Download or read book The Catskills written by Stephen M. Silverman and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Enjoying the Catskills written by Arthur C. Mack and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The beauty and charm of this useful book is that it helps you discover the true dimensions of the real Catskill Mountains. Enjoying the Catskills is the only book about the region that reveals such a diversity of enchantments and attractions awaiting your enjoyment. Each page unlocks a storehouse of riches. Here is a wealth of information for everyone, whether you are a visitor or a resident of the area. The book is more than a guide. Intermingled with legend and glimpses of history and famous characters are vital facts on a wide range of subjects, all conveniently arranged for easy reading and reference. These include geology, wildlife, hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, motoring, wilderness areas, canoeing, ski touring, and many others.

Download or read book Making Mountains written by David Stradling and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2009-11-23 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Skiing in the Catskill Region written by George V. Quinn and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arriving by train to Phoenicia, New York, in the mid-1930s, downhill skiers first discovered the snowy trails of Simpson Ski Slope. Soon after, many Borscht Belt hotels were offering skiing and skating as ways to fill rooms during cold winter months when crowds thinned. In the high central Catskills, where abundant snowfall was a big draw, many abandoned rooming houses were commandeered to serve as base lodges for fledgling ski areas. In addition to farming and logging, skiing became an important industry to the area. People found steady employment in dozens of new areas sprouting all over the mountains. Downhill skiing is just part of the region's history. Ski jumping, racing, ski clubs, fashion, and colorful personalities were all part of the experience.

Download or read book In the Catskills written by Phil Brown and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2004-04-21 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Enjoying the Catskills A Practical Guide Maps and Illustrations by Stephen J Voorhies written by Arthur C. MACK and published by . This book was released on 1950 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book It Happened in the Catskills written by Myrna Katz Frommer and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Woodstock written by Alf Evers and published by Harry N. Abrams. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few small towns in America have as colorful a history as that of Woodstock in Ulster County, New York. Set in a countryside of exceptional natural beauty, Woodstock from the first embodied the most enduring characteristics of the Catskills and the Hudson Valley. From the early days of Indians, trappers, farmers, and land barons, to the present day of rock musicians, craftspeople, and refugees from the urban scene, Alf Evers's extraordinary history tells the tale of a very special American place.Long before the Woodstock Festival put the name of Woodstock Village on the map and drew young people from all over the world, Woodstock had an earlier incarnation in which free-thinking ideas held sway. In 1902, inspired by the social philosophy of John Ruskin and William Morris, three men--Hervey White, Ralph Whitehead, and Bolton Coit Brown-- brought their Utopian vision to the Catskills, looking for a place to settle. With a number of requirements in mind, they came upon this small hamlet set in the mountains on a tract of land given to Robert Livingston. They decided unanimously that it was here that "man's mightiest creative energies might be released," and they would feel free to pursue their talents while living in a self-sufficient community. The "earthly paradise" they discovered was, of course, the cheerful, industrious, and well-kept town of Woodstock, and in it they built their historic new society.From the 1920s on, the town was known as a familiar art and cultural center, with two competing communities--Byrdcliffe and Maverick--working to develop a style of life that would integrate arts and crafts with advanced social ideas. Following these early American bohemians came the Yippies and Beat artists of the Fifties and the "Woodstock Generation" of the Sixties. The conflict between the more traditional town, the conservative agricultural community, and the exiles from Greenwich Village, the artisans of the craft colony, waxed and waned with each new generation, each side vigorously defending a way of life and inevitably benefitting from the continuing existence of the other.Woodstock: History of an American Town is the result of fifteen years of research by the distinguished local historian Alf Evers. His previous work, The Catskills, prepared the groundwork for the present and more detailed study of a village which became one of the most famous towns in America. It is, in many ways, the story of the birth, growth, and coming of age of the American way in its evocation of the early pioneer values of individualism and self-sufficiency with those of the community and commonweal. It is a captivating tale.

Download or read book Catskill Hotels written by Irwin Richman and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At one time, according to the Catskill Institute, there were more than a thousand hotels spread across the mountains of Greene, Ulster, Delaware, and Sullivan Counties. The Catskills were an exciting world full of pleasures to be enjoyed, with summer and winter activities characterized by entertainment, food, sports, card playing, and food again. Catskill Hotels, with a collection of some two hundred images, tells the story of this world, which began with America's first resort hotel, the Catskill Mountain House, continued with places such as the world-famous Grossinger's, and can still be found today at Kutsher's Country Club, the Mountain House at Lake Mohonk, and a few other hardy resorts.

