Great Camp Santanoni Internship Part III: Reflection on Lessons Learned

 Spending the summer at Santanoni exposed me to a lot of new things. I had

 the opportunity to meet and talk to people involved in many different aspects 

of careers related to history: public historians, preservationists both in the 

nonprofit field and for the state, details about fundraising from private donors 

and applying for grants, how people of different backgrounds such architects 

donated their time and expertise to historic sites that they care about. The 

preservation of Santanoni took a lot to achieve and in fact, AARCH was founded 

in large part to save Santanoni from the regulations of Adirondack Park, which 

had initially condemned it to natural deterioration after state acquisition. Learning 

the story of its preservation and realizing that my work there was a small contribution 

to a massive body of work was very humbling. Additionally, meeting state employees 

wiped away some of the opacity of government jobs: as it turns out, government 

employees are normal people. Below is a photo of two such employees along with 

the AARCH staff (Kevin and myself included).

 

This was my first time working as an interpreter, and I found it to be exhausting but 

rewarding. Santanoni is fortunate to get a rather self-selecting pool of visitors that 

are likely more interested than perhaps the general public may be. This is because 

it’s relatively difficult to get to compared to other sites where you can simply park and 

go inside: you either have to bike or hike the five miles in (and then bike or hike the 

five miles back out), or you have to schedule a seat on the horse and wagon that goes 

in once a day most of the summer. I found that I enjoyed smaller groups more than 

larger ones because they more easily facilitate dialogue, rather than a memorized recitation. 

I also found out that a key fact for interpreters is that someone will always ask a question 

that you don’t know the answer to.

Santanoni is a very interesting combination of park and historic site. There’s something 

to the setting of a natural recreation area that opens your mind to consideration and 

reflection, which can put some in a better headspace to learn about and reflect on history. 

In the summer, all the cabins in the main complex are always open, and there are so many 

corners you can poke your nose into. It’s a prime setting for snooping around. Being the 

only great camp that is open to the public in this way makes it a special place. Once an 

exclusive setting that was only accessible to the Pruyn family, their guests, and their 

employees, it’s now a place where locals can go on their daily runs, annual visitors can 

return to where they have made family memories, and first-time visitors can discover a 

new world to explore. 

One more thing I learned was that people who work outside are for the most part pretty 

laid back. With an “office” view of this from the workbench on the porch of main camp, 

it’s not hard to see why.