The Catskill Mountains, Pine Hill and Summit Mountain (Classic Reprint)

The Catskill Mountains, Pine Hill and Summit Mountain (Classic Reprint) PDF

Author: J. Z. Butler

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2018-01-14

Total Pages: 46

ISBN-13: 9780483089396

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Excerpt from The Catskill Mountains, Pine Hill and Summit Mountain First - As TO the region, and its special attractions and advantages - Every frequented locality, both of the Northern and Southern Catskills, has much to commend it to the tourist and the Summer sojourner. But, after considerable experience and a fair knowledge of other sections, my judgment is clear that no other region combines so many advantages as the vicinity of Pine Hill and the Summit Mountain, in the vital matters of pure atmosphere, of widely extended, richly diversified and beautiful views, and of variety in the means of invigoration and enjoyment. For purity of atmosphere it cannot be sur passed, since it lies in the heart of the mountain mass, so that the breezes from every quarter sweep over twenty to thirty miles of lofty and wooded hills. A simple statement as to the relative position of the included and outlying hills will indicate the character of the views and the variety of possible excursions. The hill above and west of the Village, which has many stumps of the great pines that gave name to the place, is itself an extended spur of the Belle Ayr Mountain. At its lowest elevation, where the railroad passes, it is feet; it then rises into Summit Mountain, feet above the sea level. Both Hill and Mountain form a watershed, dividing the small streams, which find their way on either side to the distant Delaware or the nearer Hudson. The Summit Mountain, too, less than three-quarters of a mile in length by an eighth in breadth, stands entirely apart. In a quadrangle of loftier mountains, affording from its top a view of almost unequalled beauty, reaching, with unintercepted vision, from five to twenty miles in every direcuon. More than this, its peculiar position in relation to the deep valleys on either side, together With the many diverse lines and angles of eight dis tinct mountain masses, outlying in as many directions, change the view at almost every step, holding an appreciative observer in a constant charm and as the grouping of hill, and vale, and mountain is thus alwavs shifting, the corresponding harmonious changes of light and shadow in the sky add their varied beauty to the vision. Beside the many easily accessible hill-points, with their attraction, there are brook-courses, and shaded ravines. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Making Mountains

Making Mountains PDF

Author: David Stradling

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2009-11-23

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 0295989890

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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.