Leaving the Poughkeepsie dock the steamer
approaches the Poughkeepsie Bridge which, from Blue Point
and miles below, has seemed to the traveler like a delicate
bit of lace-work athwart the landscape, or like an
old-fashioned "valance" which used to hang from Dutch
bedsteads in the Hudson River farm houses. This great
cantilever structure was begun in 1873, but abandoned for
several years. The work was resumed in 1886 just in time to
save the charter, and was finished by the Union Bridge
Company in less than three years. The bridge is 12,608 feet
in length (or about two miles and a half), the track being
212 feet above the water with 165 feet clear above the tide
in the centre span. The breadth of the river at this point
is 3,094 feet. The bridge originally cost over three million
dollars and much more has been annually spent in necessary
improvements. It not only affords a delightful passenger
route between Philadelphia and Boston, but also brings the
coal centers of Pennsylvania to the very threshold of New
England. Two railroads from the east centre here, and what
was once considered an idle dream, although bringing
personal loss to many stockholders, has been of material
advantage to the city.
As the steamer passes under the bridge the traveler will see
on the left Highland station (West Shore Railroad) and above
this the old landing of New Paltz. A well traveled road
winds from the ferry and the station, up a narrow defile by
the side of a dashing stream, broken here and there in
waterfalls, to Highland Village, New Paltz and Lake Mohonk.
The Bridge and Trolley Line from Poughkeepsie make a most
delightful excursion to New Paltz, on the Wallkill, seat of
one of the State normal colleges.
Prominent among many pleasant residences above Poughkeepsie
are: Mrs. F. J. Allen's of New York, Mrs. John F. Winslow's,
Mrs. Thomas Newbold's, J. Roosevelt's and Archie Rogers'.
The large red buildings above the Poughkeepsie water works
are the Hudson River State Hospital. Passing Crum Elbow
Point on the left and the Sisters of the White Cross Orphan
Asylum, we see
Hyde Park
Hyde Park, 80 miles from New York, on the
east bank, named some say, in honor of Lady
Ann Hyde; according to others, after Sir
Edward Hyde, one of the early British
Governors of the colony. The first prominent
place above Hyde Park, is Frederick W.
Vanderbilt's, with Corinthian columns; and
above this "Placentia," once the home of
James K. Paulding.
Immediately opposite "Placentia," at West
Park on the west bank, is the home of John
Burroughs, our sweetest essayist, the
nineteenth century's "White of Selborne."
Judge Barnard of Poughkeepsie, once said to
the author of this handbook, "The best
writer America has produced after Hawthorne
is John Burroughs; I wish I could see him."
It so happened that there had been an
important "bank" suit a day or two previous
in Poughkeepsie which was tried before the
judge in which Mr. Burroughs had appeared as
an important witness. The judge was reminded
of this fact when he remarked with a few
emphatic words, the absence of which seems
to materially weaken the sentence: "Was that
Burroughs? Well, well, I wish I had known
it."
Mount Hymettus
Mount
Hymettus, overlooking West Park, so named by
"the author and naturalist," has indeed been
to him a successful hunting-ground for bees
and wild honey, and will be long remembered
for sweeter stores of honey encombed and
presented in enduring type. Washington
Irving says of the early poets of Britain
that "a spray could not tremble in the
breeze, or a leaf rustle to the ground, that
was not seen by these delicate observers and
wrought up into some beautiful morality." So
John Burroughs has studied the Hudson in all
its moods, knowing ing well that it is not
to be wooed and won in a single day. How
clear this is seen in his articles on "Our
River":
"Rivers are as various in their forms as
forest trees. The Mississippi is like an oak
with enormous branches. What a branch is the
Red River, the Arkansas, the Ohio, the
Missouri! The Hudson is like the pine or
poplar—mainly trunk. From New York to Albany
there is only an inconsiderable limb or two,
and but few gnarls and excrescences. Cut off
the Rondout, the Esopus, the Catskill and
two or three similar tributaries on the east
side, and only some twigs remain. There are
some crooked places, it is true, but, on the
whole, the Hudson presents a fine,
symmetrical shaft that would be hard to
match in any river in the world. Among our
own water-courses it stands preeminent. The
Columbia—called by Major Winthrop the
Achilles of rivers—is a more haughty and
impetuous stream; the Mississippi is, of
course, vastly larger and longer; the St.
