Paul Misko On WIOX

Paul Misko sent me this message to pass on to all of you. Here is what Paul had to say:

On Wednesday, July 6th, I will be doing one of my Catskill trivia quizzes on WIOX Radio Roxbury. One of the contestants will be Linda Mc Donald who is known by many in the valley. Folks can listen in via their computer by clicking onto this link, or just google wiox radio, Roxbury, N.Y. and go to the home page. It airs from 6p.m. to 7p.m. You might actually learn something... but no promises are made.

http://www.wioxradio.org/index.html

Another Fabulous Paul Misko Event

Paul Misko sent me an announcement of his next event coming up on Memorial Day weekend. Make sure to make your reservations soon. Paul's talks are always super popular.

"MEET JOHN BURROUGHS IN THE HEART OF THE SOUTHERN CATSKILLS"

Amy's Take-Away will be hosting some stellar events this season @ 1571 Route 214, Lanesville (5 miles north of Phoenicia) in the historic former H.D. Lane General Store built ca.1885.

First 'up at bat' will be Paul Misko's talk on Saturday, May 28 @ 4 PM about famous native son, John Burroughs, an American naturalist and nature essayist,active hiker and fisherman, and activist in the U.S. conservation movement.

Enhanced by an audiovisual presentation w./ comments from Burroughs' journal, Paul's talk will focus on Burroughs' attempts to scale Slide Mountain in Woodland Valley.  Paul has written numerous articles on hiking and history, created trivia quiz programs on WIOX's "From the Forest" Radio Show, and founded the Catskill 4000 Club which focuses on unusual, history-related hikes, and teaching outdoor skills.  This presentation promises to be both entertaining and informative! Admission $5.  Please call ahead @ (845) 688-9759 for reservations.

After his talk, Paul will be selling his cleverly-packaged and utterly delicious "Burroughs' Butter Biscuits" as well as his beautifully-crafted wooden creations.  Amy's Take-Away will be selling foods which would have been eaten during Burroughs' life-time (1837-1921) featuring crops Burroughs grew:celery grapes, and berries.  The ATA menu will be available shortly both on Facebook and http://www.amystakeaway.com/  

Upcoming Paul Misko Talk

Woodland Valley resident and local historian, Paul Misko is going to give a photo talk about John Burroughs and Slide Mountain at the Catskill Interpretive Center on Rt 28 on Saturday April 9th from 1pm to 3pm. The CIC is located at 5098 Rt 28. For more information you can visit the CIC website. Here is a link to the page about the event.

http://catskillinterpretivecenter.org/cic-events/2016/3/21/6x4zudvh2yegd74al9sf029xjcnc6v

Paul Misko At Trout Unlimited Meeting

I got this message in a Trout Unlimited newsletter the other day. I thought I would pass it on for any of you who are interested. 

This is a reminder that the November 18th meeting of the Ashokan-Pepacton Watershed Chapter this is coming Wednesday at the Boiceville Inn on NY 28 in Boiceville. It’s one week earlier than normal, due to Thanksgiving which is the following week.

The business meeting starts at 7 PM followed by our program at 7:45 PM. Once again this month we have another top notch event. Paul Misko, the Woodland Valley Park Association historian, is our guest speaker. Paul’s program will touch upon the history and tanning industry of Woodland Valley, formerly known as Snyder Hollow. The Winter 2013 Kaatskill Life issue ran an article penned by Paul on this very topic, titled: “The Woodland Valley Forest: An Environmental Disaster with a Happy Ending.”

Paul has visited Woodland Valley since childhood where he caught his first trout at the age of 5. Since then he’s accumulated a serious pile of history about Woodland Valley and the surrounding area, and over the last several years has written articles and given talks on Catskill and American history. In 2009 he founded the Catskill 4000 Club, which often does history related hikes. Most recently he has been doing radio shows, including trivia quizzes on Catskill topics.

Hope to see you there; below is a photo of the Woodland Valley as seen from Giant Ledge. Don’t miss what promises to be an interesting program about Catskill history, its forestry, and old Snyder Hollow.


