Defining Catskills

This is something I’ve never come across before, and I’d like to share the information. A book, The Catskills, written by Arthur Adams said, “The precise definition of the Catskill Mountain Area is a subject that has been a center of controversy for many years. Originally the name applied only to those mountains west of the village of Catskill and lying entirely in Greene County and to the north of the Plattekill Clove behind Saugerties. They ranged northwest to Huntersfield Mountain north of Ashland, and it was questionable if they included the Hunter Mountain or Plateau Mountain – Sugarloaf Mountain - Twin Mountain  - Indian Head range. The center of the classic Catskills was at the Catskill Mountain House and the Kaaterskill Falls and Clove. North and South Mountains and the Kaaterskill High Peak were the best-known portion of this area. The front escarpment was known as The Great Wall of Manitou (a supernatural spirit in Algonquian culture, can control nature), and it was atop this wall that sat the Mountain House.”

Adams said it was tourism that brought Overlook Mountain in Ulster County attached to the Hunter Mountain massif, bringing the Plattekill Clove and Schoharie watersheds clearly into the Catskills.

Other events happened that extended the title of The Catskills, but it was over 50 years ago, in 1973 that the State of New York officially extended the definition by an act of the legislature the Temporary State Commission to study the Catskills and mandated them to study six counties as well as a few townships. This brought the Helderbergs, Shawangunk’s,   Cooperstown, and Plattekill Hills of Southern Ulster County along the Hudson to fall under the heading  of the Catskill Mountains.

Thanks for reading.

I hope you are enjoying your rapidly passing summer!

Dede Terns-Thorpe/Hunterhistorian@gmail.com