",•·N;,E Lan~Llip Van Winkle"

Greene County Historical Society ",•·n;,e Lan~llip Van Winkle" GREENE COUNTY CVATBKILLI 1, , 1<._ichard S.1la1·1·cii-- Digitized by the Vedder Research Library 2018 Greene County Historical Society THE GREENE COUNTY CA1SKILLS N THE WEST BANK OF THE HUDSON RIVER, at distances varying from eight to ten miles back from the river, ranges of mountains extend from a point northwest of the City of Kings ton, northward for a distance of nearly thirty miles, and loom upward toward the skies to an elevation of three thousand feet above sea level. These ranges extend westward for more than forty miles, covering parts of Ulster and Delaware and nearly all of Greene Counties, and are best known as the Catskills, the fabled Land of Rip Van Winkle. Within the borders of the Catskills will be found nearly a hundred villages and hamlets, located at the highest elevations east of the Rocky Mountains and enjoying temperatures that average from fifteen to twenty degrees lower than that of the seaboard cit ies, so it is not surprising that the region is the most popular and the best known of the American Sum mer Resort Sections, with a summer patronage that is conservatively placed at a quarter of a million visitors annually. Formed, according to m.odern geologists, by drift from the lost Ap palachia, the atmosphere of romance that has for more than a century surrounded the section has been somewhat enhanced by late discoveries, including the oldest forests in the world, found during the excavations for the extension of the New York City Water Supply, and the re-location of the Indian Flint Mines last year at Coxsackie. LOOKING WEST FRO~i CA'l' SKILL The latter discovery has been regarded by archeologists as the most important find of recent years, because it indicates the oldest civilization in America and proves that the Algonkians, who, crossing the Behring Sea, were the first settlers in America, made the Catskills the armory of the American Indians, evidence of this being found in the Jasper and Sea Shore Quartz from Pennsylvania, Argolite from New Jersey, Felsite from Georgia, Reel Slate from the Champlain region, Copper from Michigan, and Steatite from Virginia, found in the refuse of the three mine quarries Digitized by the Vedder Research Library 2018 Greene County Historical Society 2 THE GUEENE COUN'l'Y CA'l'SIULLS and three hundred minor pits, that required centuries of time and the continuous labor of at least three hundred to five hundred Indians to develop. History draws its mantle over the Catskills from the Algonkian period until the visit of Hendrick Hudson in 1609, and then the curtain again falls until the establishment of a settlement at Leeds (Catskill) in 1644. It is recorded that the Dutch settlers lived at peace with the Indians, who held the Catskills in awe as the abode of the Great Spirit, and this feeling seems to have been absorbed to some extent by the Dutch, who considered the mountains as the Glorified Overlook from which the spirit of Hendrick Hudson watched over the river that he had discovered. As the reader will be more interested in the Catskills as a Summer playground than in its history, history and the many pretty legends of the region are omitted to make room for a description of its advantages as a vacation section. CAT,SKILL-GREENDALE FERRY In 1823 a ten-room hotel was opened on Orchard Knob, west of Cats kill and overlooking the Hudson Valley. This house soon became the most noted hostelry in America-it is the Catskill Mountain House, which will open in June for its one hundredth consecutive season, under the same family management and having accommodations for five hundred guests. The ensuing fifty years saw a wonderful increase in the number of hotels and boarding houses in the region, and Catskill, Cairo, Kiskatom and Haines Falls became names familiar to leaders of society, before the cla ys of the Civil \Var, who by stage coach or sailing· vessel came up the Hudson Valley to enjoy outings in the "Beloved Mountains." Following the Civil War, the vacation became a necessity instead of a luxury, resulting in the opening up of new sections in the mountains, hundreds of new hotels and boarding houses, and the conversion of farm houses into small and comfortable boarding houses, until to-clay one finds upwards of one thousand hotels and boarding houses in the Catskills. Greene County, with which this book is intended to make the reader familiar, had for many years a monopoly of the vacation business, because Digitized by the Vedder Research Library 2018 Greene County Historical Society THE GREENE COUNTY CATSIULLS 3 it was the first section of the Catskills to cater to resort frequenters, and to-day, nothwithstanding the growth and popularity of resorts in Ulster and Delaware Counties, Greene County stands