FUN FACTS ABOUT THE CATSKILLS
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Philippe Petit is a French high wire artist who gained fame for his illegal walk between the former Twin Towers in New York City on August 7, 1974. [1] Thirty-four years later, the towers are gone, but a new film, "Man on Wire," provides a dual portrait of Petit's coup, as he calls it, and of the city he walked above. He lives in New York's Catskills Mountains in a wooden bungalow with a large yard where he practices his craft several hours a day. Petit currently lives in Woodstock, New York.
My Side of the Mountain: is a 1959 book by Jean Craighead George about a boy who learns about nature and himself. The book won the Newbery Honor Award[1] and was loosely adapted into a movie in 1969. Set in the Catskill Mountains near Delhi, New York, My Side of the Mountain tells the fictional account of how Sam Gribley survives in the wilderness of upstate New York. George's descriptions of the flora and fauna and how Sam uses them to not only to survive but to live quite comfortably, are very detailed.
Sullivan County has at least 365 farms, and more than 6 new farms have started operations since 2007 as well as five covered bridges, three stone-arch bridges, and the oldest standing example of a John Roebling bridge, the famed architect of the Brooklyn Bridge.
There are over 2,000 farmers in the Catskills who cultivate 400,000 acres of farmland and provide fresh produce to one of first and largest green markets (NYC) in the nation.
There are hundreds of miles of trails, rivers and streams located within the Catskills. All within an hour and a half to three hour drive of New York City
The Space Shuttle took aerial photos of the Catskills. Reddish-brown color shows autumn foliage of forest in Catskills, October 1993.
The Catskill Mountains highest peak is Slide Mountain at 4,180. The Slide Mountain Wilderness Area encompasses over 47,500 acres, and is the largest and most popular wilderness area in the Catskills. Slide Mountain, the tallest peak in all of the Catskills, inspired poet and naturalist John Burroughs to write: "Here the works of man dwindle, in the heart of the southern Catskills." A plaque commemorating both the man and the mountain graces the face of the summit rock, in tribute to Burroughs and his vision.
There are between 1,500 and 2,000 black bears in the Catskills. With frequent encounters nearly inevitable, it's good to know how to keep those encounters safe and enjoyable for you and the bears. The DEC (New York State Department of Environmental Protection) provides links to information about techniquesto prevent attracting bears around your home and while camping.To report a bear nuisance incident contact the DEC.
Neil Diamond heard Pete Seeger strum folk songs at a Catskills summer camp and that determined Diamond to start performing and at age 14. He briefly worked as a hotel porter at one of the Catskills resort hotels. Neil Diamond, 67, has displaced Bob Dylan as the oldest chart-topper in US album history with his album "Home Before Dark" at #1. Watch Neil Diamond perform "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" with Barbra Streisand in this vintage clip from YouTube.
The human population swells from over 500,000 to well over 1,000,000 during the summer months. Tourism in the Catskills generated over $51 million in local taxes and more that $46 million in state taxes in 2005. Total visitor driven expenditures in the Catskills were nearly $1.6 billion in 2005.
The Catskills are home to the renowned Bethel Woods Center for the Arts located at the site of the original 1969 Woodstock Festival in Bethel, NY. Bethel Woods features a 7,500 square foot stage, a 4,500 covered seat Pavilion and a naturally sloping lawn accommodating up to 10,500 people. The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was an event held at Max Yasgur's 600 acre dairy farm in the town of Bethel, from August 15 to August 18, 1969. Bethel (Sullivan County) is 43 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, which is in adjoining Ulster County.
The Catskill Mountains were the backdrop of some of Americas first great artists including Frederic Church and Thomas Cole. In the words of Cole "Must I tell you that nether the Alps nor the Appenines, no, nor even Aetna itself, have dimmed, in my eyes, the beauty of our own Catskills? It seems to me that I look on American scenery, if it were possible, with increased pleasure. It has it's own peculiar charm - a something not fond elsewhere. I am content with nature: would that I were with art!" 1841
There are 35 mountains that reach over 3,500 hundred feet and 63 more are over 3,000 feet. They are know as the Catskills high peaks. There is a hiking club called the 3500 Club for those who have sumitted all 35 of the peaks. The peaks can be broken into 3 general zones: northern, central and southern which makes for convenient planning given major roads and correspond with the NY-NJ Trail Conference Maps. See trail guides and maps here.
The Center for Discovery is the largest private employer in Sullivan County. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to serving the needs of children and adults with significant disabilities and medical frailties.