Download or read book Enjoying the Catskills written by Arthur C. Mack and published by . This book was released on 1972-02 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Catskills written by Alf Evers and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 920 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Catskills" tells the story of one of America's most historically rich and romantic regions. Alf Evers evokes the special charm of the Catskills region with explorations of its flora and fauna, legends, superstitions, and natural and unnatural wonders. Packed with illustrations detailing the history of the Catskills from the time of its first settling through the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, the Borcht Belt years, the famed Woodstock festival, up to the present, "The Catskills" is a memorable book that does full justice to a vital vein of our American heritage.

Download or read book The Catskill Mountain House written by Roland Van Zandt and published by Black Dome Press. This book was released on 1966 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Tales of a Catskill Mountain Plumber written by Allen J. Frishman and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-06-20 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tales of a Catskill Mountain Plumber is a humorous telling of the great times the baby boomer generation had growing up in "The Country". This was the period of Jewish exodus from city heat to country cool-air. Ruby the Knish Man, the Hippie Rabbi, Louie Slamowitz, and Benny and the Schleps are some of the interesting characters you'll meet in the book. Included are stories about Jewish Lightning, a rare Catskill phenomenon, Mendel's Mansion, and of course the Woodstock Festival. My family worked hard in many bungalow colonies getting the water moving again after the long cold winters. One thing we always made a point of was to laugh at it all which helped us get through those exhausting times. You'll read about this in tales such as "One Strange Collection" and "Come Closer, Closer Still". At night, I donned my rock and roll persona and performed with my band in some of the major hotels like The Pines, Kutchers, The Concord, and colonies such as Clearview Country Club and Fiakloffs. The band's adventures led us to psychedelic displays, and for some the discovery of chopped liver. The book contains a plumbers instruction manual that will guide you through the glory days of the Borscht belt, but in no way will it help you to become a plumber. Also included is an easy to read schematic that translates the Yiddish words helping you to get the full essence of the stories. Throughout the book are some special tips that I'll be sharing with you. Consider these an extra bonus that will make your life just a little easier. You'll wish you had these years ago. "How We Got Here" speaks of my family's coming to the Land of Milk and Honey, and "A New Beginning" spells out the future of the Catskills. If you're a health nut, don't worry. Everything was written without artificial sweeteners, but to give it some extra flavor I added a little "gribines". (Use the schematic, remember)? The book did take about 13 years to complete, but just like a good "chulent" that cooks and cooks, getting better with time, so did the book. It's finally time to eat, so wash your hands and come to the table. Remember, you don't have to eat it all at once, but make sure if you do that the plumbing works! Enjoy "kinderla" enjoy!

Download or read book The Catskills written by Thomas Morris Longstreth and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Best Hikes with Children in the Catskills and Hudson River Valley written by Cynthia Copeland Lewis and published by The Mountaineers Books. This book was released on 2002 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * 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.

Download or read book Catskill Peak Experiences written by Carol White and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eighty-eight different mountaineers/writers offer 101 true tales of high adventure in the Catskill Mountain High Peaks, as compiled and edited by Carol Stone White. The stories are divided into sections that include: Marathon Hikes, Wildlife Encounters, Wild Weather, Navigating in the Wilderness, Misadventures, Winter Adventuring, Lost in the Wilderness, Mysteries, Reminiscences, and Catskill Mountain Highs.Since 1962, mountain climbers in the Northeast have joined the quest for membership in the Catskill 3500 Club, reserved for hikers who summit all thirty-five Catskill Mountain peaks over 3,500 feet high. Adding to the challenge, four peaks must be climbed in winter, and thirteen of the peaks are trailless. (A special, separate membership badge is awarded to those who summit all 35 peaks in winter.) Despite these obstacles, the Catskill 3500 Club has over 1,700 members, and membership continues to flourish. It?s no surprise that many seekers after this hikers? Holy Grail come out of the wilderness with tales to tell. Some of these tales of success and failure, misery and exultation, rejuvenation and near-death, make their way into the Club?s quarterly newsletter, the Catskill Canister (named for the canisters the club has placed on the trailless peaks to pinpoint the summits). Carol Stone White, a Club member (summer and winter) and accomplished writer and editor of hiking guidebooks, sifted through 45 years of Canister issues and solicited stories from current hikers to come up with over 100 tales that run the gamut from exhilaration to sheer terror.

Download or read book A Summer World written by Stefan Kanfer and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 1989-11-21 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the attempt to build a Jewish Eden in the Catskills, from the days of the ghetto to the rise and decline of the great resorts.