supreme as the most at tractive and interesting section of the Lan d of Rip Van Winkle, because it has all the essentials for an ideal outing. Elevations ranging from a hundred feet to more than two thousand feet above sea level, scenery without equal on the American continent, temperatures from fifteen to twenty degrees lower than that of the city, diversions of every kind, quiet nooks, cool walks and social centers provide the desired environment, and accommodations ranging from those found at a small cottage, where from ten to twelve guests fill the house, to the soci_al centers at hotels with capacities of from five to eight hundred guests. One may secure accommodations at from $12 weekly to $100 weekly, so wide is the range of service in this wonderful resort section. THE MOHICAK TRAIL A T \VINDILUI The State of New York has established Camping Sites at Platte Clove, Lexington and Hunter, between Hunter and East Windham and Windham, and there are hundreds of other locations where for a nominal rental one may camp along the shores of the creeks for the season. Cottage colonies, with handsome summer homes to rent at Haines Falls, Tannersville and Windham, as well as Cairo, give the vacationist an opportunity to enjoy another form of country life. Golf links are located at Palenville, Haines Falls, the Onteora Club, Catskill Mountain House and Butel Kaaterskill. The trout season opens on the first Saturday in April and closes August 31st, and some of the best streams in the state are in Greene County and are not posted. Boating and bathing are available at Catskill, Leeds, Green Lake, South Cairo, Palenville, Cairo, East Windham, Windham, Tannersville, Lexington, Hunter and Haines Falls. Points of interest in the Greene County Catskills that should be visited by every tourist include the Kaaterskill Canyon, three thousand feet deep and extending from Haines Falls to Palen ville ; the Platterkill Canyon, Digitized by the Vedder Research Library 2018 Greene County Historical Society 4 THE GREENE COUNTY CATSIULLS three miles deep, extending from Platte Clove to West Saugerties; the Stony Clove, extending from between Tannersville and Hunter to Phoenicia; the Kaaterskill Falls (highest in New York State), Devasego Falls, at Prattsville; the Shinglekill Falls, at Purling; the Catskill Mountain House, which fronts a twelve-thousand-mile view of the Hudson Valley, the Berkshires and three states; East "\Vindham, where there is another won- SKTING IN THE CATSKILLS derful panoramic view of the surrounding country; Cairo, one of the busiest of the resorts and the scene of the great Cairo Fair and the Elks' Field Day; Catskill, with its handsome buildings and busy Main street; Austin's Glen, between Catskill and Leeds; Leeds, with its famous stone bridge and rock beach; Green Lake, the largest body of water in the county; Twilight, Digitized by the Vedder Research Library 2018 Greene County Historical Society THE GREENE COUNTY CA'l'Sl(JLLS 5 Sunset and Santa Cruz Parks, at Haines 'Falls; the Onteora Club and Elka Park, near Tannersville; the New York police sanitarium at Platte Clove; Windham, "the village beautiful;" Lexington, along the Schoharie; Hunter, where the Colonel's Chair looms above Main street at an elevation of 3,200 feet; the Kaaterskill Park, in which is located the Hotel Kaaters kill, the largest mountain house in the world; and the beautiful Kaaters kill Lake. The two most picturesque automobile trails in the east start at Cats kill and lead through the Greene County Catskills. The Rip Van Winkle Trail extends west through Kiskatom, Palenville, the Kaaterskill Canyon, Haines Falls, Tannersville, Hunter, Lexington, Prattsville, Grand Gorge, and on to Stamford, joining the Ashokan Trail, which st.arts at Kingston. The Mohican Trail extends northwest through Jefferson, Leeds, South Cairo, Acra, South Durham, East Windham, Windham, Ashland and into Prattsville, where it joins the Rip Van ·winkle Trail and continues to Stamford. TI-IE HUDSON RIVER EXPRESS Three hours from New York by rail, with two trunk line roads to the gateways, macadamized highways on both sides of the Hudson and from every point of the compass, as shown by the automobile map on pages 18 and 19, combined with the finest steamboat service in the world, make the resorts of Greene County the most accessible in the east. The daylight trip through the Hudson by the handsome and commodious steamers of the Hudson River Day Line is the most popular way of reaching the mountains, the boats leaving Desbrosses Street at 9 a. m ., West 42d Street at 9:20 a. m., and West 129th Street at 9:40 a. m. daily including Sunday, for Kingston and Catskill, the main gateways to the region, the system furnishing the ideal means to reach the mountains in comfort.

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