Of course, in another important job, he was president of the United States from Sept. 14, 1901, to March 4, 1909. At age 42, he was the youngest man to ever hold that office. My research through the acres of information on the internet says President John F. Kennedy was the youngest to assume that office at age 43; he was elected but Vice President Roosevelt, not elected, took office at age 42 after President William McKinley died from an assassin’s bullet in Buffalo. Roosevelt was hiking in the Adirondack High Peaks, staying at the Tahawus Club in the town of Newcomb, when he heard the president was dying. So he made a mad dash for the train station in North Creek. Therein lays a great story, which was carried here in a column many years ago. Relay teams of horses and buckboards raced to carry him to the train, 35 miles from the club, but McKinley died before Roosevelt reached Buffalo.

I mistakenly believed that Roosevelt originated the “Forever Wild” clause that was added to the New York State Constitution. However, that happened in 1894, five years before he became governor.

“In 1894, the New York State Legislature approved a constitutional amendment now known as Article XIV which protects the State’s Adirondack Forest Preserve as Forever Wild.”

So, back to the APA that I am claiming Roosevelt would have loved, especially the stories about its growing pains … the state camps outlawed by the APA being burned to the ground by the owners or this story of APA lawyer Bob Glennon … right out of a movie script.

Originally the APA headquarters was a log cabin on a site about where the headquarters is located today. Bob, a big, handsome guy, and a former college football player returns from a meeting late at night and finds two guys setting fire to the APA building. He puts the knuckles to the two of them, calls the police and has them arrested.

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Lake Placid News story

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From the spring of 1971:

“The bill to create an Adirondack Park Agency was still in committee this week, the object of some compromise efforts by legislative leaders.

“It had not appeared on the calendar of either Senate or Assembly by Wednesday afternoon but sources in Albany said it certainly would be voted on before the Legislature adjourned.

“Both legislative aides and the counsel to the governor (Rockefeller) have spent nearly two weeks now proposing and considering amendments to the bill. North Country legislators, according to a report in the Plattsburgh Press-Republican are still opposed to any Agency creation this year. Nevertheless, they have submitted amendment suggestions to the counsel for Republican leaders.

“The 11-legislator bloc has rejected some amendments offered by the governor while proposing some of their own at the insistence of legislative leaders who want to do the governor’s bidding on this bill. There were conflicting reports on exactly who stood where on what issue.

“One report said that the governor has refused to agree to the legislators’ demands for a delay in the creation of the Agency.

“The governor also reportedly will not exclude farming and logging interests from the park agency zoning regulations.

“Another point at issue is the role of the Department of Environmental Conservation. As Assemblyman Glen Harris has proposed that the DEC develop a zoning scheme for public lands in consultation with the Agency rather than the reverse. This, apparently, the governor’s staff has rejected.

“The North Country Legislators, who include Andrew Ryan, Senator Ron Stafford and Assemblyman Glen Harris, are not opposed to some of the amendments, but their first wish is for a delay. Ryan said last week that no matter what amendments were proposed, he would vote against the bill.

“The governor’s amendments would allow for four rather than three Adirondack residents on the Agency, but legislators said the fourth could be part time or new resident under the provisions.

“Another amendment would require that the Park Agency ‘cooperate’ with local governments in developing the master plan. Legislators said this was not strong enough, that local governments would still have no formal say in the final decisions.

“Work went on behind the scenes this week on the proposed Agency bill with the participants not quite certain if the bill would make it out of committee in time for a legislative vote.

“Amendments submitted by the various North Country legislators were in the hands of the Assembly majority leader’s counsel, Dan Taylor. Taylor, a tall young man, said in his office Sunday, as the Senate and Assembly sat in weekend session, that compromise efforts were being pushed.

“The final bill would depend on some critical points, ‘under negotiation’ with the governor’s staff, Taylor said. Major proposals for amendments call for increased voice for local governments. (Hello, we know how that went?) Taylor said one change would permit local planning boards, where they exist, to have some say in the development proposals during the ‘interim period’ between the Agency’s establishment July 1 and January 1973 when the plan (master plan) is to be ready.

“Under the bill now only the proposed Agency would decide on developments before the master plan for the Adirondacks is completed. The bill provides for extensive interim powers for the Agency.

“A second change would give local governments more participation in the drawing up of the master plan for private land use. The bill proposed by the governor gives extensive powers to the Agency, allow for consultation and requires a public hearing. North Country legislators have asked that local governments have more participation.

“Another change would require a public hearing in every county wholly or partly within the Park before the plan is sent to the legislature.

“A fourth proposal change, Taylor said, would require that four Agency members be Adirondack residents. At present the bill allows three or four of the seven appointed members to be residents.

“Taylor was not sure if the changes would meet with approval from the governor’s staff. Whether they did was crucial because of the proposed Tuesday end to the legislative session.

“‘The governor’s office is ‘anxious for a bill this year,’ Taylor said. The feeling he said, that ‘if we don’t try and protect the area,’ the wrong kind of development will take place.”

(On Monday, June 7, 1971, the Assembly passed the bill, 123-24. There are 150 members of the New York State Assembly. On Tuesday, June 8, the Senate adopted the bill 22-14. The Senate has 63 members and only 36 voted? Maybe there was an error in the story I researched?)