Vivian Yess Wadlin
Esopus Turns 200
Summer 2011
The colorful and inspirational individuals who lived in, and often shaped, the Town of Esopus over the past two hundred years have included a former slave, ship captains, millionaires, preachers, a presidential candidate, a world-renown naturalist, world-shaping entrepreneurs, a world-famous walker, and many philanthropists. Below are a few. Truth Today, the Town of Esopus [Read More…]
Milling About
Spring 2011
I asked my dear 93-year-old friend, Wilson Tinney, what he remembered about mills in Ulster County. “Wherever there was flowing water there were mills,” was his reply. In researching this article, I find he did not exaggerate. Carpet mills, paper mills, saw mills, powder mills, grist mills, cider mills, cement mills, carding mills, knife mills, [Read More…]
A Conversation with the Quimby Brothers of Marlboro
Winter 2010
On March 11, 1888, no one knew the falling flakes were anything more than a late-season snow. But by March 14th, everyone knew it was destined for the record books. It was the “Blizzard of ’88.” Phoebe Baxter Quimby of Marlboro was concluding a visit to nearby Plattekill. To make it home, Phoebe’s brothers ended [Read More…]
Ulster County Station Stops
Fall 2010
For all the train buffs eagerly awaiting the release of Glendon Moffett’s* new book on the historic rail lines of Ulster County, (with a working title of Five Historic Railroads of Ulster County), I make this humble offering of station images from my postcard collection. Glendon’s book should be out in early April and will [Read More…]
The Testimonial GateWay
Summer 2010
Located just 1.3 miles west of the New Paltz village on 299, the Testimonial Gateway has delighted residents and puzzled visitors since its completion in October 1908. Honoring the 50th Wedding Anniversary of Albert and Eliza Smiley, founders of Mohonk Mountain House, the gateway was built from the contributions of 1200 friends of the [Read More…]
Charity Begins… at the Mary and John Arbuckle Farm
Summer 2010
A New York Times’ article of 1903 tells of a $12,000 purchase by John Arbuckle of 282 acres of farm land in New Paltz, NY. According to the late Peter Harp’s Horse and Buggy Days, the first purchase by Arbuckle was of the Deyo Farm, and shortly after he purchased the Helena Smedes’ and six [Read More…]
Delight of the Humble Bee
Spring 2010
Previous articles on the stresses affecting our common feral (wild) and domestic honeybee populations discussed the disappearance of entire colonies. The term, Colony Collapse Disorder, sums up a focus of current bee research that has important implications for local agriculture. Although farmers in the Hudson Valley rent hives of pollinators for the apple crop, there [Read More…]
Double Life of the Eastern Newt
Spring 2010
It’s Spring and salamanders are on the march. They are looking for love in all the damp places: Woodlands, streamsides, swamps, ditches, leaf litter. However, if you see a bright orange one with two rows of small red dots ringed by black on its back, relax, it may not be looking for love. It is [Read More…]
Fordyce Post’s Strong Home Town
Winter 2009
There are over 3,100 counties in the Untied States. A study about them, done in the mid-1990s titled “Strong Home Towns,” was published in American Demographics magazine. The study defined a strong community as one in which the people are long-time residents, are civically engaged, have deep family roots and ties, have business interests, maintain [Read More…]
Winter Tale: The Horse Shoe
Winter 2009
“Your grandfather cut ice at Mohonk.” My father spoke the words without preamble or explanation as we walked along the outside of a huge stone foundation in glorious Fall weather. I knew my grandfather (Louis Yess I) worked, as most subsistence farmers in the area had, doing anything—lumbering, field clearing, hauling, machine repair, construction, fishing, [Read More…]
Span of Time
Walkway Grand Opening Celebration Oct 2–4, 2009
Fall 2009
1974, Fire! Flames rose from the oil soaked railroad ties as charred debris rained down on the buildings, roads, and properties in Poughkeepsie. Our vantage point, on the West shore of the Hudson River, was about a half mile north of the burning railroad bridge. We viewed the fire from the site of Bellevue [Read More…]
The Riordon School
Spring 2009
Archery is “taught by Chief Crazy Bull (Ta Tan Ka Witko)—grandson of the heroic warrior of the Sioux, Sitting Bull…” That’s from the opening paragraph of a four-page brochure, Authentic American Archeryproduced by The Raymond Riordon School, Highland, Ulster County, New York, informing prospects this won’t be education-as-usual. Ulster County has had a number of [Read More…]
Honey Bee
Fall 2008
Two years ago we discovered a colony of feral honey bees* in a tree at my family’s old homestead in Plutarch (not far from New Paltz). This spring when I checked, the tree was silent. The colony gone. That colony had been about 8 miles from our present home in Highland. Shortly after that disappointing [Read More…]
Swamps, Trails, and Other Things
Summer 2008
Esopus: Shaupeneak Trials Coming from the south, Shaupeneak Trialhead is on Old Post Road (a left off Route 9W just north of Black Creek Apartments and Black Creek Road). Then, cross the railroad tracks and it’s on your right. Burroughs Sanctuary and Slabsides While you are in this neck of the woods, go south on [Read More…]
Milton Training Days
125 Year Old Station is Rescued, Will Be Rehabilitated, and Reused
Summer 2008
Follow the mile markers along the CSX tracks north along the Hudson River and at marker #68 you will see the Milton Train Station looking much as it did 125 years ago–except the train doesn’t stop now. No wagons line up to disgorge the bounty of Ulster County. There are no baggage handlers, no carts, [Read More…]
Esopus Meadow Light House Lights Up
Summer 2008
It is a night in 1839. The Esopus Meadows Lighthouse sits on the edge of Esopus Meadows Flats about three miles south of Kingston. It appears to be in the middle of the river. The lighthouse beam casts its warning to the busy cargo and passenger ships making their way through the darkness and into [Read More…]
World Class Athlete, Super Star, and Local “Mystery Man”: Edward Payson Weston
Spring 2008
When his parents purchased their farm on July 23, 1921 at the intersection of the towns of New Paltz, Esopus and Lloyd, seven-year old Louis Yess, had no idea of the once world-celebrated man living a few miles away. The neighbor, Edward Payson Weston, was a world famous perambulator (walker). He lived on “the Rifton [Read More…]
Dashville on the Wallkill
Spring 2006
The north flowing Wallkill River passes through towns in New Jersey and New York before joining its larger sister, the Hudson, via the Rondout Creek near Kingston. Along its bed, the Wallkill enriches the soils and scenery of the towns of Wallkill, Gardiner, New Paltz, Rosendale and Esopus, among others. Enrichment in return was [Read More…]
Some Things I Saw This Winter
Spring 2006
Many recall the scene in Hitchcock’s The Birds. An occupied park bench, behind it a playground jungle gym. A single crow silently alights on the structure. Then another. And another. Finally, the bars of the jungle gym are just rows of large, silent black crows. This wasn’t like that. Outside my house the crows were [Read More…]