Lawrence would carry the Hudson as a trophy
in his belt and hardly know the difference;
yet our river is doubtless the most
beautiful of them all. It pleases like a
mountain lake. It has all the sweetness and
placidity that go with such bodies of water,
on the one hand, and all their bold and
rugged scenery on the other. In summer, a
passage up or down its course in one of the
day steamers is as near an idyll of travel
as can be had, perhaps, anywhere in the
world. Then its permanent and uniform
volume, its fullness and equipoise at all
seasons, and its gently-flowing currents
give it further the character of a lake, or
of the sea itself. Of the Hudson it may be
said that it is a very large river for its
size,—that is for the quantity of water it
discharges into the sea. Its watershed is
comparatively small—less, I think, than that
of the Connecticut. It is a huge trough with
a very slight incline, through which the
current moves very slowly, and which would
fill from the sea were its supplies from the
mountains cut off. Its fall from Albany to
the bay is only about five feet. Any object
upon it, drifting with the current,
progresses southward no more than eight
miles in twenty-four hours. The ebb-tide
will carry it about twelve miles and the
flood set it back from seven to nine. A drop
of water at Albany, therefore, will be
nearly three weeks in reaching New York,
though it will get pretty well pickled some
days earlier. Some rivers by their volume
and impetuosity penetrate the sea, but here
the sea is the aggressor, and sometimes
meets the mountain water nearly half way.
This fact was illustrated a couple of years
ago, when the basin of the Hudson was
visited by one of the most severe droughts
ever known in this part of the State. In the
early winter after the river was frozen over
above Poughkeepsie, it was discovered that
immense numbers of fish were retreating up
stream before the slow encroachment of salt
water. There was a general exodus of the
finny tribes from the whole lower part of
the river; it was like the spring and fall
migration of the birds, or the fleeing of
the population of a district before some
approaching danger: vast swarms of cat-fish,
white and yellow perch and striped bass were
en route for the fresh water farther north.
When the people along shore made the
discovery, they turned out as they do in the
rural districts when the pigeons appear,
and, with small gill-nets let down through
holes in the ice, captured them in fabulous
numbers. On the heels of the retreating
perch and cat-fish came the denizens of the
salt water, and codfish were taken ninety
miles above New York. When the February thaw
came and brought up the volume of fresh
water again, the sea brine was beaten back,
and the fish, what were left of them,
resumed their old feeding-grounds.
It is this character of the Hudson, this
encroachment of the sea upon it, on account
of the subsidence of the Atlantic coast,
that led Professor Newberry to speak of it
as a drowned river. We have heard of drowned
lands, but here is a river overflowed and
submerged in the same manner. It is quite
certain, however, that this has not always
been the character of the Hudson. Its great
trough bears evidence of having been worn to
its present dimensions by much swifter and
stronger currents than those that course
through it now. To this gradual subsidence
in connection with the great changes wrought
by the huge glacier that crept down from the
north during what is called the ice period,
is owing the character and aspects of the
Hudson as we see and know them. The Mohawk
Valley was filled up by the drift, the Great
Lakes scooped out, and an opening for their
pent-up waters found through what is now the
St. Lawrence. The trough of the Hudson was
also partially filled and has remained so to
the present day. There is, perhaps, no point
in the river where the mud and clay are not
from two to three times as deep as the
water. That ancient and grander Hudson lies
back of us several hundred thousand
years—perhaps more, for a million years are
but as one tick of the time-piece of the
Lord; yet even it was a juvenile compared
with some of the rocks and mountains which
the Hudson of to-day mirrors. The Highlands
date from the earliest geological race—the
primary; the river—the old river—from the
latest, the tertiary; and what that
difference means in terrestrial years hath
not entered into the mind of man to
conceive. Yet how the venerable mountains
open their ranks for the stripling to pass
through. Of course, the river did not force
its way through this barrier, but has
doubtless found an opening there of which it
has availed itself, and which it has
enlarged. In thinking of these things, one
only has to allow time enough, and the most
stupendous changes in the topography of the
country are as easy and natural as the going
out or the coming in of spring or summer.
