This is a follow up from the mention in my Thursday Birding Meetup recap
about the fate of the Fuertes Arch at Frontenac Point state park, formerly
Camp Barton. Scott Sutcliffe has some insight and info to share and has
given me permission to share his thoughts with you. Here are his words:
In December of 2024, I received a phone call from a reliable Trumansburg
friend who kindly notified me there was a move afoot to remove the Fuertes
Arch from the Camp Barton property because of misinformation shared with
NYS Parks that Louis Agassiz Fuertes was a white supremacist and that the
Arch should be removed. *Fuertes was nothing of the sort – he was a
champion of humanity*. It appears Louis Agassiz Fuertes was mistakenly
confused with Louis Agassiz, a 19th century scientist who defined white
supremacy .
I immediately sent corrective information to NYS Parks, and soon thereafter
received a reply: “the actual physical arch needed to be removed from the
property as it incorporated icons related to the Boy Scouts that are no
longer appropriate given that the property is now New York State Parks
property.”
When I next visited the park in the spring, the Fuertes Arch had
disappeared.
Shelley Page
*she/they/ki*
313-550-1437
261 Coddington Road Apt. B
Ithaca, New York 14850
https://uuma.zoom.us/j/2065380867 "All that you touch you Change. All that you Change changes you. The only
lasting truth is Change. God is Change." Octavia Butler, The Parable of the
Sower
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