About Us

© Jenny Neal

About Woodchuck Lodge

Woodchuck Lodge, 1633 Burroughs Memorial Road, Roxbury, NY 12474 (here’s a map where you can get directions), is a registered National  Historic Landmark. From 1910 to 1921, it was the summer home of John Burroughs, America’s most prominent and adored naturalist-essayist. The Lodge was built in the early 1860s by Burroughs’ older brother Curtis on Burroughs homestead land where the naturalist was born and raised. The rustic farmhouse has been in the Burroughs family since its construction, except for the years 1922-1947 when Burroughs’ close friends, Henry and Clara Ford, owned it. John Burroughs wrote several essays during summer sojourns at Woodchuck Lodge in the last years of his life, and there he also entertained luminaries such as Harvey Firestone, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford.

After Henry Ford’s death, the Ford family sold Woodchuck Lodge back to the Burroughs family. In the 1970s, John E. Lutz, great-grand nephew of John Burroughs, purchased the place from E. Wilson Burroughs. John and his wife Una soon after founded Woodchuck Lodge, Inc with the mission of promoting Burroughs’s legacy, donating the property to it in 1973. John served as president of the organization until 2000–developing educational programs, raising funding, and overseeing historic preservation work on the house–when he passed on leadership to the present generation.Learn More

Woodchuck Lodge Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the historic Lodge and to promoting the ideas and legacy of John Burroughs through events and activities that encourage people to live, work and prosper in harmony with nature. The Board of Trustees is made up of historians, writers, educators, business people, and communications and legal professionals committed to sharing appreciation and respect for John Burroughs’ life and work.

WL-sign-with-tulips

Board of Trustees

  • Vivian Yess Wadlin, President
  • Brett Barry, Vice President
  • Howard “Pete” France, Recording Secretary
  • John Wadlin, Treasurer
  • Laura Sanford, Corresponding Secretary
  • Joe Farleigh
  • Todd Spire
  • Thomas O’Brien
  • Carol Miserlian
  • John Lutz

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