Postcard: Rondout's Wilbur finishing and loading dock for bluestone. Courtesy of Friends of Historic Kingston.
Ulster County Bluestone
The number of fascinating websites and books containing information on the bluestone industry in Ulster County and its neighbors indicates the resources’ importance in the development of our area and beyond. They cover not just bluestone’s impact on the physical places, but its impact on the lives of thousands of families. Bluestone was so crucial [Read More…]
Time Travel
A Short Trip on Ulster County Roads & Bridges
“Public records are the frozen mind of the people.” Thus begins the introduction to transcriptions of Early Records of New York State showing the meetings and laws covering Road Commissioners of Ulster County, Volume I, 1722-1769. The book is an interesting read, especially if you ever wondered who laid out some of the rural roads [Read More…]
Putting Down Roots
Three countries, three families, three stories. All Americans.
Sidgwick Family: England Tantillo Family: Italy Polischuk Family: Russia This pictorial layout is presented here as a downloadable PDF file: Putting Down Roots (PDF)
Water Works
Following the example of natural waterways, this article meanders. Hopefully, it makes connections between that H2O and some other facets of our vast land and its history that led to America’s unparalleled prosperity. Water was a natural bounty that provided a figurative and literal path to earnable wealth for our forebears, and continues for us [Read More…]
Connecting Oceans / Carleton Mabee
The globe in my New Paltz Campus School fifth-grade class- room clearly showed the Panamanian isthmus; Mrs. Compton, head-enlightener, pointed out that a channel was dug to connect the two oceans. Shipping options increased. Ho Hum. Not until the book, The Path Between the Seas, by David McCullough, made it onto my reading list that [Read More…]