The Catskills are often referred to as America's First Wilderness because scholars trace the beginnings of the environmental conservation movement to this beautiful area. The history of New York State's 1,100-square-mile Catskill Park (established 1904) and Catskill Forest Preserve (established 1885), is one of the earliest experiments in conservation in the United States, wherein wildlands coexist with private property within the "blue line" of the Catskill Park.
Where Have All The Flower's Gone? Pete Seeger's world famous folk song has its roots in the Catskills. Watch a performance of a live 1968 performance here on YouTube.
Hancock, NY is considered the Bluestone Capital of the World. Bluestone finds its way into everything from patios and fireplaces to sidewalk curbs in New York City. Many New York City landmarks contain Hancock Bluestone such as The Empire State Building and the base of The Statue Of Liberty. Bluestone quarrying was a dusty dangerous job. The stone was hauled by horse-drawn wagon and later railroad, to Kingston and other Hudson River ports. From there it was shipped to cities throughout the eastern United States, Cuba, and Europe.
The 1903 Byrdcliffe art colony is the nation's oldest Arts & Crafts colony. Located in the Town of Woodstock, in Ulster County, It brought the first artists to the area to teach and produce furniture, metal works, ceramics, weaving and established Woodstock's first painting school.
Kaaterskill Falls in Greene County are the highest falls in New York, and one of the Eastern United States' taller waterfalls. The falls are one of America's oldest tourist attractions, with it appearing in some of the most prominent books, essays, poems and paintings of the early 19th century. Beginning with Thomas Cole's first visit in 1825, they became an icon subject for painters of the Hudson River School, setting the wilderness ideal for American landscape painting. The Falls also inspired "Catterskill Falls", a poem by William Cullen Bryant.
Howe Caverns is the largest cave open to the public in the Northeast. The great limestone cave, carved by water over the course of an estimated 10 million years was discovered on May 22, 1842 by a local farmer named Lester Howe. Over 14 million people have visited the cave which is located in Schoharie County.
Borscht Belt is an informal term for the summer resorts of the Catskill Mountains in Sullivan and Ulster Counties in which were a popular holiday spot for New York Jews. These resorts have been the setting for movies such as Dirty Dancing, Sweet Lorraine and A Walk on the Moon.
"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving published in 1819, as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. Written while Irving was living in Birmingham, England, it was part of a collection of stories entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. Although the story is set in New York's Catskill Mountains, Irving later admitted, "When I wrote the story, I had never been on the Catskills."[1]
"Ashokan Farewell" is a piece of music composed by Jay Ungar in 1982. It was later used as the title theme of the television miniseries The Civil War, which aired on PBS in 1990. Ashokan was the name of a Catskill Region village that is now mostly covered by the Ashokan Reservoir. Viewers of the The Civil War frequently -- and erroneously -- believe the melody is a traditional tune that was played at the time of the Civil War. In fact, it is the only modern composition on the Burns documentary's soundtrack; all other music is authentic 19th century music.
Today, over 60 percent of the lands in the Catskills is privately owned, with about 50,000 people living there year-round; the rest is publicly owned "forest preserve."
Horses were important in the logging of steep mountain hillsides. Furniture makers, lumberjacks, charcoal producers, hoopmakers (hoops were used to hold barrels together), and wood acid manufacturers all relied on horses to exploit the Catskill forest. Forestry remains important on private lands, primarily as a source of lumber.
New York City reservoirs such as the Rondout, Pepacton, Ashokan and Gilboa, displaced dozens of towns and communities. The mountains are an indispensable watershed, providing drinking water for local people as well as millions of others in the lower Hudson Valley and New York City. The Catskills provide 95% of the drinking water for New York City.
Railroads were important in the Catskills - for tourists to reach the hotels and for transporting lumber, furniture, bluestone, and other natural resources to urban markets. The Phoenicia Station of the Ulster and Delaware Railroad is on the State and National Historic Registers. Most stations, like the one in Phoenicia, were prefabricated kits.
It is the birthplace of American fly fishing and home to the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum
Catskill tanneries supplied most of the saddles used in the Civil War. Hides were shipped from South America for processing into leather. High in tannins, bark was stripped from hemlock trees and used to "tan" hides. The furniture making industry followed, using the trees left behind. Cleared land was often sold for 50 cents an acre to mountain farmers. Today, the cleared valleys and hillsides have returned to forest.