More On How Woodland Valley Got It's Name

Here is a message from WCA member Mike 0'Neil -

"I just peeked at Dennis Havel's latest addition to the Wandering Woodland Blog. Great stuff--BUT, there's a little more to the way Woodland Valley got its name.

In the 19th century it was known as Snyder Hollow--named after Colonel H.D.H. Snyder, the fellow who founded and ran the valley tannery until it burned to the ground. Before that, the valley was known as "the valley of the muddy Bushkill", since what became known as Woodland Brook often ran muddy.

I can remember the little bit of boyhood dogerel that valley resident Paul Miller taught me some years ago. He told me that he and his valley buddies would shout it out loudly after they'd hiked from the valley into the metropolitan avenue(s) of Phoenicia circa 1918 or so. It was an invitation for the roughnecks of the town to come out and join them in a contest of fisticuffs.

"All the way from Snyder Holler,
With a dirty shirt and a stand-up collar!!!"

In fact, the name Woodland Valley was attached to our favorite place as a sort of P.R. gimmick to please the influx of potential tourists. Here's T. Morris Longstreth's reaction to the name from his 1918 compendium THE CATSKILLS:

“Woodland Valley was once and better named Snyder’s Hollow. Some lily-livered namester with more sentimentality than sense did ill to deprive the late Snyder of his due. If he first settled in it, he was a discerning man and deserves the credit. If an impersonal name had to be found for the smiling curves and beckoning aisles of the valley, the first ass that brayed might have better taken Hee Haw Hollow to christen it with than the school-girlish and indistinguishable title of Woodland, where every other valley is woodland too. This valley is a wander-way of sheer delight. You can loaf along it in the sunshine and watch the trout...” – T. Morris Longstreth, The Catskills"

From your ever faithful Roxmor reporter: BOREEGARD aka Mike O'Neil

Blogmistress Note: Thanks to Dennis Havel for making the joke that opened the discussion in the first place and thanks to Boreegard for giving us some interesting valley history.