The Catskills

the Catskills as a popular attraction in the 1800s, with the construction of the Catskill Mountain House and its rugged imitators that offered WASP guests "one-hundred percent restricted" accommodations ("Hebrews will knock vainly for admission"), a policy that remained until the Catskills became the curative for tubercular patients, sending real-estate prices plummeting and the WASP enclave on to richer pastures ...

Less than a day's drive from New York City, Boston or Philadelphia, the Catskills have long been a popular weekend and summer retreat for city folk. The area offers fine accommodations, top-notch dining and spectacular surroundings. This book profiles hundreds of hotels and restaurants, with an emphasis on the very best places. Daytime activities - shopping, antique-hunting and more - are featured.

From the 1890s through the 1920s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication. Many of the postcards produced during this "golden age," and even some from later years, can today be considered works of art. Postcard photographers traveled the length and breadth of the nation snapping photographs of busy street scenes, documenting local landmarks, and assembling crowds of local children only too happy to pose for a picture. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores and five and dimes across the country, survive as telling reminders of an important era in America's history. This fascinating new history of the Catskills of New York showcases more than two hundred of the best, most evocative vintage postcards available.

Traditional songs from the Catskill area of New York State are accompanied by detailed discusssions of their roots, development, musical structure, and subject matter

The Catskills (“Cat Creek” in Dutch), America’s original frontier, northwest of New York City, with its seven hundred thousand acres of forest land preserve and its five counties—Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, Ulster, Schoharie; America’s first great vacationland; the subject of the nineteenth-century Hudson River School paintings that captured the almost godlike majesty of the mountains and landscapes, the skies, waterfalls, pastures, cliffs . . . refuge and home to poets and gangsters, tycoons and politicians, preachers and outlaws, musicians and spiritualists, outcasts and rebels . . . Stephen Silverman and Raphael Silver tell of the turning points that made the Catskills so vital to the development of America: Henry Hudson’s first spotting the distant blue mountains in 1609; the New York State constitutional convention, resulting in New York’s own Declaration of Independence from Great Britain and its own constitution, causing the ire of the invading British army . . . the Catskills as a popular attraction in the 1800s, with the construction of the Catskill Mountain House and its rugged imitators that offered WASP guests “one-hundred percent restricted” accommodations (“Hebrews will knock vainly for admission”), a policy that remained until the Catskills became the curative for tubercular patients, sending real-estate prices plummeting and the WASP enclave on to richer pastures . . . Here are the gangsters (Jack “Legs” Diamond and Dutch Schultz, among them) who sought refuge in the Catskill Mountains, and the resorts that after World War II catered to upwardly mobile Jewish families, giving rise to hundreds of hotels inspired by Grossinger’s, the original “Disneyland with knishes”—the Concord, Brown’s Hotel, Kutsher’s Hotel, and others—in what became known as the Borscht Belt and Sour Cream Alps, with their headliners from movies and radio (Phil Silvers, Eddie Cantor, Milton Berle, et al.), and others who learned their trade there, among them Moss Hart (who got his start organizing summer theatricals), Sid Caesar, Lenny Bruce, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and Joan Rivers. Here is a nineteenth-century America turning away from England for its literary and artistic inspiration, finding it instead in Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and his childhood recollections (set in the Catskills) . . . in James Fenimore Cooper’s adventure-romances, which provided a pastoral history, describing the shift from a colonial to a nationalist mentality . . . and in the canvases of Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, Frederick Church, and others that caught the grandeur of the wilderness and that gave texture, color, and form to Irving’s and Cooper’s imaginings. Here are the entrepreneurs and financiers who saw the Catskills as a way to strike it rich, plundering the resources that had been likened to “creation,” the Catskills’ tanneries that supplied the boots and saddles for Union troops in the Civil War . . . and the bluestone quarries whose excavated rock became the curbs and streets of the fast-growing Eastern Seaboard. Here are the Catskills brought fully to life in all of their intensity, beauty, vastness, and lunacy.

