by Michael Daecher
"Beacon Voices" is a regular feature where you'll find brief interviews with people making a difference, however small, in the daily life of the city. For the first issue of the print edition of the Beacon Dispatch, it seemed appropriate to speak with someone who has spent most of his life on the mountain. Pete Seeger is best known as the folk singer responsible for American standards like "We Shall Overcome" and "Turn, Turn, Turn", but his list of environmental accomplishments is equally impressive. Last month, his Hudson River sloop, the Clearwater, was named to the National Register of Historic Places. Pete recently sat down with us at the Sloop Club to talk about the past, present, and future of Beacon.
Q: When did you first move to Beacon?
My grandparents lived in a little town south of Pawling, and I spent all my summers there, hiking and tracking animals. We had two little babies in 1949, and I didn't see raising them on the sidewalks of New York. All we could afford was some land, and we eventually found some space up on the mountain that was level. We got 17 acres for $1700. We raised three kids, and built a little cabin. The first summer all I did was chop trees, the second summer I put the walls and roof on. Over time we gradually improved the house and dug a well. We built the whole cabin for $900. And that's where we've been for 55 years
Q: In the 55 years you've lived on Mt. Beacon, what are some of the most positive things you've seen?
Do you know about the people who stopped the gravel mine up on Mt. Beacon? They came around the Sloop Club and asked if we knew that Montfort Brothers was planning on taking out two Boulder Dam's worth of rubble from Mt. Beacon on the Fishkill side. The company says, oh, you can't see it from the river. But it will sure hurt that valley. And it will sure hurt Fishkill. We had meetings at the town board meeting in Fishkill. And you know what happened? It turns out they couldn't go ahead with the gravel mine because he mountain has rattle snakes on it, and they're an endangered species! Ha!
I've also seen people from different ethnic backgrounds learn to live with each other. At last year's Spirit of Beacon Day, there was a bigger crown than ever before. The first few years we had 4 or 500 people. Last year, there were 4 or 5,000. There was Latino music and Anglo music and Gospel music. There was food from many different places, and people saying "read this", "come to our meetings"; Muslims and Jews and Catholics and Protestants and Lord knows who else.
The Beacon Sloop Club has also had an influence. About 90 years ago they wanted steam boats to stop in Beacon, but the river was too shallow. So they decided to build a cheap dock by getting a bunch of barges and filling them with rocks. It was never used. But about 60 years ago, they decided to add some more barges to complete the rectangle, and use it as a garbage dump. So for about 40-50 years, they threw all sorts of garbage in there. But the barges started to rot away, and the city made them close the dump, and along comes the Sloop Club. We put together a bunch of signatures and petitions over a few years. Finally, in 1977, the Citizens Advisory Committee decided to devote money to creating a riverfront park. I said I'll believe it when I see it, but by gosh the next year the bulldozers brought in hundreds of tons of clay to cover up the old garbage. Ya know, the park is designed like the back of a turtle. Rain that falls runs off to the side, rather than going through the garbage into the river. By 1979 we were finished.
Q: What are some of the things you're working on now?
The main thing is the Woody Guthrie is sailing again. It's a small model of the Clearwater, and we take out up to 10 guests, mostly weekday nights. We're trying to get more captains so we can take it out on weekends as well. I wish we had 10 or 20 captains, as it is we have 3 or 4. It's free, you can take your friends out for sail. All you have to do is call 831-4267 and ask for Thomas LaBarr. My eyes are going, my ears are going, my sense of balance is going, so I don't do any more sailing, but I'm with the committee trying to build the swimming pool.
Q: Why a swimming pool?
Well, we're working with an architect in New York who is into building floating swimming pools. They used to have these in NYC at the turn of the century, so you could bathe in the East River, and the life guards wouldn't lose anybody. They were discontinued in the 1920s because the water was just too polluted.
They're made out of wood, and are as big as tennis courts. They're about 3 feet deep, and they're made of 12-inch planks with an inch of water between them. You can do a lot of swimming in 3 feet of water, you just can't dive. The whole thing wouldn't weigh more than 1000 lbs. In winter we'd store it on land. And in spring, we'd push it back into the water, make sure all the flotation is working, and you'd have a swimming pool. If it works, we've assured the city council that we're not expecting the taxpayers to pay for it.
Q: You've fit an awful lot into your 85 years. What difference do you think one person can make?
Don't count on one big organization, or one big slogan to solve your problems. Words mean different things to different people. If the human race is still around in 100 years, I am convinced it will not be because of any one thing, but because of millions, maybe tens of millions, little things all over the world. Maybe somebody says, well I can't save the world, but I have to do something. Maybe a bunch of women and children clean up an empty lot and plant a flower garden. This floating pool is another little thing. It's all these little things that are going to change the world. Of that I'm convinced. I've never seen so many good little things going on.