- Ed Ostapczuk

Catskill History On WIOX

I got this message from Paul Misko and thought I would pass it on to all of you.

Hi All,

If you are interested in some Catskill history. Wed, 6 p.m. go on computer and click on wiox radio in Roxbury, home page and listen to the quiz show. A Woodland resident will be competing. www.wioxradio.org

- Paul Misko

Some Woodland Valley History From Rolf Reiss

WCA member and valley historian, Rolf Reiss sent me some awesome Woodland Valley photos along with some history to match. Here is Rolf's message to me. 

All the photos are at least 100 years old (excluding the brochure from 1927). Almost all of the them can be attributed to long time summer resident and Woodland Valley Park Association member Charles Newman. 

The first photo of the well dressed young men preparing for an overnight adventure includes three Newman family members, Ben Longyear, Joe McGrath, George Foster and Dave Hilson. They seem to have all of the essentials of the day including blankets, canteens, axes, six shooters and a coronet.

The inscription on the photo of the lady in the wicker rocker (second photo) being carried by two gents reads " Woodland Valley Taxi 1907"

I especially love the third photo of the two daredevils perched on the log over the Woodland Valley stream. 

On the back of the photo showing the two beleaguered hikers, Charles Newman signed his name and wrote " I am so tired of hiking the Whittenberg Mt." Many of us who have visited that peak surely know how he felt.

The post card showing campers somewhere in the valley was postmarked at the Woodland Post Office on Aug 6, 1913 and reads " This is what we are doing. We are crazy about the place. Will Archer is here with us but we didn't see much of him. Will stay three weeks. Best, Love Mary."

The next photo is of a summer outing somewhere in the Woodland Valley Park Association.

The last photo is a post card from the Beech Knoll Club. Included with the swimming hole post card is a brochure from the 1927 season. The drawing on the cover depicts the beautiful home built by the artist Thomas Craig now owned by Ed Twerdak. Evelyn Craig (Thomas's daughter) was still alive in 1978 when I moved here and mentioned to me that John Burroughs had told her that "the most beautiful view in all of the Catskills was from the porch of her home".

- Rolf

PS - Here is an update I just received from Rolf.

"I was recently told that the home where Ed Twerdak lives was NOT built by Thomas Craig although he did live there. I think that it was perhaps one of the Beech family who had it constructed but I have to do more research on that." 

- Rolf

Paul Misko History Talk

Last Saturday Paul Misko gave a talk on the founding of Woodland Valley in the 1850's. It was hosted by Hawley and Joyce Botchford and was a huge success. Over 20 folks attended.

Here are some pictures, taken by Joyce Botchford​, black and white pic is of Col​.​ Snyder.

Some in attendance were the Simpsons, Piels, Mac Donalds, Congdons, Rolf Reiss, and the special guest was Barbara Mac Adam from the Hood Museum at Dartmouth, who provided some great info about the Woodland Tannery painting. Hawley gave us a good dose of history on the Woodworth and Beach families, who along with Col. Snyder, founded Woodland.

More About The Naming Of WV

I just received an email from one of Woodland Valley's historians, Paul Misko. He had this to add to the last item I posted.

I just read Carl Tannenbaum's blurb about Longstreth's comments about the naming of Woodland Valley. I really enjoy Longstreth's book on his Catskill hikes, in fact I was just reviewing his Woodland Valley hike on WIOX f.m. a few weeks ago, as his details are invaluable to any Catskill historian. What Longstreth likely did not know, was that both "Snyder Hollow", and "Woodland Valley" pay homage to Col. H.D.H. Snyder, as the name of Snyder's tannery was the "Woodland Tannery".

