Adirondack Legend Anne LaBastille
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 9:02AM 
This week we learned of the passing of an Adirondack legend, Anne Labastille. Anne was an author and champion of protecting the Adirondacks from over development. She served as commissioner of the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) from 1975 to 1983. Those efforts were not always appreciated, according to Dick Beamish, founder of the Adirondack Explorer magazine. From the New York Times:
“She would always come down on the side of protecting nature. She was reviled for that by those who didn’t believe in the APA or who didn’t believe the APA should be telling people what they can or can’t do with their land.”
LaBastille was the author of several books, among them the Woodsman series, written on an old typewriter from a log cabin on Twitchell Lake in the western Adirondacks. She was born in Montclair, NJ and died on July 1 at a nursing home in Plattsburgh, NY. She was 77.