New York State is joining with organizers of the Boilermaker race in Utica to promote the “Empire State Trail Challenge” a four-month virtual race to run, walk or bicycle segments of the new 750-mile Empire State Trail. [Read more…] about Boilermaker Challenge Along Empire State Trail
Hudson Valley - Catskills
Train Ferries: The Hudson River’s Most Unusual Steamers
Among the many hundreds of steamboats plying the Hudson River when that waterway served as a primary method of moving people and freight, a few stand out as unusual. The most remarkable of these is perhaps the railroad transports, used to ferry railroad cars.
Also known as train ferries, or car ferries (not to be confused with auto ferries), they were fitted with railway tracks and doors at each end to allow for loading and unloading. [Read more…] about Train Ferries: The Hudson River’s Most Unusual Steamers
Juvenile Eel Monitoring Getting Underway
All along the Hudson River estuary, teachers, students, and local residents will be donning waders and venturing into tributary streams to participate in the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) ongoing research on migrating juvenile American eels (Anguilla rostrata). [Read more…] about Juvenile Eel Monitoring Getting Underway
Rangers Respond to Lost, Injured Hikers, Wildfires
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents in the Adirondacks. Working with other state agencies, local emergency response organizations and volunteer search and rescue groups, Forest Rangers locate and extract lost, injured or distressed people.
What follows is a report, prepared by DEC, of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers. [Read more…] about Rangers Respond to Lost, Injured Hikers, Wildfires
Small Farms in April in the Nineteenth Century
April is the month when Spring weather typically calls out, “Ready or not, here I come,” and compels nature and humans of New York to come out from winter hiding.
“Happy is the farmer who has got everything ready for the active labors of the coming season. But no matter how thoroughly he is prepared there will always be plenty to do,” the agriculture columnist wrote in the April 25th, 1874 Ticonderoga Sentinel.
The task list was long and varied in the month of getting ready to make hay while the sun shines. [Read more…] about Small Farms in April in the Nineteenth Century
A Horse’s Life: Staatsburgh’s New Outdoor Children’s Walks
The Staatsburgh State Historic Site is hosting “A Horse’s Life,” an outdoor walk for children set for Sunday, April 11th, May 16th, 23rd and 30th at 2 pm. [Read more…] about A Horse’s Life: Staatsburgh’s New Outdoor Children’s Walks
Staatsburgh Commemorating the Titanic Tragedy
Staatsburgh State Historic Site is set to commemorate the 109th anniversary of the Titanic’s maiden voyage and tragic end with a number of events during the month of April. [Read more…] about Staatsburgh Commemorating the Titanic Tragedy
A Short Book On Prohibition in the Hudson Valley
Eleanor Charwat’s short book Prohibition in the Hudson Valley, Along the Bootleg Trail (self published, 2017) looks back at the prominent role the Hudson Valley played in bootlegging during the Prohibition Era.
Local producers, distributors and sellers of illegal liquor were overshadowed and sometimes terrorized by New York City gangsters like Dutch Schultz, Legs Diamond and Salvatore Maranzano who came to the Hudson Valley to make money and escape federal surveillance. [Read more…] about A Short Book On Prohibition in the Hudson Valley
Senate House Historic Site Sets Reopening Date
Senate House State Historic Site is set to re-open for tours and museum visitors for the 2021 season on Thursday, April 15th. The site will be open Wednesdays – Saturdays, 10 am to 5 pm and Sundays, 1 pm ro 5 pm through October 31st. [Read more…] about Senate House Historic Site Sets Reopening Date
Mastodons of Orange County Virtual Program
The remains of more than eighty mastodon, a large, extinct, elephant-like mammal of the Miocene to Pleistocene epochs, have been recovered in New York State.
Several mastodons have been recovered in the Orange County area, the first in 1811 by American painter, soldier, scientist and naturalist Charles Willson Peale in Montgomery, Orange County. [Read more…] about Mastodons of Orange County Virtual Program