Excerpt from "The Catskills"

Here is some interesting WV history sent to me by WCA member Carl Tannenbaum. Here is what Carl had to say:

Here is an excerpt from a book entitled The Catskills by T. Morris Longstreth.  It was written in 1915.  I was acquainted with him at Haverford College (our mutual alma mater) a few years before his death in 1975 at the age of 89.  He wrote many books and magazine articles on a wide variety of subjects, but this is a delightful essay on his roaming through the Catskills.  You can see the whole book at    http://catskillarchive.com/tc/

here is his take on Woodland Valley:

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, or you can visit the little colony and talk with its founder, or explore into its stream enlivened recesses. At its head the Wittenberg is its dark guardian, and Cross and Pleasant stand. From the last a ridge runs out a protecting arm along the entire valley, while on its western side great Panther sends out buttress after buttress to shelter it f rom storms. Into it flows the Panther Kill, another cherubic, laughing brook, wilful as an Indian child. The vistas up these valley arms are altogether lovely. I have yet to find a fellow tramp who has not left part of his heart up Woodland Valley.

Camp Woodland Memories

Woodland Valley friend and former Camp Woodland camper Bill Horne sent me this great shot of the campers climbing Romer Mountain (the old Simpson ski slope) You can see the old ski lodge in the background. If you look behind the lodge you can still see the train trestle which was still there in 1954 when this photo was taken.

Bill Horne is working on a book about Camp Woodland. It includes historical information about Woodland Valley and the surrounding Catskill region. Bill has promised to let us know when the book is ready. I think it might be of interest to many people here in the valley. I know I would like to read it.

For those of you who are new to the valley, Camp Woodland was a left leaning, progressive camp for youngsters in operation in Woodland Valley from 1939 to 1962. The collection and preservation of folk songs was a big part of the camp and Pete Seeger was an active part of the camp for many years. Here is a website that has some information for those of you who would like to read more.

http://www.campwoodland.org

This image is from the Norman Studer Papers, M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives, University Libraries, University at Albany, SUNY

The History Of The Fenwick Lumber Company

At 4:00 this SATURDAY, JULY 26, 2014
The HISTORY of the FENWICK LUMBER COMPANY
Will be PowerPoint presented with exhibit by Rick Brooks in the
EMPIRE STATE RAILWAY MUSEUM
Just across the bridge and down to: #70 Lower High St, Phoenicia, NY

Local Surveyor Rick Brooks of Brooks and Brooks Land Surveyors will give his highly sought after power point presentation detailing the largest cable-logging railroad to operate in the Catskill
Mountains. The Fenwick Lumber Company shipped millions of board feet of finished lumber between the years of 1903 to 1917 from its town of Hunter mill over the Ulster and Delaware Railroad to East coast markets that included the Ashokan reservoir. This is a free public event co-sponsored by the U&D Historic Society and the ESRM.

The MLK National Historic Monument

Mike O'Neil (aka Boreegard) sent me this musing earlier today. Enjoy! And Happy MLK Day!! 

Southern War Monuments

    In great measure the oldest monuments and buildings in today’s Metro Atlanta have been standing little more than one hundred years.  William Tecumseh Sherman’s campaign and its aftermath saw to that.  Sherman, who couldn’t remember actually using the phrase with which he is universally credited, “War is Hell,” surely did write, “War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.”

    The monuments on Atlanta’s Auburn Street are of considerably more recent vintage.  Less famous perhaps than Peachtree Street, sweet Auburn, as it came to be known in its salad days, is the neighborhood where the King family lived and thrived--where Martin Luther King, Jr. was born, where he grew up, and where his body now lies.

    On a quiet gray December weekday, long after the hoopla of the hot Summer Olympics has cooled down, is a good time to visit a cluster of four sites there.  They are the house in which Martin Luther King was born and lived (50l Auburn), Ebenezer Baptist Church where he was co-pastor with his father (407-13 Auburn), the Freedom Hall Complex which includes his gravesite and the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change (now headed by his younger son Dexter Scott King), and the new National Park Service Visitor Center (450 Auburn).

    My wife and I could only spend a little time there that morning.  It was the end of a trip and we had to be at the airport soon, to return the rental car and board a flight that would carry us back home and to Christmas. Still, it was enough time to fix a few things in memory’s indelible eye.

