Adirondack Carousel unveils second bobcat
By PETER CROWLEY, Enterprise Managing EditorSARANAC LAKE - Boosters of the Adirondack Carousel gave a warm reception to a new wooden bobcat and its carver Friday when they arrived at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake from the carver's home in Plantation, Fla.
It is the second bobcat for the Carousel, which is planned for the William Morris Play Park on Bloomingdale Avenue in Saranac Lake. The first cat was completed in 2004, but the Carousel's nonprofit organizing group plans to return it to its carvers' family in New Hampshire because of flaws in its construction, group spokeswoman Sarah Greenwood said today.
Wallace and Marye Johnson began the first bobcat as a husband-and-wife team, but Marye Johnson died in the process and her husband did not continue the work after that. Their son finished it, and the Carousel committee welcomed its delivery in fall 2004.
That, however, was before the group had standard specifications for its animals, and the hole for the pole that would go through the bobcat was too small, according to Greenwood. It was later determined that to drill a new hole would damage the piece's structural integrity, and that was considered too risky for something that children would be riding on.
The bobcat was also starting to "come unlaminated," according to Karen Loffler, who led the Carousel committee from its beginning in 2000 but left the organization last year.
"It was either do some extensive repairs on the bobcat or carve another one properly," Loffler said.
The task of carving a new bobcat fell to Bob Eck, who was born and raised in Plattsburgh and has been a woodcarver since 1970, as was his father. Eck won his first blue ribbon in 1973 and has since taken blue ribbons and seven Best of Show awards in Florida and Michigan, as well as entering world competitions.
Eck and his wife Robin made the 26-hour drive from Florida to Blue Mountain Lake to deliver the bobcat, which will remain on display at the Adirondack Museum.
Paul Smith's College, whose sports mascot is the bobcat, sponsored both the original bobcat carving and the new one.
It is the eighth completed animal for the Carousel, which is planned to be enclosed in a building with a gift shop if enough funds are raised for the project. The other completed animals are on display, including a bass at Traditional Arts of Upstate New York in Canton, a heron at Tompkins Park Zoo in Watertown and five in Saranac Lake: a salamander and a loon at the village office, a raccoon at Adirondack Bank, a thrush at Cinderella's clothing store and a black fly at Adirondack Medical Center.
The Carousel plans to unveil two new animals at the Saranac Lake Block Party on Aug. 7, Greenwood said: a beaver carved by Carl Borst of Rotterdam and a skunk by Tom Holzinger of Roanoke, Ind.
Contact Peter Crowley at 891-2600 ext. 22 or pcrowley@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.
