News and Views from the Empire State
Improvements to the Kenneth L. Wilson Campground and Day Use Area in Ulster County have been completed.
Updates to the campground’s shower house and three comfort stations include several accessible features to make camping fun for people of all abilities, will help connect more New Yorkers to the outdoors and reduce the facility’s environmental footprint. [Read more…] about Accessibility Improvements Made At Wilson Campground
The Time and the Valleys Museum in the Catskills, has announced a virtual program The Story of New Netherland: Dutch Colony 1624 – 1664, set to be held on ZOOM on Sunday, July 12th, with historian and former teacher Thomas Riley of New Jersey. [Read more…] about Story of New Netherland Virtual Talk
Historic Huguenot Street is presenting a new online exhibit, Jane Deyo Wynkoop. Wynkoop is believed to be the first African American — man or woman — to buy land in the Village of New Paltz, in Ulster County, New York. [Read more…] about New Paltz’s Jane Deyo Wynkoop Exhibit Goes Online
According to a report issued by DEC, on May 7th, a retired New York State Trooper fishing on the Hudson River near the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge observed a gill net with several striped bass being hauled into a small vessel. [Read more…] about Striped Bass Poachers Caught with Gill Net
Late in the month of January in 1840, Elnathan Sears returned home to the town of Mamakating, then part of Ulster County, NY, after an exhausting trip to Washington, D.C. There he had presented an impassioned argument to Congress in hopes of procuring the military pension he had earned as an officer in the Revolutionary War.
A few days later, on February 2, he was dead. [Read more…] about Elnathan Sears: Thirteen Months in Hell
A direct descendant of French Huguenots who settled New Paltz in 1678, Kenneth E. Hasbrouck Sr. had an important influence on Ulster County local history. He served as County Historian, Town of Gardiner Historian and was a founder and president of the Huguenot Historical Society (HHS). [Read more…] about Historian Spotlight: Ulster County’s Ken Hasbrouck
When you enter the hamlet of Wallkill, you are greeted by the happy face of the Borden Company’s mascot, Elsie the Cow. The company’s website states that this mascot dates to the 1930s.
Underneath Elsie is a sign stating that the Hamlet of Wallkill was the location the “Home Farm” of John G. Borden. Thus, many commonly believe that Borden Condensed Milk was in fact invented in the Hamlet of Wallkill; however, its origins can be traced to Burrville, Connecticut and Gail Borden, Jr. Actually, the business was not originally called Borden at all – that title would come later. [Read more…] about Everyone Knows Elsie: A Short Borden Company History
General George Washington, Governor George Clinton and Lord Stirling all knew about Anthony’s Nose. Not because it was part of someone’s anatomy, but because it was a prominent feature along the Hudson River, the highest place in Westchester County. Anthony’s Nose resembles a person’s nose when viewed in profile from the Hudson River, and so was a well known landmark.
Anthony’s Nose was also strategically important. [Read more…] about Hudson River Chain, Anthony’s Nose, and the American Revolution
Ulster County Transportation Council (UCTC), in partnership with the Village of New Paltz, Wallkill Valley Land Trust, and Historic Huguenot Street, has announced the beginning of a planning and community engagement process addressing the future use and design of the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail in the Village of New Paltz. [Read more…] about Wallkill Valley Rail Trail Meetings Planned
New Ulster County Historian Geoff Miller spent his first year getting the lay of the land, and getting to know his fellow local historians.
As a follow-up, he helped convene a team of municipal historians and county historical society members to organize an Ulster County history conference.
The theme was resources (not local history stories) and addressed the resources available to the history community of Ulster County at the state, regional, and county level. [Read more…] about Lessons From Ulster County’s History Conference