The Draining and Refilling of the Swartekill Swamp

Over my almost eight decades, I’ve witnessed the transformation of land once farmed by my grandparents. It has gone from farmed to fallow, to brambled meadows, to tightly-packed small-tree groves, to now, a few good-size 60+ year-old mature trees. Another transformation on that land was quicker.

Sandwiched between the mostly parallel roads of Plutarch and N. Eltings Corners Road Extension (which changes name to Swartekill Road in the Town of Esopus), the Swartekill Creek formed the western boundary of our land. It was a slowly-moving wetland waterway buffeted over time by man and beast. Flowing north from Old New Paltz Road, its vast swampland hugged the east side of Plutarch Road. From there, it oozed into the Town of Esopus, ending in the Wallkill River at Sturgeon Pool in Rifton.

 

This pictorial layout is presented here as a downloadable PDF file:

The Draining and Refilling of the Swartekill Swamp (PDF)