According to the authority above referred
to, that part of our coast that flanks the
mouth of the Hudson is still sinking at the
rate of a few inches per century, so that in
the twinkling of a hundred thousand years or
so, the sea will completely submerge the
city of New York, the top of Trinity Church
steeple alone standing above the flood. We
who live so far inland, and sigh for the
salt water, need only to have a little
patience, and we shall wake up some fine
morning and find the surf beating upon our
door-steps."
How strange it seems in these brief years
since 1880 to read of "Trinity Church
steeple standing alone above the flood" as
the rising tide of New York skyscrapers has
long since overtopped the old landmark and
is sweeping higher and higher day by day.
The Frothingham residence and Frothingham
dock are south of the Burroughs cottage. The
late General Butterfield's house immediately
to the north. The old Astor place (once
known as Waldorf), is also near at hand. In
our analysis of the Hudson we refer to the
hills above and below Poughkeepsie as "The
Picturesque." Any one walking or driving
from Highland Village to West Park will feel
that this is a proper distinction. The
Palisades are distinguished for "grandeur"
which might be defined as "horizontal
sublimity." The Highlands for "sublimity"
which might be termed "perpendicular
grandeur;" the Catskills for "beauty," with
their rounded form and ever changing hues,
but the river scenery about Poughkeepsie
abides in our memories as a series of bright
and charming "pictures." North of Waldorf is
Pelham, consisting of 1,200 acres, one of
the largest fruit farms in the world.
Passing Esopus Island, which seems like a
great stranded and petrified whale, along
whose sides often cluster Lilliputian-like
canoeists, we see Brown's Dock on the west
bank at the mouth of Black Creek, which
rises eight miles from Newburgh on the
eastern slope of the Plaaterkill Mountains.
Flowing through Black Pond, known by the
Dutch settlers as the "Grote Binnewater," it
cascades its way along the southern slope of
the Shaupeneak Mountains to Esopus Village,
a cross-road hamlet, and thence carries to
the Hudson its waters dark-stained by
companionship with trees of hemlock and
cedar growth. The Pell property extends on
the west bank to Pell's Dock, almost
opposite the Staatsburgh ice houses. Mrs.
Livingston's residence will now be seen on
the east bank, and just above this the home
of the late William B. Dinsmore on Dinsmore
Point. Passing Vanderberg Cove, cut off from
the river by the tracks of the New York
Central Railroad, we see the residence of
Jacob Ruppert, and above this the Frinck
mansion known as "Windercliffe," formerly
the property of E. R. Jones, and next beyond
the house of Robert Suckly. Passing
Ellerslie Dock we see "Ellerslie," the
palatial summer home of ex-Vice-President
Levi P. Morton, an estate of six hundred
acres, formerly owned by the Hon. William
Kelly. Along the western bank extend the
Esopus meadows, a low flat, covered by
water, the southern end of which is marked
by the Esopus light-house. To the west rises
Hussey's Mountain, about one thousand feet
in height, from under whose eastern slope
two little ponds, known as Binnewaters, send
another stream to join Black Creek before it
flows into the Hudson. Port Ewen on the west
bank, with ice houses and brick yards, will
be seen by steamer passengers below the
mouth of Rondout Creek.
Rhinecliff, 90 miles from New York. The
village of Rhinebeck, two miles east of the
landing, is not seen from the river. It was
named, as some contend, by combining two
words—Beekman and Rhine. Others say that the
word beck means cliff, and the town was so
named from the resemblance of the cliffs to
those of the Rhine. There are many
delightful drives in and about Rhinebeck, "Ellerslie"
being only about eight minutes by carriage
from the landing.
