Constructed in the 1860s, the Woodchuck Lodge was the summer retreat for naturalist and famed essayist John Burroughs. This rustic building in New York’s Catskill Mountains served as Burroughs’s dwelling for much of his literary career and played host to many celebrities of the time, including Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and Henry Ford. Burroughs was born and raised on his family’s homestead in Roxbury, New York. He was a fast learner, and by age 17, he was a schoolteacher at the local schoolhouse. He left the area and with the…
