Hudson Valley

This article is about the region. For the magazine, see Hudson Valley (magazine).

The Hudson Valley

Regions of New York series
Regions: Downstate New York Long Island Upstate New York Hudson Valley Capital District North Country Southern Tier Central New York Western New York
Timelines of town creation:
Timeline of town creation in Downstate New York Timeline of town creation in the Hudson Valley Timeline of town creation in New York's Capital District Timeline of town creation in New York's North Country Timeline of town creation in Central New York Timeline of town creation in New York's Southern Tier Timeline of town creation in Western New York
Lists of Administrative divisions of New York:
List of counties in New York List of cities in New York List of towns in New York List of villages in New York List of incorporated places in New York's Capital District

The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.^[1]

History

At the time of the arrival of the first Europeans in the 17th century, the area of Hudson Valley was inhabited primarily by the Algonquian-speaking Mahican and Munsee Native American people,^[2][3] known collectively as River Indians.^[4]

The first Dutch settlement was in the 1610s with the establishment of Fort Nassau, a trading post (factorij) south of modern-day Albany, with the purpose of exchanging European goods for beaver pelts. Fort Nassau was later replaced by Fort Orange. During the rest of the 17th century, the Hudson Valley formed the heart of the New Netherland colony operations, with the New Amsterdam settlement on Manhattan serving as a post for supplies and defense of the upriver operations.^[5]

During the French and Indian War in the 1750s, the northern end of the valley became the bulwark of the British defense against French invasion from Canada via Lake Champlain^[6]

The valley became one of the major regions of conflict during the American Revolution. Part of the early strategy of the British was to sever the colonies in two by maintaining control of the river.^[7]

Following the building of the Erie Canal, the area became an important industrial center. The canal opened the Hudson Valley and New York City to commerce with the Midwest and Great Lakes regions.^[8] However, in the mid 20th century, many of the industrial towns went into decline.^[9]

The Catskills seen from across the river.

In the early 19th century, popularized by the stories of Washington Irving, the Hudson Valley gained a reputation as a somewhat gothic region inhabited by the remnants of the early days of the Dutch colonization of New York (see, e.g., The Legend of Sleepy Hollow). The area is associated with the Hudson River School, a group of American Romantic painters who worked from about 1830 to 1870.^[10]

The natural beauty of the Hudson Valley has earned the Hudson River the nickname "America's Rhineland",^[11][12] a comparison to the famous 40 mile (65 km) stretch of Germany's Rhine River valley between the cities of Bingen and Koblenz. A similar 30-mile (48 km) stretch of the east bank in Dutchess and Columbia counties has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

Geology and physiography

The Hudson Valley is a physiographic section of the larger Valley And Ridge province, which in turn is part of the larger Appalachian physiographic division.^[13]

Hudson river pollution

The numerous factories that at one time lined the Hudson River poured garbage and industrial waste directly into the river.This pollution was not assessed in a comprehensive fashion until the 1970s. By that time, the largest company still operating factories in the area was General Electric, which became primarily responsible for cleaning the Hudson River. In 2009 dredging was started to remove contaminated sediments from the river bed and in 2010 General Electric agreed to finance and conduct a second dredging campaign at the Upper Hudson River between Fort Edward and Troy. These works will be supervised by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.^[14]

Sports

The Hudson Valley Renegades is a minor league baseball team affiliated with the Tampa Bay Rays. The team is a member of the New York - Penn League and plays at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill.

The Hudson Valley Rebels are the Hudson Valley's Premiere Rugby union club. The Hudson Valley Rebels are members of the Metropolitan New York Rugby Football Union and were established in 2001. Their home pitch is Beacon Memorial Park, in Beacon.

The Hudson Valley Highlanders of the North American Football League play their home games at Dietz Stadium in Kingston.

The Hudson Valley Horrors are the region's first non-urban flat track women's roller derby team and are part of the grass-roots derby revival. They currently practice and host bouts at Hyde Park Roller Magic in Hyde Park.

The Rockland Boulders of the Can-Am Professional Baseball League play in Rockland County.

Regions

The Hudson Valley is divided into three regions: Lower, Middle and Upper. The following is a list of the counties within the Hudson Valley sorted by region^[15].

Lower Hudson Westchester Rockland Putnam Bergen

Mid-Hudson Dutchess Orange Ulster

Upper Hudson/Capital District Columbia Greene Rensselaer Albany

Cities and towns

See also: Timeline of town creation in the Hudson Valley

See also: Timeline of town creation in New York's Capital District

Airmont Albany Ancram Annandale-on-Hudson Athens Beacon Brewster Carmel Catskill Chester Chestnut Ridge Coeymans Cohoes Cold Spring Congers Copake Cornwall Cortlandt Manor Coxsackie Croton-on-Hudson East Fishkill Fishkill Fort Montgomery Garrison Gardiner Goshen

Grand View-On-Hudson Hannacroix Hastings-on-Hudson Haverstraw Highland Highland Falls Highland Mills Hillburn Hillcrest of Rockland Hillsdale Hudson Hyde Park Kingston Mahopac Monsey Montgomery Marlboro Middletown Millbrook Milton Monroe Mount Ivy Nanuet New Baltimore Newburgh, Town of

