History, Natural History & the Arts
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents throughout New York State. 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 Forest Rangers Have Busy Week Making Rescues Around New York State
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents throughout New York State. 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 Forest Rangers Rescue Hikers Near Lake George, In The Catskills & Shawangunk Ridge
A 54-year old New York City man was rescued after falling into a deep crevice in a New York State Park, according to Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers. [Read more…] about NYC Man Rescued After 50-Foot Fall Into Crevice At State Park
Three wildfires are burning on or near the Shawangunk Ridge in Ulster County, including at at Naponach Point in Minnewaska State Park.
The three blazes in the Shawangunk fire complex include the Napanoch Point fire in Minnewaska State Park, which started Sunday afternoon as a result of a suspected lightning strike and is estimated at 270 acres on Wednesday afternoon. A smaller fire approximately two miles east of the Napanoch Point fire, named Stony Kill, was detected on Monday, grew to about 1.5 acres and was 95% contained on Wednesday afternoon. The Wurtsboro fire in the town of Mamakating was reported early Saturday afternoon and was approximately 70 acres on Tuesday afternoon. [Read more…] about The Shawangunk Fire Complex: Active Wildfires in Minnewaska State Park
Author Ronald Knapp is set to give a presentation: Shawangunk Ridge and Towns: Then and Now on Sunday, November 24, at 2 pm at the Time and the Valleys Museum on St. Rt. 55 in Grahamsville, Sullivan County.
Based on his book, The Gunks: (Shawangunk Mountains) Ridge and Valley Towns Through Time (America Through Time, 2015), Knapp will discuss the Gunks, renowned for stunning landscapes, rugged topography, glistening grey-white escarpments, magnificent Victorian hotels and precipitation-fed lakes, and framed by the valleys of the Rondout Creek and the Wallkill River. While focusing on the ridge, his talk will explore the mutually beneficial economic impacts of other historical developments in the valleys. [Read more…] about Shawangunk Ridge Author Talk in Sullivan County
It was once without question the best known ghost story set in Sullivan County, written by one of America’s most respected writers, and yet it is largely unknown today.
It combines detailed descriptions of the rich and bountiful beauty of this area in the 19th century with cleverly conceived ghouls as hideous as any in American literature.
It is Washington Irving’s 1838 short story “Hans Swartz: A Marvelous Tale of Mamakating Hollow” and it is still appropriate reading this Halloween season, more than 170 years after it was penned. [Read more…] about Washington Irving’s Spooky Tale of Mamakating Hollow
Situated in the scenic Hudson Valley, Ulster County is a lovely location to make a home and raise a family, but it wasn’t always so pleasant. Unsavory characters and immoral events have sullied its name.
In the 1870s, the Shawangunk Mountains inspired fear rather than awe, as groups like the Lyman Freer and Shawangunk gangs robbed and terrorized locals, descending from the protection of the wooded peaks. Kingston was torched, arson blazed in Kerhonkson and even the Mohonk Mountain House was threatened by flames. In 1909, the Ashokan Slasher’s bloody crimes and sensational trial captured headlines across the country. A.J. Schenkman’s Wicked Ulster County: Tales of Desperadoes, Gangs and More features these and other salacious stories buried in Ulster County’s history. [Read more…] about Wicked Ulster County: Tales of Desperadoes
When I was a boy I worked on a farm in Little Neck, Queens in New York City. It was the only working farm left in Queens. The land was originally settled by a Dutch family. Every morning I would awake and bike from one side of Queens to the other. There I would feed ducks, cows, till, gather eggs, and eat my lunch under a huge tree or when it rained in the barn. [Read more…] about Lower Hudson Valley History: Stories on the Wind
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and the Palisades Interstate Park Commission have adopted a master plan for Minnewaska State Park Preserve. State Parks has reinstated the master planning process throughout the park system, and Minnewaska State Park is among the first to complete a new master plan. Park master plans define a long-term, sustainable vision for parks by helping to identify best uses for a specific site, make the most of limited resources, and protect the environment.
The Minnewaska master plan includes natural resource protection measures and more avenues for recreation, including expansion of hiking, biking, equestrian and climbing opportunities, and reuse of the former Phillips House as the preserve office and visitor center. [LINK]
The master plan outlines OPRHP’s vision for potential capital improvements, operational enhancements and natural and cultural resource stewardship within Minnewaska State Park for the next ten to fifteen years. Factors such as the availability of funding, the need to invest in rehabilitation of existing park infrastructure, and other pressing needs in the entire state parks system will influence the sequence and timing of the improvements.
Highlights of the plan include:
• Developing a climbing management plan to indicate additional areas suitable for rock climbing;
• Creating a looped single track mountain bike trail system and enhancing the existing woods roads for hiking and horseback riding;
• Implementing ridgewide efforts focused on fire management, deer impacts on biodiversity and invasive species control; and
• Reusing the former Phillips House as the preserve office and visitor center and improving parking lot designs.