Honoring the Past
Latino Culture-Bearers Celebrate the Valley’s Proud Hispanic Heritage
There’s plenty to celebrate in the Hudson Valley during National Hispanic Heritage Month and beyond — landmark firsts, pioneering people, groups that share traditions from their ancestral homelands, and a fascinating history going back three centuries. Here are some singular achievements,...
Why Each Enduring Hudson River Lighthouse Is So Special
To keep passengers and cargo safe during their travels on the Hudson River, mariners once relied on more than a dozen lighthouses alerting them to hazards that could doom a ship. Today, only seven of these historic beacons remain. Fortunately,...
Pioneering Female Astronomer’s Legacy Lives On
From the beginning, stargazing has been part of the curriculum at Poughkeepsie’s Vassar College. That’s because Maria Mitchell — America’s first female professional astronomer — was one of nine instructors selected to join the school’s founding faculty in 1865. Along...
A Spin Around the Classic Riverfront Amusement Parks
The Hudson Valley’s modern riverside parks (15 of which Scenic Hudson partnered to help create) have become places where people flock to enjoy green space and water views. In the early 20th century, a different kind of attraction drew people to...
Revisiting Poignant Memories of Mt. Beacon
Although it stands alone today as a natural wonder, for part of the 20th century Mt. Beacon hosted a man-made dazzler that many remember fondly: the Mt. Beacon Incline Railway. Family video footage and vintage postcards unearthed recently have only...
The Old-School Charm of the Irish Alps
As a child, Boston filmmaker Kevin Ferguson spent nearly every summer in the Catskills among a clan of Irish immigrants and first-generation natives in what was known as the Irish Alps. What the Borscht Belt was to Jews, the area...
For Olmsted’s 200th Birthday, Appreciating Newburgh’s Downing Park
Farmer, merchant, seaman, journalist — nothing on Frederick Law Olmsted’s résumé before 1857, when he turned 35, even hinted that he would become America’s foremost landscape architect. Yet throughout 2022, to mark the bicentennial of Olmsted’s birth on April 26,...
#ValleyPathbreakers: Seven Women Who Improved Life Here
They fought for working women’s rights, advocated for vulnerable children, even rescued drowning sailors. And of course, they called for cleaner river water and greater public access to the Hudson Valley’s natural abundance. To celebrate Women’s History Month, reflect on...