    The film at the Visitor Center was viewed by nine people--six of us a black family running the gamut of age, the rest of us white--in a theater built to hold 200.  Our group’s small size gave us a more intimate sense of shared experience.

    The narrator’s professionally dulcet and measured voice (certainly that of Julian Bond) led us through a straightforward accounting of Martin Luther King’s life and death with interviews, still shots, film clips and soundbites from a few of the more beautiful, unforgettable speeches.  Here is a black insurance agent calmly explaining how he insisted on picking up the church’s insurance, canceled by the white power structure in an attempt to break one of the first boycotts, fully realizing that his business would almost surely be ruined.  “What I explained to them back then,” he says to the camera,   “was that Insurance is the business of assuming risk, and that’s what I was intent on doing.” Here are John Lewis and Andrew Young  reminiscing about their leader’s brilliant ability to create consensus at the end of a day’s meeting with his brawling, cacophonous, civil rights sub lieutenants.  Coretta Scott King fondly recalls her first sight of her future husband:  He looked so young and thin.  Here too is the public man, preaching, counseling, being arrested, being awarded the Nobel prize and finally, assassinated.  See if you can sit through it without its cumulative force bringing a lump to your throat, and at least one tear.

    His body lies at rest across the street in a large marble sepulcher.  The tomb is outdoors, set on a platform in the middle of a long rectangular pool of calm blue water which is fed by geysering fountains.  The pool is surrounded by legions of international flags and its shape reminds one of the reflecting pool at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.  Hewn deeply into the tomb’s marble are the words:

FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST
THANK GOD ALMIGHTY
I’M FREE AT LAST

    Next door is the spiritual and logistical linchpin--Ebenezer Baptist Church. Its plain brick facade belies the turmoil it has witnessed--both the beatific successes and the cruel horrors attendant upon any war.  Almost as an epilogue to her son’s death, the bizarre murder of King’s mother, Alberta Williams King, took place here in 1974--six years after he was killed.  She was shot to death by an assassin as she was playing the church organ. So much joy, so much pain to be centered in one building.

    On this chilly December morning, as we walk by Ebenezer Baptist, back to the rental car, the pastor bounds down the church’s front steps hurrying to some appointment, slows as he sees us, smiles and says, “Hi--how you doin’?”  We greet him back, smiling, in kind.  And then we go our separate ways.

    It was just a simple exchange of goodwill, but on reflection it was the most compelling monument Sweet Auburn could possibly have erected.     

- Boreegard

Shining Bright In The Dark

I wasn't able to attend Paul Misko's lighting talk/walk but by all reports it was a great success. Josh Sheldon sent me this photo. The group was small but everyone had a lot of fun. Thanks to Paul for generously offering to share his knowledge with the other members of the community!!

Woodland Valley History Night

Paul Misko sent me this report on the Woodland Valley History night that was held at the Botchford home on July 26th. Here is what Paul had to say.

   A good size group gathered for the Woodland Valley History talk, which was generously hosted by Hawley Botchford. History from the Ice Age to the more recent past was discussed, with a focus on the tanning industry which had such a great and lasting impact in the valley. Good food, history, and a few laughs made for a great evening. Another history event is on the way. A talk on the History of Lighting will be given on Saturday evening, August 17th.  To register and get more details, contact Paul at woodvalleybear@gmail.com. Space is limited.

                                                                                               

Paul Misko

Camp Woodland Reunion

I got the message below from Sue Rosenberg regarding the upcoming Camp Woodland  reunion this weekend. She asked me to pass it along to all of you. Since the camp was in Woodland Valley I thought some of you might be interested in going to this and exploring local history. 

- Carol

Hi, I am a former camper at Camp Woodland (oh so many years ago). WCA member Bill Horne suggested that I send you a note about this weekend's Camp Woodland reunion. On Sunday we are having the second half of the reunion at the Parish Hall in Phoenicia. This is going to be a Folk Festival with lots of music and stories and poems about camp and the Catskills. Its open to the public and I think its going to be great fun.