With selections from Isaac Bashevis Singer, Allegra Goodman, Moss Hart, TaniaGrossinger, and many others, this volume is a tribute to the legendary Jewishresort area of the Catskills. 40 halftones. 26 figures.

Ed Van Put begins this important book with the history of native brook trout and offers little-known details about their sizes, range, and demise from over-fishing, the growth of streamside industries, and the introduction of competitive species. Sweeping in its scope, Trout Fishing in the Catskills tells a thorough tale of the often tumultuous history of fishing in the Catskills. With a scope of over a century, Van Put tells of the Catskill’s frontier fishing beginnings and tracks the rise, fall, and eventual revival of the fisheries. Throughout, this is a history of people and methods as well as rivers, and there are profiles of Theodore Gordon, Art Flick, Harry and Elsie Darbee, Sparse Grey Hackle, and more. No serious trout fisherman, in any part of the country, will want to miss this pioneering portrait of a seminal region in American angling history. Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for fishermen. Our books for anglers include titles that focus on fly fishing, bait fishing, fly-casting, spin casting, deep sea fishing, and surf fishing. Our books offer both practical advice on tackle, techniques, knots, and more, as well as lyrical prose on fishing for bass, trout, salmon, crappie, baitfish, catfish, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Classic works by naturalist John Burroughs on his beloved Catskill region. Henry James called John Burroughs (1837–1921) "a more humorous, more available, and more sociable Thoreau." Walt Whitman in turn extolled Burroughs as "a child of the woods, fields, hills—native to them in a rare sense (in a sense almost a miracle)." Throughout his many books and essays, Burroughs was never more eloquent on nature themes than when writing about his native countryside: the woods, streams, and mountains of the Catskills in New York. In the Catskills collects the very best of Burroughs's writings about his birthplace in a book that is sure to be treasured by all lovers of the region as well as lovers of the literature of nature. This new edition includes an introduction by Burroughs biographer Edward Renehan and an additional work not included in previous editions, entitled My Boyhood. John Burroughs was a well-known naturalist and prolific writer on his native Catskills. Edward Renehan is the author of more than twenty books, including John Burroughs: An American Naturalist. He lives in Wickford, Rhode Island.

Terrorists have developed a biological weapon that is unleashed in Mexico, with the hope of it spreading to the United States. The disease does as it was intended, spreading flu like symptoms throughout Mexico and from there it is carried to the United Sates and around the world. Within weeks, the disease has spread across the globe, and though most nations try to stop the spread, the virus is already out of control in most countries. In the United States the CDC has discovered a possible cure in the Catskill Mountains of New York State, but the combined efforts of the US Government are thwarted a bit when the terrorist forces, taking advantage of man power shortages due to the disease, manage to detonate nuclear weapons in Tel Aviv, Moscow and Washington D.C. With the disease rampant throughout North America, and as the infrastructure begins to collapse, people all across North America begin to head to New York's Catskill Mountains in the hope of attaining the 'cure' for themselves. A small group of Army National Guardsmen, led by Sergeant John Powers, are ordered to move from their host base in central Massachusetts to the Catskills, to assist the small detachment stationed there and maintain order. These men begin the move and enlist the support of people from small towns in their efforts to reach the Catskills. This combined unit soon arrives at the location and discovers the location of the CDC lab, and together with the help of the troops already there, begin to establish order and issue inoculations to the thousands of people arriving as well. In the meantime, convicts escaping from prisons in New York push to get the cure as well, though they have different intentions. Rather than help others, they plan to take the cure for themselves and establish a monarchy with Larry Andrews, one of their own, as King of the area. As the convicts approach the location, they encounter the troops there and soon both sides, the convicts led by Andrews, and the troops, now led by Powers, clash in a battle that will determine the fate of those who have survived. Andrews commands a hard core group of freed criminals, and with the assistance of Mafia elements, has created a well armed and increasingly dangerous force. Powers, supported by a small group of dedicated and hard working companions, have created a council to govern the land by creating a republic, and the discovery of a castle in the town of Liberty where they store the remnants of the CDC personnel and hope to protect the cure for anyone in need, while trying to maintain order and reestablish order. In the end, the convicts break through the territory controlled by Powers and the republic and in an all out effort, attempt to storm the castle, where they have learned the cure is being stored, to take it for themselves. Outnumbered and outgunned, Powers and the council do what they can to protect what they have built. With the stage set, both sides engage in an all out battle for control of the cure, with both sides desperate to control the cure. In the end, desperate people on both sides struggle to control the cure which will decide the fate of millions around the world.

