Vivian Yess Wadlin
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…]
Plutarch Lives!
Summer 2005
One-room school houses dot Ulster County disguised as homes, stores, club houses, and museums. Dozens of others are gone, but not forgotten by those who learned their “three Rs”, and more subtle lessons–don’t forget your lunch, homework, mittens, boots or anything else, ’cause nobody is going to bring them to you. Walking to and from [Read More…]
Stone Ridge Orchards, How Does Your Garden Grow?
Spring 2005
With horticultural intrigue—read “variety.” When I interviewed Mike Biltonen for the honey bee story, I learned Stone Ridge Orchard is one amazing place. Last year I became addicted to their cider and enjoyed stopping at their stand on Route 213 (just before the intersection of Route 209). Now I know Stone Ridge is more than [Read More…]
Turkey Nuggets
Spring 2005
It’s early February and the wild turkeys are starting to strut their stuff (as opposed to late November when they strut their stuffing). Their communications are similar to a cork slowly turning in a wine bottle and signify about the same thing–love is in the air. I watched two males trying to out-fluff-up and out-tail-spread [Read More…]
The Plight of the Humble Bee
Spring 2005
It is easy to wax poetic about honey bees. Fragile, fascinating, fruitful, and feisty, the once ubiquitous wild honey bee is now few and far between. Feral (wild) honey bee colony numbers have been decimated by loss of habitat, pesticides, infestations of an imported fungus and a mite. The mite clogs the adult bee’s trachea [Read More…]
The American Chestnut
Winter 2004
My father grew up outside New Paltz in the 1920s and 30s. In those days, trees were an economic asset and knowing your trees was essential to a family living off the land. Tulip trees were cut to take to the basket factory in Highland. Locust was cut for posts. Hardwoods for furniture. Walking in [Read More…]
Timeless Toys
At Vintage Village, Highland, NY
Summer 2004
This large room of toys contains much of the collection I began more than 30 years ago. It started with one rusty 1938 Ford pedal car that my father brought home from the Esopus dump in the late 1960s. The pathetic little car was parked outside my father’s garage accumulating more rust until I asked [Read More…]
The Shaupeneak and Black Creek Trails
Winter 2001
The geologic undulation running north and south on the west side of the Hudson in Esopus is called the Marlboro Mountains. I call it seclusion with a view. In fact, two quite spectacular views within a short walk—to the east the Hudson River and Dutchess County, and to the west, the Shawangunk and Catskill Mountains. [Read More…]
New Paltz Landing, Highland, NY
Fall 2001
In May of this year, the Economic Development Committee of the Town of Lloyd (Highland) unveiled the conceptual drawings for the redevelopment of a portion of its Hudson River frontage. The drawings were the culmination of community meetings seeking public input of ideas for making the river front accessible and interesting. Currently, much of the [Read More…]
Favorite Haunts
Fall 2001
A few my favorite haunts and some things I’ve yet to try…such as, the new hiking trail that has opened in Esopus. Esopus: Shaupeneak Trail 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 [Read More…]
The Community of Levi Calhoun
Fall 2001
Liz Alfonso sat behind a folding card table in the cool October afternoon. Spread before her were a poster with several photocopied newspaper stories and photos, a sheaf of membership forms for the Town of Lloyd Historical Society, and various pens and clips to keep things orderly. “Would you like to join the Lloyd Historical [Read More…]
Rosendale’s Reusable Resource
Fall 2001
In the 1950’s, before the owners fenced and sealed it, you could walk deep into the abandoned cement mine beside Route 213 just outside the village of Rosendale. A moist, steady 52-55 degree-air poured from the mouth of the cave, summer and winter. It was often our destination in the early evening of a hot [Read More…]
Through Time: Perrine’s Bridge
Fall 2001
This summer, I will take my grandchildren over Perrine’s Bridge. I think of the journey across the wandering Wallkill River as an inter-generational sharing, a tradition I can not break. Often, my father and I would stop, abandon our car, and walk within the bridge’s seemingly indestructible timbers. At the Route 213 end of Perrine’s [Read More…]
