Day 6

My stay here is over. What an opportunity I have been given, to travel back to 1757 and see the wilderness Cooper wrote so vividly of. I have seen the peril and darkness as well as the beauty and light this wilderness holds. I hope that the proof I have gathered will be enough to get my essay chosen to grace the Time Magazine website. I want the wilderness I have explored, the wilderness of James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans," to be one of the "Top 50 Most Awe-Inspiring Wild Lands in Literature.


I think I have gathered some great proof, thanks to my guides Uncas and Chingachgook. I have found aspects of the sublime,as well as elements of beauty. This wilderness is true wilderness, creating a balance that makes it absolutely awe-inspiring!!!



2007, I'm coming home...

Day 5

This is my fifth day in the Upper New York State wilderness Cooper wrote so vividly of, and I decide to venture out on my own. I have told by my guides, Uncas and Chingachgook, that these woods also have great elements of beauty- so I am going in search of some of them.
Well, here I am and the land around is so “lively and playful,” “all that pertain[s] to nature [is] sweet.” Things are so peaceful here.

The land is “green and fresh and lovely,” soothed by “the milder light, or softened in shadow.” “Nowhere was any object to be seen that did not properly belong to the peaceful and slumbering scenery.”

Gently, I stroll along the “verdant and undulating surface of forest,” thinking of how lucky I am to be here in a land so astounding, so divine.


As I headed back to meet Uncas and Chingachgook, I was able to view a beautiful sunset, that seemed to pour down “his parting glory on the scene.” It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

Day 4

Today Uncas introduced me to Chingachgook, and they took me to Glenn Cave, where the characters took refuge after being pursued by Magua and his band. It is amazing here! It is indeed a site of “seclusion,” surrounded by a “dark and wooded outline,” and “surmounted by tall trees.” Here “the river [is] confined between high and cragged rocks” and was encompassed by “fantastic limbs and ragged tree-tops” in “shadowed obscurity.”

I could feel the fear and emotion trapped in that cave.
After we took a break for lunch, we trekked on through a landscape that seemed drenched with doom and fear. We traveled through an “interminable forest” which at times appeared to lose “that lively green which had embellished its arches.”

"The sun [had] hid its warmth behind and impenetrable mass of vapor,” and a “somber gloom” “fell from the impending heavens.” I felt very uneasy at times, walking through this “gothic” land, but was ultimately overcome by the awe of it all. The wilderness may have been rough, and challenging, but it was a powerful force which seemed to be alive!! It appeared to “swallow up” me and my guides, as we “entered it’s bosom.”

Day 3

Yesterday Uncas first took me to the “green and angry waters lashed the shores.” They were so foreboding. Being in that spot made a chill run up my spine. Cooper’s description seemed to personify the water- it had emotion and it was punishing the shores. I felt that emotion when I was there - it was ominous!

Next, Uncas took me to the battlefield (after a battle of course,for safety purposes. What a scene! There were bodies everywhere. The land was scarred. As Cooper put it, the entire countryside “appeared now like some pictured allegory of life.” It was dark and gloomy, it was as if you could still hear the cries, the canons, and smell the gun powder in the air.

Day 2

What an amazing opportunity I have been given- to come back in time and become a part of the wilderness Cooper wrote of in “The Last of the Mohicans!” I hope that my essay is good enough to be chosen to be featured on Time.com. I am going to work as hard as I can to gather the proof I need to "pitch" the setting of James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans" as one of the "Top 50 Most Awe-Inspiring Wild Lands in Literature."

I was able to bring a few items from the 21st Century; I will be travelling with my camera, a sketch pad, and drawing pencils. With these tools I will be able to show a visual representation of the sights I explore, and will have them as a source of inspiration when I return home to write my essay.

I am leaving my "entry spot" now and am entering the wilderness of "The Last of the Mohicans."

Oh My!
The landscape is SUBLIME!
It is exalted, lofty, grand, noble, majestic, divine, and breath-taking.
Yet also,
Vast, great, rugged, dark, gloomy, massive, and at times gothic.

It is beautiful.
It is a force.
It is complex.
It is astounding.

I have run into Uncas, the “Noble Savage” of Cooper’s novel, and he has agreed to show me some of the highlights of this land- areas which Cooper focused on deeply in his novel.

Day 1

Well, here I am. It's 1757 and I am in Upper New York State. It is amazing! It's as if I am actually in a Thomas Cole painting! It is so quiet compared to the hustle and bustle back in 2007! There are no cars, no cellphones, no i-Pods...no interruptions or distractions, just wild lands as far as the eye can see. It takes my breath away...


I am going in search of the different aspects and regions of wilderness in the area. I want to get a personal look at the wilderness James Fenimore Cooper wrote so eloquently about.


Well, I am off...