Aviators and adventurers: Airplanes’ impact on the Adirondacks 

Author Aurora Pfaff explores regional flight history, channels love of flying into ‘Aviation in the Adirondacks’

By Holly Riddle

Aurora Pfaff calls her young desire to become an astronaut “the consuming passion” of her childhood. However, life had different plans for her career. 

She studied literature and obtained her master’s degree, and became a writer and editorial content manager, currently working for the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism. Still, her interest in taking to the skies never waned and, in a situation that she credits to being in the right place at the right time, she ended up taking flying lessons in 2022. Now, that love for flying and her love for the Adirondacks has resulted in a new book, “Aviation in the Adirondacks,” which came out in June.

“[Taking flying lessons] was something I’d wanted to do for many years, since I was a kid. It was a beautiful thing. It was amazing. I took another lesson and then I [started] — I love history — naturally thinking about who else has flown in the Adirondacks,” Pfaff said. “Who were the pilots? What were their lives? Were there a lot of pilots? Where did people fly out of? I started looking into it, just out of my own curiosity…and realized that there might actually be a book in there that would be of interest to people.”

Pfaff approached Arcadia Publishing with the idea in April 2023 and, after the publisher acknowledged the idea’s appeal and gave her the green light, she began the process of conducting all the necessary research and compiling the many aviation stories that make up the book.

“The very first flight [in the Adirondacks] has such a unique, fun story. It took place in 1912, and the young man who did that flight was not from the Adirondacks, but he was hired to come here and do flying demonstrations,” Pfaff said. “He landed in a farmer’s field, surprised the farmer and did demonstrations of acrobatics in his plane over Saranac Lake. He met a young woman and gave her a passenger ride, and they ended up getting married. He raced a car at the racetrack and the car won. There are so many things about just that first story. That first flight is so special and unique, and really delightful. It’s such a nice way to start out what would be decades of interesting aviators and adventures.” 

Pfaff covers a range of other notable events in the book, such as the first air mail flight out of the Adirondacks in 1938, as well as interesting figures like World War II pilots who built flying careers in small Adirondack towns, and conservationist Clarence Petty, who taught flying until he was in his 90s. She also touches on the prevalence of aviation in the Adirondacks, which changed the way tourists and similar visitors experienced the region. 

“Train travel was on the decline and there were people with planes in every single community. There were flying clubs. There were float planes that would take tourists up for scenic flights in just about every single town that was on a lake,” she said. “Float planes changed how people got into the wilderness. You could take an hour-long float plane ride, with all your fishing, hunting or camping gear, and be dropped off at a remote lake… It opened up the wilderness to a lot of people.”

While aviation is the thread that ties together all the stories featured in the book, the intersection of local figures, local history and the changes in the Adirondacks that occurred over the 20^th century could be of interest to anyone wanting to learn more about the region’s past.

The book is available at The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid, The Book Nook in Saranac Lake, Old Forge Hardware, and online at bookshop.org. Pfaff also has several book events upcoming, including a book signing at The Book Nook in Saranac Lake on July 26 and a book talk at the Old Forge Library on Aug. 1. More details and future events can be found on Pfaff’s website, aurorawheelerpfaff.com. 

As for what Pfaff has up her sleeve next, she has a few more Adirondack history-related book ideas, as well as the beginnings of a memoir. One thing is for sure, though — more flying is in her future. 

“I really was quite captivated with it from the moment I took that first lesson. It’s an extraordinary thing and, especially here in the Adirondacks, a beautiful thing,” she said, adding with a laugh, “One of my only downfalls is that I get up there and I want to look around, not fly the plane. Seeing all these amazing mountains, rivers and lakes…from a much different perspective, is really quite bewitching.”