I have attached a press release about it if you want to share it with anyone up at Woodland Clove.

Sorry for the late notice.

Hope you can make it,

- Sue

Folk Festival and the Spirit of Camp Woodland

On July 15th from 1-5 pm, in the old Parish Hall on Main St in Phoenicia, there will be a celebration of  the music, stories and spirit of Camp Woodland. Camp Woodland was a progressive summer camp in Phoenicia which brought together a diverse group of children, counselors musicians  and folklorists from NYC and across the county. It was known for collecting folk songs and lore of the Catskills and promoting and preserving the regional heritage.  Each summer the camp director Norman Studer, took campers and counselors on trips throughout the Catskill Mountains to learn about and collect  the traditions, music and folk lore of the mountains, bringing both the music and new made friends back to camp.

At the end of each summer Woodland put on a Folk Festival of the Catskills . Local musicians and their music mingled with Cantatas, dances and plays written at camp and music brought to camp from around the world as well.

On Sunday, as part of a weekend long Camp Woodland reunion,and in the spirit of those Festivals,  A Folk Festival of the Catskills will be held in Phoenicia.

Performers will include former campers and counselors including Eric Weissberg, Karl Finger, Mickey Vandow, Pat Lamanna, Robert and Louise DeCormier, Niela Miller, Dan Mack. In addition there will be Bob Lusk of the Heritage Music and Laurie and Ira MacIntosh-local story tellers.   Members of the Hudson Valley Folk Guild will present a cantata written by Camp Woodland music counselor and noted composer and folklorist Herbert Haufrecht.  Titled "We've Come From the City," the cantata deals with the conflict that arose when parts of the Catskills were flooded to make reservoirs to supply drinking water to New York City.  Lydia Adams Davis, Frank Tetler, Steve Allen, and others will play the parts that the children of Camp Woodland played when it was originally performed, and Linda Bresnahan-McCarthy is the music director.

Open to the Public -$10 donations suggested.

For information call Sue Rosenberg -845-246-3449

Woodland Valley History Event

If you want to learn more about Woodland Valley's history, than here is an opportunity for you on  Sunday, July 8th. Paul Misko, one of our Woodland historians will be sharing his discoveries. There will be some eats (potluck, so bring a dish please), then a big helping of history, as well as some stories.... some funny, some sad, but all interesting. The event is graciously hosted by Hawley Botchford, and since it will be indoors, and seating is limited, you must register to get a space. It is free to all. Contact Paul by Saturday July 7th at woodvalleybear@gmail.com to register and get more details.

Botchford Ancestors

Since I haven't posted any Woodland Valley history in a while when Hawley Botchford sent me this photo I couldn't wait to get it on the blog. The older woman on the left is Hawley's great, great grandmother, Orilla Clement Woodworth, who moved to Woodland Valley with her husband David in the mid-1800's.

Here are the names of everyone in the photo. From L. to R. - Orilla Clement Woodworth 1808-1901; Malinda Woodworth Beach, 1826-1901 (Daughter of Orilla and mother of Lydia (Daisy) Beach); Lydia (Daisy) with Evelyn Craig on her lap. Evelyn Craig was the daughter of Thomas Bigelow Craig. She owned the family's house on WV road until her death. (The house is at the top of the hill above the sharp curve near Fawn Hill bridge across from where the DEC recently did the big rebuild) Ed Twerdak owns the place now.

Anyway, what fabulous and strong looking ladies!!

Easter Card

Here is another great bit of Woodland Valley history from Paul Misko!

Happy Easter greetings with an Easter post card which was made expressly for "Woodland", and which was sent in 1910 to a Helen Hughes in Phoenicia. This card was likely bought at the Roxmor Shop, which was near the entrance to Roxmor many years ago.

