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The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province and subrange of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas close to or within the borders of the Catskill Park, a 700,000-acre (2,800 km2) forest preserve protected from many forms of development under New York state law.
– The Catskills Region is sometimes referred to by the nickname “Borscht Belt” and sometimes the “Jewish Alps”. The nicknames began in the mid-1900’s when many New York City Jewish families vacationed there in the summers.
-– Mark Carr invented the concept of the Christmas Tree market in the Catskills Mountain area. In 1851, Carr cut down Douglas firs and spruces from his Upstate surroundings where they were free. Then he loaded them on two oxcarts and drove into New York City where he sold them for $1 each.
The beautiful, historic towns in the Catskill Mountains are legendary, particularly the community of Kingston in Ulster County. In 1777, this small town was the first capital of New York. Kingston's architecture tells the story in different layers, from the Dutch colonization in the 17th and 18th centuries, to a commercial trading center in the 19th century, and the rise and fall of industry in the 20th century.
Counties:
Delaware
Greene
Schoharie
Sullivan
Ulster
Communities:
Ellenville, Fleischmanns, Hunter, Liberty, Margaretville, Hancock, New York, Palenville, Phoenicia, Shandaken, Shokan, Tannersville, Wawarsing, Windham and Woodstock
Borders on:
Poconos, Shawangunk Ridge, Hudson Valley, Great Appalachian Valley and Mohawk Valley
History
Prehistory
While the matter has yet to be fully researched, there seems to have been no large-scale long-term Native American presence in the mountains. The local Mohican and Munsee tribes used land and water routes through the mountains to get to the places beyond them, hunted the abundant game and used the mountains in some of their rituals, but in general chose not to live there due to the difficulty of farming the land.
Dutch settlement
Dutch settlers came to the area in 1652.
The Hardenbergh Patent
The Bartram expedition
In 1753
The mid-18th century
The Revolutionary War
As tensions increased between the colonies and Britain during the early 1770s over how to pay for the war, the Catskills saw this divide play out rather sharply. The large landowners like Livingston and the Hardenberghs, fearing Parliament would settle the matter with a land tax that would vastly cut into their wealth, increasingly took stands that would lead to independence. Their tenant farmers, on the other hand, were, as Livingston put it, "resolved to stand by their King," despite their landlords' efforts to drum up revolutionary sentiment among them, in the belief that if it came down to war, the Crown would confiscate the holdings of those who had opposed it and distribute smaller parcels back to those who had been loyal.
This came to a head in 1777, when Lieutenant Jacob Rose raised an army of several hundred of the region's young men to go fight alongside the British in return for 50 acres (0.2 km2) each. Rose's Rangers, as they were called, had to make its way through the strongly Patriot Hudson Valley to rendezvous with British regulars in New York City, however, and was captured in the vicinity of Schunemunk Mountain in Orange County after a skirmish with local militia. Prisoners were taken to Fort Montgomery and tried for treason against the recently established state of New York. Most were pardoned in exchange for committing to serve in the Continental Army; Rose and a few other holdouts were hanged.
The failure of Rose's mission and the burning of Kingston by British forces that year severely blunted Tory sentiment in the Catskills, and for the remainder of the war the region posed no threat to the Patriot cause.
Jewish resort destination
Woodstock rock festival
In 1969, half a million people descended for "Three Days of Peace and Music" at a festival called Woodstock. Contrary to what many folks believe, the festival did not take place in the town of Woodstock, which is more than an hour’s drive from Bethel.
Links
- Wikipedia
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Catskill_Mountains
- VisitTheUSA
- https://www.visittheusa.com/experience/catskill-mountains-culture-a...
- https://exploringupstate.com/facts-about-new-york-state/catskills-r...
- fun facts about the Catskills
- https://dec.ny.gov/welcome-to-the-catskills
- https://hotcore.info/babki/catskills-ny-counties.html