New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers responded to multiple backcountry incidents from August 18th through August 22nd. These included lost and injured hikers, stranded and injured boaters, an injured cliff jumper and more. [Read more…] about Forest Rangers Respond to Lost, Injured Outdoor Recreationists
Schoharie County
Rangers Respond to Stranded Vehicles, Snowmobile Accident, Schaghticoke Search
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents throughout New York State locating and extracting lost, injured or distressed people and policing state lands.
This report of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers was prepared by DEC: [Read more…] about Rangers Respond to Stranded Vehicles, Snowmobile Accident, Schaghticoke Search
Black Bear Cub Rescued From Leg Hold Trap; Deer Rescued from Entanglement
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) were involved in two recent wildlife rescues, including a black bear cub rescued from a leg hold trap in Schoharie County and a whitetail deer entangled in a rope with another deer in Ulster County. [Read more…] about Black Bear Cub Rescued From Leg Hold Trap; Deer Rescued from Entanglement
Rangers Kept Busy With Hunter, Hiker and Angler Missions
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents throughout New York State locating and extracting lost, injured or distressed people and policing state lands.
This report of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers was prepared by DEC: [Read more…] about Rangers Kept Busy With Hunter, Hiker and Angler Missions
Medical Emergencies Dominate Recent Hiker Rescues
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents throughout New York State locating and extracting lost, injured or distressed people and policing state lands.
This report of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers was prepared by DEC: [Read more…] about Medical Emergencies Dominate Recent Hiker Rescues
Winifred Goldring: America’s Female First State Paleontologist
The latest episode of the A New York Minute in History podcast digs into the life and career of Winifred Goldring (1888-1971), an incredibly prolific scientist who overcame prejudice to become the first female New York State Paleontologist at the New State Museum.
Goldring was born in Kenwood, now part of Albany, NY, and she would eventually go on to become the fifth State Paleontologist of New York and the first female State Paleontologist anywhere in the country. She was also a highly successful educator and innovative exhibit designer and would spend 40 years as a scientist at the State Museum. [Read more…] about Winifred Goldring: America’s Female First State Paleontologist
The Cherry Valley & Great Western Turnpike: A Short History
In the early 1700s the Mohawk Turnpike and the Seneca Turnpike were improved from the rougher Indigenous trails whose routes they utilized into regular, if rough, wagon roads. But it wasn’t until the 1790s that New York State’s turnpike era took off.
This was good news to migrants and local travelers alike, as deep ruts along the former “Indian trails” made transportation impractical and slow. It took days just to go a few miles and the limited number of ferries, bridges and fords often caused wagons to go miles out of their way to get around a lake, river, or creek. [Read more…] about The Cherry Valley & Great Western Turnpike: A Short History
Drought Conditions, Fire Danger High: Wildfires Reported in 10 Upstate Counties
New York State is getting an early start this year on drought conditions and wildfires. Between April 14 and 21, Forest Rangers and local fire departments responded to fires in 10 counties across New York State which burned more than 37 acres of land.
Fires were reported in Albany, Clinton, Greene, Herkimer, Orange, Putnam, Saratoga, Schoharie, Warren, and Washington Counties [Read more…] about Drought Conditions, Fire Danger High: Wildfires Reported in 10 Upstate Counties
The Early Timber Bridge Over Schoharie Creek at Esperance
Although there are gaps in the available historical record concerning Theodore Burr’s 1800 bridge spanning Schoharie Creek at Esperance, there are enough tantalizing facts to encourage continuing research for documents, including drawings. [Read more…] about The Early Timber Bridge Over Schoharie Creek at Esperance
Conservation Officers Charge Several Wildlife Poachers
A Schoharie County man is facing several charges for illegally hunting a black bear in the town of Fulton, one of several men accused of poaching New York State wildlife recently. [Read more…] about Conservation Officers Charge Several Wildlife Poachers
New York State Drought Watch Declared for 15 Counties
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has declared a Drought Watch for 15 New York counties because of a significant shortage of rainfall and declining levels of streamflow and ground water. DEC is encouraging residents in affected counties, particularly those dependent on private groundwater wells, to conserve water whenever possible during the coming weeks. [Read more…] about New York State Drought Watch Declared for 15 Counties
Volume 3 in Schoharie Valley History Trilogy Published
When the Palatines arrived at the Schoharie Valley in 1712, the world they stepped into was a century in the making. This formative period of the valley’s history has never been fully told, nor has the true impact these rebellious German refugees had on pushing New York’s western frontier as far as they did, as fast as they did. Until now.
