said.

Howie Cushing is the president of the state Conservation Council. He's known Staves for more than 35 years and was always impressed with her as a hunter among men and a lady among women.

"In the past few years, we've kind of nicknamed her, 'The Queen of the Adirondacks,'" Cushing said. "She had a certain eloquence about her. She represented not only the sportsmen, but she represented the ladies, too."

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Born in the woods

Staves' interest in the outdoors and independence was forged at an early age. She was born in West Danville, Vt. in 1917 and grew up in a house built by her father on Walden Mountain in a family with 12 children. The family household was without electricity, central heating or indoor plumbing. They lived off the land, eating fish they caught, deer they hunted and vegetables from a large family garden.

"They were self-sufficient," daughter LaMere said. "Her dad had to do a lot of hunting and trapping and fishing, and that's what they lived on: deer meat and fish and what they planted in the ground."

Following graduation from high school, Staves married Bernard Badger, a logging foreman for the U.S. Bobbin Shuttle Company. In 1949, Badger was transfered to a logging camp in Long Lake. Staves was hired as a cook for the loggers.

"I never had men treat me any better than those loggers did over those years," Staves told the Enterprise in 2006.

As she got older, Staves loved to work with younger generations. She taught hunting and trapping safety courses and was a big supporter of The Wild Center nature museum in Tupper Lake, serving on its board of directors.

"The idea that this institution would allow people to learn more about the Adirondacks and understand why the Adirondacks and nature generally is so important to people's lives - I think that's what drew her to this institution," said Diana Fortune, director of development at The Wild Center. Fortune also noted that Staves "wanted something special for the village of Tupper Lake."

Staves was also an artist - a uniquely woodsy one. The Wild Center, like many people and places Staves cared about, owns a fungus etching, one of hundreds Staves created over the years.

Staves' passion for fungus knew few limits. One time, Fortune recalled, Staves saw a huge fungus high up on a tree near Saranac inn. Unable to reach it on her own, Staves asked the landowner for help using some of his logging equipment.

"Nellie got in the bucket of this thing, and he raised her up, half up this tree, and she got this fungus off the tree," Fortune said. "This was not 50 years ago. This was five years ago. She came back, and she was laughing about it.

"That was her spirit. That was the spirit of Nellie."

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Contact Mike Lynch at (518) 891-2600 ext. 28 or mlynch@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.