The Philadelphia & Reading Rhinebeck Branch
meets the Hudson at Rhinecliff, and makes a
pleasant and convenient tourist or business
route between the Hudson and the
Connecticut. It passes through a delightful
country and thriving rural villages. Some of
the views along the Roeliffe Jansen's Kill
are unrivaled in quiet beauty. The railroad
passes through Rhinebeck, Red Hook, Spring
Lake, Ellerslie, Jackson Corners, Mount
Ross, Gallatinville, Ancram, Copake, Boston
Corners, and Mount Riga to State Line
Junction, and gives a person a good idea of
the counties of Dutchess and Columbia. At
Boston Corners connection is made with the
Harlem Railroad.
From State Line Junction it passes through
Ore Hill, Lakeville with its beautiful lake
(an evening view of which is still hung in
our memory gallery of sunset sketches),
Salisbury, Chapinville, and Twin Lakes to
Canaan, where the line crosses the
Housatonic Railroad. This route, therefore,
is the easiest and pleasantest for
Housatonic visitors en route to the
Catskills. From Canaan the road rises by
easy grade to the summit, at an elevation of
1,400 feet, passing through the village of
Norfolk, with its picturesque New England
church crowning the village hill, and thence
to Simsbury and Hartford.
City of Kingston
The City of Kingston.—Rondout and Kingston
gradually grew together until the bans were
performed in 1878, and a "bow-knot" tied at
the top of the hill in the shape of a city
hall, making them one corporation.
The name Rondout had its derivation from a
redoubt that was built on the banks of the
creek. The creek took the name of Redoubt
Kill, afterward Rundoubt, and at last
Rondout. Kingston was once called Esopus.
(The Indian name for the spot where the city
now stands was At-kar-karton, the great plot
or meadow on which they raised corn or
beans.)
Kingston and Rondout were both settled in
1614, and old Kingston, known by the Dutch
as Wiltwyck, was thrice destroyed by the
Indians before the Revolution. In 1777 the
State legislature met here and formed a
constitution. In the fall of the same year,
after the capture of Fort Montgomery and
Fort Clinton by the British, Vaughan landed
at Rondout, marched to Kingston, and burned
the town. While Kingston was burning, the
inhabitants fled to Hurley, where a small
force of Americans hung a messenger who was
caught carrying dispatches from Clinton to
Burgoyne.
Rondout is the termination of the Delaware
and Hudson Canal (whence canal boats of coal
find their way from the Pennsylvania
Mountains to tidewater), also of the Ulster
and Delaware Railroad, by which people find
their way from tidewater to the Catskill
Mountains, which have greeted the eye of the
tourist for many miles down the Hudson.
Originally all of the country-side in this
vicinity was known as Esopus, supposed to be
derived, according to Ruttenber, from the
Indian word "seepus," a river. A "sopus
Indian" was a Lowlander, and the name is
intimately connected with a long reach of
territory from Esopus Village, near West
Park, to the mouth of the Esopus at
Saugerties. In 1675 the mouth of the Rondout
Creek was chosen by the New Netherland
Company as one of the three fortified
trading ports on the Hudson; a stockade was
built under the guidance of General
Stuyvesant in 1661 inclosing the site of old
Kingston; a charter was granted in 1658
under the name of Wiltwyck, but changed in
1679 to Kingston. Few cities are so well off
for old-time houses that span the century,
and there is no congregation probably in the
United States that has worshipped so many
consecutive years in the same spot as the
Dutch Reformed people of Kingston. Five
buildings have succeeded the log church of
240 years ago. Dr. Van Slyke, in a recent
welcome, said: "This church, which opens her
doors to you, claims a distinction which
does not belong even to the Collegiate Dutch
Churches of Manhattan Island, and, by a
peculiar history, stands identified more
closely with Holland than any other of the
early churches of this country. When every
other church of our communion had for a long
time been associated with an American Synod,
this church retained its relations to the
Classis of Amsterdam, and, after a period of
independency and isolation, it finally
allied itself with its American sisterhood
as late as the year 1808. We still have
three or four members whose life began
before that date."
