What the Blazes? Remembering the Great Ramapo Trail War
Normally, people who build hiking trails are a fun, collegial bunch — nature lovers united to blaze a path so others can share their enthusiasm for the outdoors. But in the 1920s and ’30s, the competition to create new trails...
Who Built Those Stone Walls in the Middle of the Woods?
Walk through many forests in the mid- and lower Hudson Valley — including those at Scenic Hudson’s Shaupeneak Ridge, Esopus Meadows and Black Creek preserves — and you’ll notice many kinds of stone walls snaking through the trees. Who erected...
Exploring the Palisades’ 200 Million Years of History
The Palisades — without doubt the Hudson Valley’s most unique geological feature — weathered a lot, literally and figuratively, over the years until a group of women stepped forward to save them. Though best known for the spectacular vertical walls...
Hudson River Ghost Fleet Lives on in Hazy Memories
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Hudson River National Defense Reserve Fleet — sometimes called the Mothball Fleet or the Ghost Fleet — which took up a big chunk of the estuary between Stony Point...
Explore More: The Hudson Valley’s Indigenous Heritage
The region we call the Hudson Valley has a deep Indigenous heritage. Early Native American inhabitants of the valley — often referred to as the Lenape Tribe to the south and the Mohican Tribe to the north — are both...
From a Troy Orphanage to a Pioneering Medical Career: Pathbreaker Dorothy Lavinia Brown
“Dreams can be made to come true,” said Dorothy Lavinia Brown, who achieved her aspirations by becoming the first African American female surgeon in the South, among other important accomplishments. While Brown spent her adult life in Tennessee, the Hudson...
America’s First Female Real Estate Tycoon: Catheryna Rombout Brett
The life of Catheryna Rombout Brett — namesake of Scenic Hudson’s Madam Brett Park in Beacon — reads like fiction: A young woman forsakes the big city for the wilderness, carves out a life for herself and young sons following...
Get Inspired at These 10 Powerful Sites of the Valley’s Black History
Black Americans have been making important contributions to life in the Hudson Valley since the 17th century, but only in recent decades have their contributions been publicly recognized and celebrated. To continue appreciating Black history well beyond February, explore these 10...