As a nationally accredited land trust, the Delaware Highlands Conservancy’s primary responsibility is to ensure that the terms of its conservation easements, set forth to permanently protect each property’s unique conservation values, are being upheld. [Read more…] about Conservancy Responds to Timber Theft on Protected Property
Sullivan County
1969: A Catskills Convention Center Never Built
It was late August of 1968, and the people of Sullivan County, NY were all abuzz about the latest development in a long list of attempts to save their sagging economy.
The county’s Golden Age of Catskills tourism had ended three years before, and although no one likely realized yet how bad things would get before they got better, county officials and resort owners were trying desperately to right the sinking ship. True to form, however, all efforts to do so had been continually thwarted by a difference of opinion as to what course to follow. [Read more…] about 1969: A Catskills Convention Center Never Built
Sullivan County, NY Property Permanently Protected
The Delaware Highlands Conservancy has announced hat 49 acres located in Eldred, in the Town of Highland, Sullivan County, New York are now permanently protected with a conservation easement held by the Conservancy. [Read more…] about Sullivan County, NY Property Permanently Protected
Catskills’ Brickman Hotel Story Told in New Book
Shortly after emigrating from Russia in 1908, Abraham and Molly Brickman fled the overcrowded tenements of New York City and purchased land in the Catskills just outside South Fallsburg, in Sullivan County, NY. [Read more…] about Catskills’ Brickman Hotel Story Told in New Book
The 1952 Vacation Boom in Sullivan County
In 1952 the bungalow industry in Sullivan County, NY, believed to be the largest in New York State, reported that rentals for the summer were at 100 per cent, “the greatest season in its history.”
Likewise, during the peak summer season the county’s hotels “had not a single room to spare.” The Liberty Register newspaper reported in its September 11 edition that year that “the county’s 534 resort hotels — the largest concentration of such hotels in the world — with 34,000 rooms, operated at 100 per cent capacity.” [Read more…] about The 1952 Vacation Boom in Sullivan County
Catskill Fish Hatchery: Home of Historic Trout Fishing
In the 1890s as the Catskills was becoming a very popular summer resort, in part due to the service provided by the New York, Ontario and Western Railway (O&W), the people of Sullivan County sought to have their own fish hatchery. [Read more…] about Catskill Fish Hatchery: Home of Historic Trout Fishing
Sullivan County Museum Weekend Set for July 29-30
A Sullivan County Museum Weekend will be held on Saturday and Sunday, July 29th and 30th. Nine museums across Sullivan County, NY are joining together on this weekend to offer an open invitation (and free admission) for all Sullivan County residents to explore their county’s long and rich history. [Read more…] about Sullivan County Museum Weekend Set for July 29-30
The Execution of Noah Bigelow
On July 15, 1869, Noah Bigelow of North Branch in the town of Callicoon, NY, became the third man to be hanged for murder in Sullivan County’s history.
Just three days earlier, New York Governor John T. Hoffman had announced that he would not commute Bigelow’s sentence, saying that the sentence was just and that he “had no right to set aside the provisions of the law, even if the culprit was weak of intellect.” [Read more…] about The Execution of Noah Bigelow
The Ice Pick Murder of Gangster Walter Sage
Late in the afternoon of Friday, June 21, 1940, a jury of 11 men and one woman delivered a verdict in one of the most famous trials ever conducted in Sullivan County Court. They found Irving “Big Gangi” Cohen not guilty in the ice pick murder of gangster Walter Sage nearly three years before. [Read more…] about The Ice Pick Murder of Gangster Walter Sage
Fort Delaware: An Early Theme Park, Now A Museum
Although some consider California’s Disneyland, which opened in 1955, to be the first American theme park — not to be confused with an amusement park, which dates back far earlier — most argue that the first was actually Santa Claus Land in Santa Claus, Indiana, which opened in 1946. [Read more…] about Fort Delaware: An Early Theme Park, Now A Museum