A Place Called Home: Dispossession and Remembrance of a Central NY Landscape

Abstract

Utilizing aspects of social, cultural, political, military and environmental history, this dissertation details the cycles of possession and dispossession of the lands of the Seneca Army Depot in upstate New York. It explores both the changes in the people who claimed the land, and the changes in the natural landscape. This physical place and cultural space shaped by war continues to be a region influenced by the relics and echoes of military and political conflict. Since the closing of the Seneca Army Depot at the end of the Cold War various stakeholders have engaged in a fierce debate over the future of the former Depot lands, including the plight of a rare herd of white-coated deer that currently inhabit the former facility. Whoever wrests ownership of this landscape will determine its future use and influence how its past is celebrated and remembered.