The three-volume series Skohere and the Birth of New York’s Western Frontier 1609 – 1731 is a trilogy about the Palatines and a biography of the Schoharie Valley and the people and events that helped shape its earliest colonial history. [Read more…] about Volume 3 in Schoharie Valley History Trilogy Published
Mohawk Valley Preparations for the American Revolution
Samuel Adams, using the pseudonym “Valerius Poplicola,” wrote to the Boston Gazette on October 5, 1772: “Let Associations & Combinations be everywhere set up to consult and recover our just Rights.”
A few weeks later he presented his plan to oppose Britain’s “Plan of Slavery” at a meeting in Boston organized for that purpose. This was the birth of the “Committees of Correspondence” or “Committees of Safety” which spread throughout the colonies in early 1773. [Read more…] about Mohawk Valley Preparations for the American Revolution
Henry Baker: A Loyalist Who Resettled in New York
Our home sits on a small knoll within sight of Round Lake on English Road in the town of Clifton Park, in Saratoga County, NY. The original 100-acre farm lot was purchased in 1797 by Henry Baker (1747-1834), a farmer from Halfmoon and his wife Hannah. Baker was a Loyalist that had settled in Halfmoon after the Revolutionary War.
The 1797 deed lists the grantor of Lot three as Janet Smith and Harriet, widow and daughter of the Honorable William Smith (1728 – 1793), a Loyalist, chief Justice of the Province of Lower Canada and previously the Chief Justice of New York from 1780-1782. [Read more…] about Henry Baker: A Loyalist Who Resettled in New York
“Locusts of the East”: The Yankee Invasion of New York
New York by 1820 was becoming a “colony from New England” to use the phrase of President Timothy Dwight of Yale. The “Puritan Pope,” as he was some times called, estimated that 60 to 67 percent of the people of New York had originated in the “land of steady habits.”
The few thousand Puritans who had established a new Zion around Boston in the 1630s were a remarkably energetic, prolific, and self-assertive people. The thin soils on the hilly lands, the harsh winters, and the stern theology of John Calvin created a distinct community spirit and shaped a unique character. [Read more…] about “Locusts of the East”: The Yankee Invasion of New York
Upstate New York Wildfires Keep Rangers Busy
Forest rangers spent several days last week responding to early season out of control fires in Middletown and Stamford in Delaware County, and also in Herkimer, Madison, Schoharie, and Chemung Counties resulting from burning debris in dry conditions. [Read more…] about Upstate New York Wildfires Keep Rangers Busy
The Schoharie Creek Bridges at Esperance, NY
With the conclusion of the War of Independence in 1783, the former colonies, now states, could not move forward commercially or expand westward without new infrastructure, in particular roads and bridges.
Following authorization by state legislatures, these, however, were left to local government and private enterprise to build. [Read more…] about The Schoharie Creek Bridges at Esperance, NY
The Land System of Colonial New York
What follows is a 1917 essay, “The Land System in Colonial New York” by Charles Worthen Spencer published in the Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, (Vol. 16). At the time Spencer was Professor of Political Science at the University of Nevada. It has been annotated by John Warren.
Adequate description, even in outline, of the land system of any community would comprise so much detail, both of governmental policy and practice and of the community’s reaction there-to, that in a paper of this compass only selected features may be referred to. It will be necessary, also, to confine the treatment mainly to the period between 1691 and the opening of the intercolonial war [the French and Indian War] in 1755. [Read more…] about The Land System of Colonial New York
New York Land Grants: Some History Until The American Revolution
Land policy in colonial times in what is now New York State favored nobility and prominent men with connections to the Crown. This involved several countries (The Netherlands, England, and France), several explorers, several early pioneers, and appointed officials who oversaw the disbursement of land by land grants or patents. [Read more…] about New York Land Grants: Some History Until The American Revolution
Gov. William C. Bouck and the Erie Canal: A Friend of Labor
William Christian Bouck was born on the cusp of a new year, January 7th, 1786, but also at the cusp of a new nation emerging on the world stage. Until his death in April of 1859, Bouck was the quintessential “salt of the earth” farmer turned politician and bureaucrat – a man of the new republic.
Born in Fultonham, Schoharie County on lands settled by his Palatine German great-grandfather, Bouck emerged early in life to be devoted to labor. First, manual labor on his father’s family farm, toiling sunrise to sunset or beyond. This limited his education to that of only the local common school, but it’d be noted later in his career that his education was that of experience and observation. [Read more…] about Gov. William C. Bouck and the Erie Canal: A Friend of Labor