The site of the present Sampson State Park in Romulus, Seneca County, NY was formerly the site of the Sampson Navy Base. As the United States found itself at war following the attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941, the U.S. Navy had an immediate need for sailors. Basic training bases, or boot camps, were constructed across the country to meet this emergency requirement. [Read more…] about Sampson State Park’s Remarkable Military, Education & Public Health History
Nelson Rockefeller
Plans To Dam The Upper Hudson Would Have Been Catastrophic
On almost every stream, pond or lake in the Adirondacks there is still evidence of lumberman’s dams and lumbering operations. In the mid-to-late 1960s however, there was a controversial plan to dam the Upper Hudson River in order to supply water and hydro-electric power to the parched, urban, metropolitan area of New York City.
In the early 1960s there had been a severe drought along the entire northeastern seaboard. One of New York City’s answers to the drought problem was to tap the Upper Hudson to supply its seemingly unquenchable need for water. [Read more…] about Plans To Dam The Upper Hudson Would Have Been Catastrophic
The Environmental Movement That Tamed Adirondacks
Book purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.
A Wild Idea: How the Environmental Movement Tamed the Adirondacks (Cornell University Press, 2021) by Brad Edmondson shares the story of the difficult birth of the Adirondack Park Agency (APA). [Read more…] about The Environmental Movement That Tamed Adirondacks
Hudson River Dam History: The Big Hadley And Glen Dams
One day as my wife and I and our dogs walked along River Road at Riparius on the Hudson River, my wife said to me in a folksy manner “just think all this water here, is on its way to New York City.”
It’s true the Hudson River has flowed out of the Adirondack Mountains for millennia, southward towards the Atlantic Ocean. And over the last two centuries or so there have been plans to dam the Upper Hudson for one reason or another. Most of those plans have dealt with using the water resources for some down state endeavor. [Read more…] about Hudson River Dam History: The Big Hadley And Glen Dams
Nelson Rockefeller and the Politics of Wealth
The journal New York History, published by Cornell University Press, has published a free article online by historian Marsha E. Barrett, “Millionaires are More Democratic Now: Nelson Rockefeller and the Politics of Wealth in New York.” [Read more…] about Nelson Rockefeller and the Politics of Wealth
Politics & History On The Crossroads of Rockland History Podcast
On the October 2020 episode of “Crossroads of Rockland History,” Clare Sheridan welcomed Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey who reflected on her career as Congresswoman from the 17th District of New York, and then Becky Savell appeared to discuss the life and career of her grandmother Historian Isabelle Savell. After a career as a journalist, and then working for Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Isabelle Savell authored many books, including Ladies Lib: How Rockland Women Got The Vote. [Read more…] about Politics & History On The Crossroads of Rockland History Podcast
Dept of Environmental Conservation Marking 50 Years
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) was established in 1970 on the first-ever Earth Day.
In the 50 years since, New Yorkers have seen a revolution in the way we interact with our environment. The Clean Air Act was passed in 1970; in 1971 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was established, followed by the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972. The Adirondack Park Agency Act was passed in 1971, and the State’s Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR) in 1980, the same year as the Superfund Law. In 1993 the Environmental Protection Fund was established.
[Read more…] about Dept of Environmental Conservation Marking 50 Years
Cuomo Break-Up Recalls Rockefeller’s Momentous 1962 Split
“After more than a decade together, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his longtime girlfriend, Sandra Lee, announced on Wednesday that they are ending their relationship. The two confirmed the split in a statement.” – New York Times, Sept. 25, 2019.
A thunderclap this was not. But 58 years ago, a different New York governor’s personal life was in the Times. He was, after all, a Rockefeller – with presidential ambitions. And it was a different time. [Read more…] about Cuomo Break-Up Recalls Rockefeller’s Momentous 1962 Split
Robert Morgenthau’s Statehouse Ambitions
The recent death at age 99 of longtime Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau recalls his two attempts to run for governor of New York against Nelson Rockefeller. Obituaries featured brief references to his statehouse ambitions, but his 1962 run in particular is worth remembering for its national significance.
Morgenthau, grandson of Woodrow Wilson’s ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and son of FDR’s Treasury secretary, was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in early 1961 by newly elected President John F. Kennedy. He would soon be asked to aim higher. [Read more…] about Robert Morgenthau’s Statehouse Ambitions
Ogden Reid: A Link to Another Era in New York Politics
Ogden Rogers “Brownie” Reid, the six-term former congressman, ambassador, and New York Herald Tribune editor who died recently, was a link to a bygone era.
Reid led an eventful and historic life. He grew up in a McKim, Mead & White-designed stone castle in Purchase, New York, built by his grandfather – himself a Republican powerbroker, ambassador, and 1892 vice presidential nominee. After service in the Army during the Second World War, at the age of 30 in 1955, Brownie assumed leadership of the “family” newspaper, the voice of moderate, internationalist Eastern wing of the GOP. And, like fellow New Yorkers Nelson Rockefeller, Jacob Javits, and John Lindsay, Reid was forced to uncomfortably straddle a Republican party morphing rightward; like Lindsay, he eventually switched parties. [Read more…] about Ogden Reid: A Link to Another Era in New York Politics