The essential guide to hiking the majestic Catskill Mountains With soaring mountain tops and wide-ranging trails, the Catskills offer a truly special hiking experience to travelers of all kinds. Catskill veterans Derek Dellinger and Matthew Cathcart explore trails for every level of hiker, from the gentle but breathtaking slog up Slide Mountain, the tallest in the region, to the more challenging Cornell Mountain, a favorite of those more experienced. No matter your hiking goals, this guide will help you find the perfect trail for you among the Catskills’ 700,000 acres of natural treasure. In this beautiful first edition of 50 Hikes in the Catskills, as with all the books in the 50 Hikes series, you’ll find clear and concise directions, easy-to-follow maps, and expert tips for enjoying every moment of your hike—whether you’re looking for sublime mountaintop views, peaceful walks through nature, or your next great challenge—all in a gorgeous, full-color design.

The Hudson Valley is a breath of fresh air: explore historic estates, hike wild mountain terrain, and bask in small-town charm with Moon Hudson Valley & the Catskills. Inside you'll find: Strategic, flexible itineraries, from day trips from New York City to week-long road trips and a 6-day bike tour, designed for outdoor adventurers, history buffs, art-lovers, foodies, and more Must-see highlights and unique experiences: Bike along rolling hills and quiet country roads, hike to rushing waterfalls, hit the slopes in the winter, or discover the best spots to see the striking fall foliage. Take a tour of Washington Irving's romantic home, admire the historic Rockefeller Estate, go antiquing in Cold Spring Village, or stroll through Sleepy Hollow. Take a cooking class at the Culinary Institute of America, browse the produce at a farmers market, sip your way along a Hudson Valley wine trail, or savor local cuisine at a farm-to-table restaurant The best hikes in the Hudson Valley and the Catskills, with detailed maps, mileage and difficulty ratings Honest advice from Catskills native Nikki Goth Itoi on when to go, where to eat, and where to stay, from full-service resorts and historic inns to secluded cabins and campsites Full-color photos and detailed maps throughout Thorough background on the culture, weather, wildlife, and history, plus how to get there and get around With Moon's practical tips and local know-how, you can experience the Hudson Valley and the Catskills your way. Exploring more of the Northeast? Check out Moon New England. Headed to the Big Apple? Try Moon New York City or Moon New York Walks.

Byron Rutledge, a twenty-year-old university student from Queens, can't believe his good fortune when he stumbles upon summer work at a resort in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. Hired as a dishwasher, Byron is excited to spend his summer in the beautiful outdoors. But his expectations are quickly dashed when he encounters hellish working conditions, and is forced to live in a vermin-ridden bunkhouse with unbridled youths bent on doing drugs and alcohol. The picturesque mountains that surround the resort soon turn to concrete walls, and the tall pines seem to keep watch over him as sentry guards. Inevitably, Byron's unruly coworkers stir up trouble within the resort and with the townsfolk, with Byron finding himself caught in the middle. The story takes a Gothic turn as pressure mounts, triggering nightmares that nearly drive him to madness. Can he endure the summer's hardships by conquering his chimeras, or will he quit and return home? Rich in imagery and balanced with humorous dialogue, A Summer in the Catskills artfully depicts individual stories of desperation, tragedy, absurdity, and unhealed emotional wounds.