Dominie Blom was the first preacher in
Kingston. The church where he preached and
the congregation that gathered to hear him
have been tenderly referred to by the Rev.
Dr. Belcher:
"They've
journeyed on from touch and tone;
No more their ears shall hear
The war-whoop wild, or sad death moan,
Or words of fervid prayer;
But the deeds they did and plans they
planned,
And paths of blood they trod,
Have blessed and brightened all this land
And hallowed it for God."
The Senate House
The Senate
House, built in 1676 by Wessel Ten Broeck,
who would seem by his name to have stepped
bodily out of a chapter of Knickerbocker,
was "burned" but not "down," for its walls
stood firm. It was afterwards repaired, and
sheltered many dwellers, among others,
General Armstrong, secretary of war under
President Madison. The Provincial Convention
met in the court house at Kingston in 1777
and the Constitution was formally announced
April 22d of that year. The first court was
held here September 9th and the first
legislature September 10th. Adjourning
October 7th, they convened again August
18th, 1779, and in 1780, from April 22d to
July 2d, also for two months beginning
January 27, 1783.
It was in the yard in front of the court
house that the Constitution of the State was
proclaimed by Robert Berrian, the secretary
of the Constitutional Convention, and it was
there that George Clinton, the first
Governor of the State, was inaugurated and
took the oath of office. It was in the court
house that John Jay, chief justice,
delivered his memorable charge to the grand
jury in September, 1777, and at the opening
said: "Gentlemen, it affords me very
sensible pleasure to congratulate you on the
dawn of that free, mild, and equal
government which now begins to rise and
break from amidst the clouds of anarchy,
confusion and licentiousness, which the
arbitrary and violent domination of the King
of Great Britain has spread, in greater or
less degree, throughout this and other
American states. And it gives me particular
satisfaction to remark that the first fruits
of our excellent Constitution appear in a
part of this State whose inhabitants have
distinguished themselves by having
unanimously endeavored to deserve them." The
court house bell was originally imported
from Holland.
The burning of Kingston seemed unnecessarily
cruel, and it is said that Vaughan was wide
of the truth when, to justify the same, he
claimed that he had been fired upon from
dwellings in the village. General Sharpe in
his address before the Holland Society says:
"The history of this county begins to be
interesting at the earliest stages of
American history: Visited by Dutchmen in
1614, and again in 1620, it was in the very
earliest Colonial history, one of the strong
places of the Province of New York. The
British museum contains the report of the
Rev. John Miller, written in the year 1695,
who, after 'having been nearly three years
resident in the Province of New York, in
America, as chaplain of His Majesty's forces
there, and constantly attending the
Governor, had opportunity of observing many
things of considerable consequence in
relation to the Christians and Indians, and
had also taken the drafts of all the cities,
towns, forts and churches of any note within
the same.' These are his own words, and he
adds that in the Province of New York 'the
places of strength are chiefly three, the
city of New York, the city of Albany, and
the town of Kingstone, in Ulster.' The east,
north and west fronts ran along elevations
overlooking the lowlands and having a
varying altitude of from twenty to thirty
feet. The enclosure comprehended about
twenty-five acres of land. There were
salient's, or horn works at each end of the
four angles, with a circular projection at
the middle of the westerly side, where the
elevation was less than upon the northerly
and easterly sides. The church standing upon
the ground where we now are, was enclosed
with a separate stockade, to be used as the
last resort in case of disaster, and,
projecting from this separate fortification,
a strong block-house commanded and enfiladed
the approaches to the southerly side, which
was a plain. The local history is of
continued and dramatic interest. The Indian
wars were signalized by a great uprising and
attack here, which was known as the war of
1663, when a considerable number of the
inhabitants were killed, a still larger
number were taken prisoners, and about
one-fourth of the houses were burned to the
ground. Reinforcements were sent by the
governor-general from New Amsterdam,
followed by his personal presence, when the
Indians were driven back to the mountains,
and, after a tedious campaign, their fields
destroyed and the prisoners recaptured. When
the next great crisis in our history came
Kingston bore a conspicuous part. It was the
scene of the formation of the State
Government. The Constitution was here
discussed and adopted. George Clinton was
called from the Highlands, where, as a
brigadier-general of the Continental army,
he was commanding all the forces upon the
Hudson River, which were opposing the
attempts of Sir Henry Clinton to reach the
northern part of the State and relieve
Burgoyne, hemmed in by Gates at Saratoga. He
was the ideal war governor—unbuckling his
sword in the court room, that he might take
the oath of office, and returning,
immediately after the simple form of his
inauguration, to his command upon the Hudson
River.
