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THE SOJOURNER WEBLOG
A Great View Of Bannerman Castle
Here's a video tour of one of the Hudson Valley's most intriguing spots, Bannerman Castle on Pollepel Island in the Hudson River between Cold Spring and Beacon. For those of you who have had only a quick glimpse from Metro North or a sneak peak between the trees while on Route ...

Help Our Hudson Valley Libraries- Urge Legislature To Reject Latest Cuts To Libraries
The Governor has proposed in the 2010-2011 Executive Budget a $2.4 million cut in Library Aid. This will be the fifth cut in two years and will bring Library Aid down from $102 million in 2007 to $84.5 million in 2010. These cuts combined total an $18 million ...

Victorian Tea Party For Kids At Brookside
Brookside would like to invite area kids to a Victorian Tea Party during the Winter School Recess on Wednesday, February 17, 2010. Sue McLane, the Victorian Lady, will guide the kids through a celebration of Victorian culture, learning about clothing, manners, and pastimes. The children will also plan, prepare, and ...

Hudson Valley Produce In Winter At Wintergreens
Wintergreens, a Community Supported Agriculture program in Beacon, NY keeps local produce coming even in winter. Wintergreens offers its members fresh, frozen, dried, and preserved vegetables, herbs, fungi, fruit, sprouts, wildfoods, grains, and more. All produce comes from local sources using eco and health conscious farming, preparation, and storage methods. Here's ...

New York Haitian Earthquake Family Resource Center
The State of New York, with support from New York City agencies, opened the New York Haitian Earthquake Family Resource Center today, February 1, 2010. The center is located in the New York National Guard Armory at 1579 Bedford Avenue, between Union and President Streets in Brooklyn. The Center ...

The Hudson Valley

Provided by Wikipedia

The Hudson Valley refers to the canyon of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, generally from northern Westchester County northward to the city of Albany. Historically a cradle of European settlement in the northeastern United States and a strategic battleground in colonial wars, it now forms a rural enclave on the fringes on the metropolitan area of New York City.

Geographically the Hudson Valley could refer to all areas along the Hudson River, including the Bronx or even northeastern New Jersey. However, this definition is not commonly used.

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 Algonquin-speaking Mahican people. The first Dutch settlement was in the 1610s with the establish of a trading post (factorij) south of modern-day Albany, with the purpose of exchanging European goods for beaver pelts. During the rest of the 1600s, 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.

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.

The valley became of the most important regions of conflict during the American Revolution. Part of the early strategory of the British was to sever the colonies in two by maintaining control of the river.

In the early 1800s, 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 the New York (see The Legend of Sleepy Hollow).

Following the building of the Erie Canal, the area became an important industrial center and remained so until the mid 20th century, when many of the industrial towns went into decline.

It also was the location of the estates of many wealthy New York industrialists, such as John David Rockefeller, and of old-moneyed tycoons such as Franklin Roosevelt, who was a descendant of one the early Dutch families in the region.

The area is associated with the Hudson River School, a group of American Romantic painters who worked from about 1830 to 1870.



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Poughkeepsie Highland Railroad Bridge, Now & Then
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