History, Natural History & the Arts
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced the grand opening of the Hudson Valley segment of the New York State Birding Trail to highlight the State’s world-class and wide-ranging birding opportunities.
The Hudson Valley segment includes 39 locations on public lands throughout six counties, providing a variety of quality birding experiences for New Yorkers and visitors to enjoy. [Read more…] about Hudson Valley Segment of Statewide Birding Trail Opens
A $2 million gift recently received by Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies will support the transformation of its Millbrook, Dutchess County, NY headquarters.
A two-year capital campaign was launched in 2020 to raise funds to re-imagine the headquarters. Staff at the Cary Institute are experts in the ecology of cities, freshwaters, forests, infectious diseases, and the impact of climate change on ecological systems. The gift will allow Cary Institute to surpass its original public fundraising goal. [Read more…] about Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies Gets $2M Facilities Gift
The newly improved Tivoli Bay Boat launch offers an updated tidal freshwater wetland experience.
Tivoli Bays Wildlife Management Area & Research Reserve extends for two miles along the east shore of the Hudson River between the villages of Tivoli and Barrytown, in the Dutchess County town of Red Hook. [Read more…] about Tivoli Bay Boat Launch Improvements
Book purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.
The new book The Livingston Lion: Henry Beekman Livingston’s Revolution (Epigraph, 2021) by historian Geoff Benton is the first biography of Revolutionary War soldier Henry Beekman Livingston. [Read more…] about A New Biography of Henry Beekman Livingston
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Dutchess Land Conservancy (DLC) have announced the acquisition of a conservation easement on an 1830 farm in the town of Pine Plains.
The Land Conservancy acquired the Jordan Lane Farm easement with New York State Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) funding that provides resources to protect source waters. [Read more…] about Easement Acquired On 1830 Dutchess County Farm
Poughkeepsie’s Equality Trail, part of the Dutchess County Equality Trails, features 21 stops that can be visited in person or virtually.
Each stop on the Trail features a person or event that helped in the fight for racial equality in Dutchess County. [Read more…] about Poughkeepsie’s Equality Trail Highlights History
General George Washington, Governor George Clinton and Lord Stirling all knew about Anthony’s Nose. Not because it was part of someone’s anatomy, but because it was a prominent feature along the Hudson River, the highest place in Westchester County. Anthony’s Nose resembles a person’s nose when viewed in profile from the Hudson River, and so was a well known landmark.
Anthony’s Nose was also strategically important. [Read more…] about Hudson River Chain, Anthony’s Nose, and the American Revolution
The American Revolution forged a nation out of a place where none had existed previously, and in one of history’s truly shocking instances, a modern democracy had created itself and turned on its former master with stunning speed and resolution.
Colonel Jacob Griffin, a tavern keeper from Dutchess County at Fishkill, was a brazen and unflappable American Patriot. He had helped stir anti-British sentiment in 1775 by using his tavern to draft a formidable petition supporting the Continental Congress and openly maligning the Crown. The document demanded the Colonies’ separation from England and mustered 502 signatures.
In the late spring or early summer of 1775, he joined the Dutchess County (New York State) Militia as a Captain and would be promoted to Colonel before War’s end. As a successful tavern owner Jacob Griffin rubbed elbows with the Continental Army’s elite – Steuben, Putnam, the Marquis de La Fayette and Washington. But is there more to Griffin’s role in the Revolutionary War?
[Read more…] about Dark Eagle: Was Colonel Jacob Griffin A Spy?
He is one of the great patriots of the American Revolution, and he is barely known outside of his native Dutchess County, New York.
Born in the Fishkill area ca. 1729-1730 (sources vary), Jacob Griffin was a staunch Yankee Presbyterian, who wanted a clear and a complete parting of the ways with King George III of England.
From the mid to the late 18th century the Thirteen Colonies of British North America experienced one huge wave of social upheaval after the other… the reasons of these societal changes being many and very subtly related to the other. [Read more…] about A Ghost of American Patriot Colonel Jacob Griffin
Winnakee Land Trust has announced the Northern Dutchess Trail Project and receipt of a grant in the amount of $14,800 from the 2016 Greenway Conservancy Trail Grant Program.
The grant was one of 22 received in the Mid-Hudson Valley and Capital Region. The Greenway Conservancy Trail Grant Program, funded by NYS Environmental Protection Fund, supports the Greenway’s goal to establish the Hudson River Valley Greenway Trail, a contiguous trail linking cultural and historic sites, parks, open spaces, and community centers from New York City to the Adirondacks. [Read more…] about Winnakee Launches Northern Dutchess Trail Project