"The court house, standing opposite to us,
and rebuilt upon its old foundations, and
occupying, substantially, the same
superficies of ground with its predecessors,
recalls the dramatic scene where, surrounded
by the council of safety, and in a square
formed by two companies of soldiers, he was
proclaimed Governor by Egbert Dumond, the
sheriff of the county, reading his
proclamation from the top of a barrel, and
closing it with the words 'God save the
people,' for the first time taking the place
of 'God save the King.' The only building in
any way connected with the civil foundation
of this great State is still standing, and
presents the same appearance that it did at
the time of its erection, prior to the year
1690. It was subsequently occupied by
General Armstrong, who, while residing here
for the better education of his children, in
Kingston Academy, was appointed minister to
France. Aaron Burr, then in attendance upon
court, spent an evening with General
Armstrong, at his house, and, having
observed the merit of sundry sketches, made
inquiry with regard to, and interested
himself in the fate of John Vanderlyn, who
afterwards painted the Landing of Columbus
in the Capitol, and Marius upon the Ruins of
Carthage—which attracted the attention of
the elder Napoleon, and established
Vanderlyn's fame. There are more than forty
blue limestone houses of the general type
found in Holland, still standing to-day,
which were built before the revolutionary
period, and many of them before the year
1700."
Coal, cement and blue-stone are the
prominent industries of the city. The cement
works yield several million dollars annually
and employ about two thousand men. A million
tons of coal enter the Hudson via the Port
of Rondout from the Wyoming Valley of
Pennsylvania every year. Blue-stone also
meets tide-water at this point, brought in
from quarries throughout the country by rail
or by truck. The city of Kingston, the
largest station on the West Shore between
Weehawken and Albany, has admirable railroad
facilities connecting with the Erie Railway
at Goshen via the Wallkill Valley, and the
Catskills via the Ulster & Delaware. All
roads centre at the Union Station and the
Ulster & Delaware connects at Kingston Point
with the Hudson River Day Line, also with
the New York Central by ferry from
Rhinebeck.
To the Catskills.—The two principal routes to the Catskills are via Kingston and the Ulster & Delaware Railroad, and via Catskill Landing, the Catskill Mountain Railway and Otis Elevating Railway to the summit of the mountains. It has occurred to the writer to divide the mountain section in two parts:
The Southern Catskills
The Southern Catskills.—Kingston Point,
where the steamer lands is indeed a
picturesque portal to a picturesque journey.
The beautiful park at the landing presents
the most beautiful frontage of any pleasure
ground along the river. Artistic pagodas
located at effective points add greatly to
the natural landscape effect, and
excursionists via Day Line from Albany have
a delightful spot for lunch and recreation
while waiting for the return steamer. In the
busy months of mountain travel it is
interesting to note the rush and hurry
between the landing of the steamer and the
departure of the train. The "all aboard" is
given, and as we stand on the rear platform
a friend points north to a bluff near
Kingston Point and says the Indian name is "Ponckhockie"—signifying
a burial ground. The old redoubts of
Kingston, on the left, were defenses used in
early days against the Indians.