Newburgh, City of New City New Paltz New Windsor Nyack Ossining Palisades Patterson Pawling Pearl River Peekskill Piermont Pleasant Valley Pomona Poughkeepsie Putnam Valley Ravena Red Hook Rhinebeck Rye,Town of Rye,City of Saugerties Selkirk Sleepy Hollow

Sloatsburg South Nyack Sparkill Spring Valley Staatsburg Stony Point Suffern Taghkanic Tarrytown Tivoli Troy Upper Nyack Valhalla Valley Cottage Wawarsing, New York Wappinger Warwick Washingtonville West Haverstraw West Nyack West Point Yonkers Yorktown

See also

• Geography portal
• Hudson Valley portal
• New York portal

References

1. ^ "Mountains, Valleys and the Hudson River". Hudson Valley Tourism. 2009. http://www.travelhudsonvalley.org/. Retrieved 2011-09-29. 
2. ^ Ruttenberg, Edward Manning (1872). History of the Indian tribes of Hudson's River: Their Origin, Manners and Customs, Tribal and Sub-tribal Organizations, Wars, Treaties, etc.. Albany, NY: J. Munsell. OCLC 85801464. http://www.archive.org/details/historyindiantr01ruttgoog. 
3. ^ Wermuth, Thomas S.; Johnson, James M.; Pryslopski, Christopher, eds (2009). America's first river: the history and culture of the Hudson River Valley. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0615308296. 
4. ^ Dunn, Shirley W. (2009). The River Indians – Mohicans Making History. Purple Mountain Press. ISBN 978-0916346782. 
5. ^ Gehring, Charles T.; Starna, William A., "Dutch and Indians in the Hudson Valley: The Early Period". Wermuth et al., pp. 13–29.
6. ^ Thomas, A and Smith, P; Upstate down: thinking about New York and its discontents University Press of America 2009, p78
7. ^ Glatthaar, Joseph T., and Martin, James Kirby (2007). Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution, p. 39. Macmillan. ISBN 0809046008.
8. ^ Stanne, Stephen P., et al. (1996). The Hudson: An Illustrated Guide to the Living River, p. 120. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813522714.
9. ^ Hirschl, Thomas A.; Heaton, Tim B. (1999). New York State in the 21st Century. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 126–128. ISBN 027596339X. 
10. ^ Dunwell, Francis F. (2008). The Hudson: America's river. Columbia University Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0231136419. 
11. ^ Collins, Clay (2011-01-01). "Venison juniper berry marinade". The Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food/Stir-It-Up/2011/0103/Venison-juniper-berry-marinade. Retrieved 2011-09-29. "Christmas at my German in-laws’ house in New York’s Hudson Valley – America’s Rhineland – means goose, red cabbage, and klösse (potato dumplings)." 
12. ^ "Grapes of the Hudson Valley". Hudson Valley Wine Magazine. http://www.hvwinemag.com/Grapes_riesling.html. Retrieved 2011-09-29. "The Hudson Valley’s beautiful river, shorelines and mountains have led some to call our valley ‘America’s Rhineland.’" 
13. ^ "Physiographic divisions of the conterminous U. S.". U.S. Geological Survey. http://water.usgs.gov/GIS/metadata/usgswrd/XML/physio.xml. Retrieved 2007-12-06. 
14. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". Hudson River PCBs. New York, NY: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.epa.gov/hudson/faqs.htm. Retrieved 2011-09-29. 
15. ^ Silverman, B et al; Frommer's New York State Frommer's 2009, p196

Further reading

• Donaldson Eberlein, Harold; Van Dyke Hubbard, Cortlandt (1942). Historic houses of the Hudson valley. New York: Architectural Book Pub. Co. OCLC 3444265. 
• Historic Hudson Valley (1991). Visions of Washington Irving: Selected Works From the Collections of Historic Hudson Valley. Tarrytown, NY: Historic Hudson Valley. ISBN 9780912882994. 
• Hudson Valley Health Systems Agency (1993). Health Maintenance Organizations in the Hudson Valley Region. Tuxedo, NY: Hudson Valley Health Systems Agency. OCLC 30910810. 
• McMurry, James; Jones, Jeff (1974). The Catskill Witch and Other Tales of the Hudson Valley. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. ISBN 9780815601050. 
• Mylod, John (1969). Biography of a River: The People and Legends of the Hudson Valley. New York: Hawthorn Books. OCLC 33563. 
• Howat, John K. (1972). The Hudson River and Its Painters. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 9780670385584. 
• Marks, Alfred H. (1973). Literature of the Mid Hudson Valley: A Preliminary Study. New Paltz, NY: Center for Continuing Education, State University College. OCLC 1171631. 
• Talbott, Hudson (2009). River of Dreams: The Story of the Hudson River. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 9780399245213. 
• Wallkill Valley Publishing Association (1904). The Historic Wallkill and Hudson River Valleys. Walden, NY: Wallkill Valley Publishing Association. OCLC 13418978. http://www.archive.org/details/historicwallkill07wall. 
• Wharton, Edith (1929). Hudson River Bracketed. New York: D. Appleton & Company. OCLC 297188. 
• Wilkinson Reynolds, Helen (1965). Dutch houses in the Hudson Valley before 1776. New York: Dover Publications. OCLC 513732. 

External links

• Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area
• Hudson River Valley Greenway
• Hudson River Valley Heritage: digital collection of historical materials
• Livingston-Svirsky Archive (LiSA)
• Greene County, New York