Greene County has long been a magnet for settlers, artists, writers, and travelers; it all began with Henry Hudson's exploration of the Hudson River and was followed by the arrival of Dutch settlers. Its geographic location between the "Rhine of America" and the scenic northern Catskill Mountains contributes to Greene County's allure, as do the Great Algonquin Flint Mines, fascinating remnants of the area's prehistoric inhabitants, the Mohegans. Much of the content in Around Greene County and the Catskills reflects "everyday living," a sampling of its architecture, people, and activities which reflect a sense of history and changing lifestyles. The inclusion of the Dutch Bronck houses of 1663 and 1738, a National Historic Landmark homestead complex, sets the tone of this visual history. From colonial times through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Greene County (like other New York counties) has been affected by national conditions; its economic base has changed and adjusted accordingly. Different ethnic groups who have chosen Greene County as their home have enhanced the area's rich cultural heritage.

* Guidebook to short, easy hikes and trails your children will be comfortable on* Includes ideas for keeping the kids engaged and having funNew York's Catskills have long been an outdoor playground for families escaping from the city. Here's a guidebook that shows you hikes that the whole family can do. Best Hikes with Children in the Catskills and Hudson River Valley, 2nd Ed. includes games that will keep the kids engaged and enjoying the trails. From Catskills State Park, Bear-Mountain-Harriman State Park, Hudson Highlands, Shawangunk Mountains, Southern Taconics, the Long Path, and the Appalachian Trail, there's something for everyone in this all-inclusive guidebook.Hikes detailed include shorter two- and four-mile hikes to six-plus miles and overnighters. Practical information on hiking with children - setting a realistic pace, playing games, and encouraging personal and environmental responsibility - make this a guidebook to recommend.

Notes and Sources to Folk Songs of the Catskills, also published by the State University of New York Press, is the companion volume to Folk Songs of the Catskills. It contains extensive reference notes that exemplify and support detailed citations in the commentary preceding each song. The book also includes a comprehensive list of sources, including books, broadsides or pocket songsters, disc recordings, music publications, periodicals, tape archives, and other miscellaneous material, as well as information on variants, adaptations, comments or references, texts, and tunes. These notes are designed to provide succinct reference information.

In the Catskills: Selections from the Writings of John Burroughs is comprised of eight essays, describing animal life during winter in the Catskill Mountains. For the nature enthusiast!

For over two hundred years, the Catskill Mountains have been repeatedly and dramatically transformed by New York City. In Making Mountains, David Stradling shows the transformation of the Catskills landscape as a collaborative process, one in which local and urban hands, capital, and ideas have come together to reshape the mountains and the communities therein. This collaboration has had environmental, economic, and cultural consequences. Early on, the Catskills were an important source of natural resources. Later, when New York City needed to expand its water supply, engineers helped direct the city toward the Catskills, claiming that the mountains offered the purest and most cost-effective waters. By the 1960s, New York had created the great reservoir and aqueduct system in the mountains that now supplies the city with 90 percent of its water. The Catskills also served as a critical space in which the nation's ideas about nature evolved. Stradling describes the great influence writers and artists had upon urban residents - especially the painters of the Hudson River School, whose ideal landscapes created expectations about how rural America should appear. By the mid-1800s, urban residents had turned the Catskills into an important vacation ground, and by the late 1800s, the Catskills had become one of the premiere resort regions in the nation. In the mid-twentieth century, the older Catskill resort region was in steep decline, but the Jewish "Borscht Belt" in the southern Catskills was thriving. The automobile revitalized mountain tourism and residence, and increased the threat of suburbanization of the historic landscape. Throughout each of these significant incarnations, urban and rural residents worked in a rough collaboration, though not without conflict, to reshape the mountains and American ideas about rural landscapes and nature.