Honoring the Past
Valley History Writ Small: Iona Island
On a rainy weekend in May, a few dozen hardy and curious hikers gathered near Route 9W in Bear Mountain State Park. There they met Donald “Doc” Bayne, an environmental educator and historian at Sterling Forest State Park. Bayne was...
From Albany to NYC, Bravely Flying the Country’s First Airmail
What do Kitty Hawk, N.C., and the Hudson Valley have in common? Both played key roles in aviation history. Just seven years after Orville Wright’s first flight — which went 12 seconds and half the length of a 747 —...
10 Facts About the Dutchess County Fair
COVID put the kibosh on the Dutchess County Fair (and so much else) last year, so it's great to have it up and running again, from August 24-29.
The Mountainside Ride That Opened Up the Catskills
As far as Hudson Valley mountain rails go, the Mount Beacon Incline Railway seems to get all the glory. From 1902 to 1978, it lifted some 3.5 million passengers to the 1,540-foot summit. There — at least for a time —...
Huckleberry Picking, An Old Summer Tradition in the Shawangunks
The poor, acidic, and shallow soil on top of the Shawangunk Ridge was never ideal for farming — but it offered a perfect medium for huckleberries and wild blueberries to grow. For a century of summers, from the 1860s into...
Newburgh’s Balmville Tree, a Landmark of American History
Among local trees that have captured the imagination, it’s hard to top the Balmville Tree. Walk, bike, or drive past it now, at the corner of River and Balmville roads in the Town of Newburgh, and it’s essentially a stump....
Irvington Park at 20: How a Former Lumberyard Became Community Space Instead of a Big Development
When Scenic Hudson Park at Irvington opened 20 years ago this week — on June 28, 2001 — the village got a beautiful place to enjoy magnificent views and active recreation instead of a mega-housing development. To celebrate, we reached...
Poets’ Walk Park at 25: Getting the Story Right
Poets’ Walk Park remains one of the Hudson Valley’s most popular destinations for enjoying spectacular views of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains — a place where landscape becomes poetry. Yet it turns out the story we’ve been telling about...