After leaving Kingston Union Depot, the most
important station on the West Shore
Railroad, and the terminus of the Wallkill
Valley Railroad, we pass through Stony
Hollow, eight miles from Rondout, where the
traveler will note the stone tracks in the
turnpike below, on the right side of the
car, used by quarry wagons. Crossing the
Stony Hollow ravine, we reach West Hurley,
nine miles from Rondout and 540 feet above
the sea.
The Overlook commands an extensive
view,—with an area of 30,000 square miles,
from the peaks of New Hampshire and the
Green Mountains of Vermont to the hills of
New Jersey and Pennsylvania. To the east the
valley reaches away with its towns and
villages to the blue hills of Massachusetts
and Connecticut, and, through this beautiful
valley, the Hudson for a hundred miles is
reduced to a mere ribbon of light.
Woodstock, at the foot of the Overlook, is
popular with summer visitors, and is a good
starting point for the mountain outlook.
Olive Branch is the pretty name of the
station above West Hurley. Temple Pond, at
the foot of Big Toinge Mountain, covers
about one hundred acres, and affords boating
and fishing to those visiting the foothills
of the Southern Catskills.
Brown's Station is three miles beyond, and
near at hand Winchell's Falls on the Esopus.
The Esopus Creek comes in view near this
station for the first time after leaving
Kingston. The route now has pleasant
companionship for twenty miles or more with
the winding stream.
Brodhead's Bridge is delightfully located on
its wooded banks near the base of High
Point, and near at hand is a bright cascade
known as Bridal Veil Falls.
Shokan, 18 miles from Rondout. Here the road
takes a northerly course and we are advised
by Mr. Van Loan's guide to notice on the
left "a group of five mountains forming a
crescent; the peaks of these mountains are
four miles distant;" the right-hand one is
the "Wittenberg," and the next "Mount
Cornell." Boiceville and Mount Pleasant, 700
feet above the Hudson, are next reached. We
enter the beautiful Shandaken Valley, and
three miles of charming mountain scenery
bring us to—
Phœnicia, 29 miles from Rondout and 790 feet
above the Hudson. This is one of the central
points of the Catskills which the mountain
streams (nature's engineers), indicated
several thousand years ago. Readers of
"Hiawatha" will remember that Gitche
Manitou, the mighty, traced with his finger
the way the streams and rivers should run.
The tourist will be apt to think that he
used his thumb in marking out the wild
grandeur of Stony Clove. The Tremper House
has a picturesque location in a charming
valley, which seems to have been cut to fit,
like a beautiful carpet, and tacked down to
the edge of these grand old mountains. A
fifteen minutes' walk up Mount Tremper gives
a wide view, from which the Lake Mohonk
House is sometimes seen, forty miles away.
Phœnicia is one of the most important
stations on the line—the southern terminus
of the Stony Clove and Catskill Mountain
division of the Ulster & Delaware system.
Keeping to the main line for the present we
pass through Allaben, formerly known as Fox
Hollow, and come to—
Shandaken, 35 miles from Rondout and 1,060
feet in altitude, an Indian name signifying
"rapid water." Here are large hotels and
many boarding houses and the town is a
central point for many mountain spots and
shady retreats in every direction—all of
which are well described in one of the
handsomest summer resort guides of the
season, the handbook of the Ulster &
Delaware Railroad. Three miles beyond
Shandaken we come to a little station whose
name reminds one of the plains: Big Indian,
1,209 feet above the river.
Big Indian
Big Indian.—It is said that about a century
ago, a noble red man dwelt in these parts,
who, early in life, turned his attention to
agriculture instead of scalping, and won
thereby the respect of the community.
Tradition has it that he was about seven
feet in height, but was overpowered by
wolves, and was buried by his brethren not
far from the station, where a "big Indian"
was carved out of a tree near by for his
monument. An old and reliable inhabitant
stated that he remembered the rude statue
well, and often thought that it ought to be
saved for a relic, as the stream was washing
away the roots; but it was finally carried
down by a freshet, and probably found its
way to some fire-place in the Esopus Valley.
