New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Schoharie County

Palatines In The Helderbergs: The Zeh and Warner Sawmill

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part of Cockburn’s 1787 survey map The people we call Palatines were displaced during the turmoil of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). More than 13,000 mostly, though exclusively, Protestant Germans from the Middle Rhine region of the Holy Roman Empire first fled to England.

Known then as “Poor Palatines,” opposition to their immigration resulted in nearly 3,000 of them (about a third the size of the population of the city of New York) being sent to the colonial Province of New York in 1710. Many were forced to work off their passages at at work camps on Livingston Manor.  In 1712, more than a hundred other families, sought new lives in the Schoharie Valley, then a frontier between the English, French, and Native People. From there, some moved to the Helderberg Escarpment, in what is now Western Albany County. [Read more…] about Palatines In The Helderbergs: The Zeh and Warner Sawmill

A Historians Podcast Highlights Show

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The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, a Highlights Episode. Jim Kaplan on Rich Rescorla’s heroism in the 2001 World Trade Center attack, Bob Cudmore has stories from his Daily Gazette and Recorder newspaper history columns, Joyce Stah on the history of WMHT’s audio service for the blind, Katie Turner Getty on Britain’s use of prison ships in the American Revolution, Dana Cudmore on exploring caves in Schoharie and Albany counties. [Read more…] about A Historians Podcast Highlights Show

When History Is Wrong: The Albany County ‘Dietz Massacre’

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painting of Dietz Massacre by James DietzDuring the Revolutionary War the little community of Beaver Dam (sometimes spelled Beaverdam) in what is now Berne, Albany County, NY saw little action.

The British and their Indigenous allies repeatedly attacked the communities in the Schoharie Valley to the west however, despite the presence of a large militia and three forts to protect the people of Schoharie. [Read more…] about When History Is Wrong: The Albany County ‘Dietz Massacre’

New York Cave Country (Podcast)

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New York Cave Country includes the caves of The Historians LogoSchoharie and Albany Counties, including the Howe Caverns tourist attraction. Author Dana Cudmore, the author of Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure and Enterprise in New York’s Cave Country (Black Dome Press, 2021), grew up surrounded by an astonishing 150+ caves including world-famous Howe Caverns and Secret Caverns.

Cudmore and friends explored many of them, including some of the spectacular ones that are not public and less well-known, such as Ball’s Cave and Schoharie Caverns in Schoharie County, and Knox Cave in Albany County. Yet to be rediscovered, however, is Lester Howe’s legendary Garden of Eden Cave, which Howe claimed was “bigger and better” than the famous cave he discovered and opened to the public in 1842.

This week on The Historians Podcast, Dana Cudmore talks about the history and economic importance of the caves of New York Cave Country. Hand-in-hand with the story of the caves is the story of the stone and cement quarry that was also built on the region’s unique geology, and the history of the feisty, hardscrabble community that grew up around the original Howes Cave entrance and the quarry. Recently Howe Caverns was sold and reborn as an adventure destination with the reopening of the Howes Cave quarry, and the creation of a new, first-of-its-kind, museum dedicated to these underground empires. [Read more…] about New York Cave Country (Podcast)

Underground Empires: A New History Of New York’s Cave Country

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Underground EmpiresBook purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.

The new book Underground Empires: Two Centuries of Exploration, Adventure & Enterprise in New York’s Cave Country (Black Dome Press, 2021), by Dana Cudmore with foreword by Robert & Johanna Titus, explores the history of caves in Albany and Schoharie Counties, and describes the personal and engineering accomplishments that turned some into popular tourist destinations. [Read more…] about Underground Empires: A New History Of New York’s Cave Country

Early Settlement Above The Helderberg Escarpment

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Detail of John Bleeker made a map of the van Rensselaer's patroonship, Rensselaerswijck, 1767, showing unidentified farms above the Helderberg escarpmentFrom 1630 until the Anti-Rent Movement of the 1840s, most of what is now Albany and Rensselaer Counties, along with parts of Columbia and Greene Counties, was part of the estate of the van Rensselaer family. They leased the land, but did not generally sell it.

Running north-south through Albany County is the Helderberg Escarpment, a vertical limestone cliff hundreds of feet high (Thatcher Park forms a part of this geologic feature) that separates the Hudson Valley lands in the eastern part of the county from the lands to the west, above the cliffs. Because the land above was difficult to reach, and the soils poorer, that area was settled somewhat later by Europeans. [Read more…] about Early Settlement Above The Helderberg Escarpment

A New Book About Schoharie’s Old Stone Fort

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The new book Old Stone Fort – Guardian of Schoharie County History Since 1772 by Jeff O’Connor features over 79 maps, illustrations, and photographs that help narrate the history of one of upstate New York’s oldest and most beloved museums. [Read more…] about A New Book About Schoharie’s Old Stone Fort

Folk Art Kicks Off Old Stone Fort Lecture Series

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painting of Schoharies Old Stone Fort Museum Complex by local folk artist John WilkinsonThe 2020 Lecture Series at the Old Stone Fort Museum is set to kick off on Saturday, January 18 at 2 pm when local folk artist John Wilkinson presents an artist’s talk, exhibition and sale in the Badgley Museum Annex. [Read more…] about Folk Art Kicks Off Old Stone Fort Lecture Series

Old Stone Fort Museum Recognized by MANY

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we were there schoharie countyThe Old Stone Fort Museum has announced that their 2019 community program “We Were There: Schoharie County and the 9/11 Response” will be awarded the Engaging Communities Award as part of the Museum Association of New York’s (MANY) 2020 conference “The Power of Partnership.”

MANY’s Engaging Communities Award recognizes an institution that employs creative methods to engage the community and build new audiences. [Read more…] about Old Stone Fort Museum Recognized by MANY

Featured Collection: Harold Toles’ Schoharie County Photos

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harold toles a sentimental journeyHarold Toles took a lot of pictures. If anything big happened in Schoharie County from 1948 to 1984, Toles was probably there with his camera.

The Old Stone Fort Museum Research Library has more than 150,000 of his negatives in its collection, as well as 13 notebooks recording a description of each shot. [Read more…] about Featured Collection: Harold Toles’ Schoharie County Photos