On Catskill Creek
On certain days, Catskill Creek—when seen from Jefferson Heights above the village—seems to be flowing directly from the Delectable Mountains themselves. Or so it appeared to the artist Thomas Cole (1801-1848) when he first...
Tagged: Catskill NY
The Grant House
Brooklyn Life was a magazine chronicling the activities of the borough’s blue bloods from 1890 to 1931. I came across a copy dated June 15, 1895, the annual summer “Outing Number.” Flipping through its...
The Old County Jail
A steep, narrow street in Catskill, New York, leads to a dead end. There stands the former county jail, built in 1803. Long gone are the prison cells with their iron walls and bars...
Austin’s Glen
In one of his books on the subject of Catskill Mountain geology, the venerable George H. Chadwick paused to reflect on this place he considered his home territory: “To all of us collaborators the...
On Paths
A path or trail is an expression of relationship, an accord between those who use it—and thereby maintain it—and the region it traverses. Paths made by deer and fox express something different from those...