"So man passes away, as with a flood." There
is another tale, one of love but less
romantic, wherein he was killed by his rival
and placed upright in a hollow tree. Perhaps
neither tradition is true, and quite
possibly the Big Indian name grew out of
some misunderstanding between the Indians
and white settlers over a hundred years ago.
As the train leaves the station it begins a
grade of 150 feet per mile to—
Pine Hill, a station perched on the slope of
Belle Ayr Mountain. This is the watershed
between the Esopus and the Delaware, and 226
feet above us, around the arcs of a double
horseshoe, is the railway summit, 1,886 feet
above the tide.
Grand Hotel Station.—The New Grand, the
second largest hotel in the Catskills, with
a frontage of 700 feet, stands on a
commanding terrace less than half a mile
from the station. The main building faces
southwest and overlooks the hamlet of Pine
Hill, down the Shandaken Valley to Big
Indian. The mountains, "grouped like giant
kings" in the distance are Slide Mountain,
Panther Mountain, Table and Balsam
Mountains. Panther Mountain, directly over
Big Indian Station, with Atlas-like
shoulders, being nearer, seems higher, and
is often mistaken for Slide Mountain. Table
Mountain, to the right of the Slide, is the
divide between the east branch of the
Neversink and the Rondout.
Continuing our journey from the summit we
pass through Fleischmann's to—
Arkville, railway station for Margaretville,
one and a half miles distant, and Andes
twelve miles—connected by stages. Furlough
Lake, the mountain home of George Gould, is
seven miles from Arkville. An artificial
cave near Arkville, with hieroglyphics on
the inner walls, attracts many visitors.
Passing through Kelly's Corners and
Halcottville, we come to—
Roxbury (altitude 1,497 feet), a quaint old
village at the upper end of which is the
Gould Memorial Church. Miss Helen Gould
spends part of her summer here and has done
much to make beautiful the village of her
father's boyhood. Grand Gorge comes next
1,570 feet above the tide, where stages are
taken for Gilboa three miles, and
Prattsville five miles distant, on the
Schoharie Creek. Pratt's Rocks are visited
by hundreds because of the carving in
bas-relief of Colonel Pratt and figures
emblematic of his career.
Stamford is now at hand, seventy-six miles
from the Hudson, about 1,800 feet above the
sea, named by settlers from Stamford, Conn.
Here are many large hotels, chief among them
The Rexmere and Churchill Hall. Thirteen
miles from Stamford we come to Hobart, four
miles further to South Kortright, and then
to—
Bloomville, eighty-nine miles from the
Hudson, where a stage line of eight miles
takes the traveler to Delhi. Passing through
Kortright, ninety-two miles from the Hudson,
1,868 feet above the tide, East Meredith,
Davenport, West Davenport (where passengers
en route for Cooperstown and Richfield
Springs are transferred to the Cooperstown
and Charlotte Valley R. R.) and four miles
bring us to
Oneonta, on the Susquehanna division of the
Hudson & Delaware R. R. Returning to
Phœnicia we take train through "Stony Clove
Notch," passing Chichester, Lanesville,
Edgewood and Kaaterskill Junction to—
Hunter, terminus of the Stony Clove Road.
Resuming the eastward journey at Kaaterskill
Junction we come to—
Tannersville, near which are Elka Park,
Onteora Park and Schoharie Manor.
Haines Corners is another busy station, at
the head of Kaaterskill Clove. On the slope
of Mt. Lincoln have also been established
"Twilight," "Santa Cruz" and "Sunset" Parks.
Laurel House Station.—Here the voice of a
waterfall invites the tourist to one of the
most famous spots in the Catskill region and
a mile beyond is
Kaaterskill Station, 2,145 feet above the
sea, the highest point reached by any
railroad in the State, and half a mile or so
further we alight on a rocky balcony, known
for its beautiful view all over the world.