Paul

The Roxmor Neighborhood House

After the summer meeting back in July, Linda McDonald (one of our fabulous Woodland Valley historians) sent me this great information about the Roxmor neighborhood house. By now most of you probably don't remember, but Dakin Morehouse had talked about it at the meeting. He told us it had been located on the Roxmor property but had been taken down a long time ago. Since this summer has been crazy busy for me, I didn't have time to get this information up to the blog (I have to do extra work on old photos). But it is some GREAT valley history and I am finally getting it out to share with all of you folks. Here is what Linda had to say:

"Hello again, some more pictures you might like.

(1) is the neighborhood house that Dakin mentioned at the meeting. I remember it as a young child. It was in disrepair and then torn down in the 60's or 70's. Few people remember it now and I was never in it, but was always intrigued by what I thought was a tiny church, till my Mom explained it's use. If you were going up the Roxmor driveway, it would have been on your right in the woods, a few hundred feet in, set on a flat area.

(2) is the Roxmor store. I believe it was only used in the summer. It also had the Post Office in it. My Mom and her friends would walk down from Woodland Valley Park Association (about 3 miles) to get the mail and then walk back. Can't you just see that now a days. It got washed away in one of 30/40's floods, not sure just when. The land was really eroded away. It doesn't even look like anything could ever have been on that part of the road. If you were coming down the Roxmor driveway, it was off to the right on the other side of the Woodland Road. The Post Office was moved permanently to E.B. Miller's home, who was Post Master year round (presently Dakin & Doris Morehouse's house). Mr Miller was the developer and proprietor of Roxmor, his son Paul Miller later lived there with his family and was the Post Master until the close of the Woodland Post Office and his retirement in 1966.  The first Woodland Post Office was on the Botchford property.

(3) is Roxmor inside in the common area/living room, where today the pool table is and their square dances are held. Still has much the same feel to it.

(4/5) this is the front and back of a penny postcard (really cost .04) that Paul Miller sent to his brother Edward Tryon Miller on the last day of the Woodland Post Office's operation. October 21, 1966. For almost a 100 years we had our on Post Office and more recently our own Zip code 12497.

On another interesting note, E. Tryon Miller of Roxmor married Vesta Morehouse of Woodland Valley Park Association (WVPA). Her father, Wilmot Morehouse was 1 of the 3 founders of WVPA in 1906. He was also Dakin Morehouse's Grandfather. The road 'Wilmot Way' was named after Wilmot Morehouse. The road is on the left just past the State Campsite, near the end of the Woodland Road, where you would cross over the Woodland stream into some of the WVPA's Club's private property."

- Linda McDonald

Thanks Linda for this AWESOME history. Sorry it took me so long to post it to the blog!!





 

Answers to Carl's Question

I received 3 answers to Carl Tannenbaum's question regarding the Shultis farm. They were all correct. I thought all of you might be interested to learn some history too. Here are the responses and what I know about them.

"The Shultis family is firmly grounded in Woodstock. Many years ago my father would contract with old Mr. Shultis to deliver firewood. Don't know anything of a current nature about them, but they were never located in Woodland Valley as far as I know."
- Boreegard - aka Mike O'Neil

Bo is correct in that there is a large Shultis family residing in Woodstock. I have met some of them. But apparently there was another Shultis family. Read on:

"According to our lawyer, the Shultis family had a big farm that covered the land where Schweitzer road (Chichester) is now. So the family was definitely up in Silver Hollow."
- Ricarda O'Conner

She is correct. I got the following from a member of the Simpson family.

"There was a Shultis farm in Chichester on the left-hand side of Rt 214 that began on the top of Sunshine Hill (blogmistress note: Sunshine hill is where 214 meets Silver Hollow Road) and ran a good distance. There was a boarding house, dance hall, cabins and a large pond where a lot of Phoenicia went skating in the winter. As it turns out Steve Shultis is my first cousin and the son of Herb Shultis, the last Shultis owner, and he lives in Poughkeepsie."
- Jay Simpson

So apparently there are 2 Shultis families. I don't know if they are related but it seems neither lived in Woodland Valley. This was great fun and interesting too! Thanks for the question Carl and also thanks to everyone who sent information!!!