Viewed from New Paltz, Bonticou is that first notable white outcrop to the north of Sky Top. Some accounts claim that it was named after an early surveyor; others that the Bonte Coe (Spotted Cow in Dutch) was, like the Gilded Otter, one of the ships that brought European settlers to the area. Whatever it means, locals tend to pronounce it “Bontikyew,” not “Bontikoo.”
The Catskill Mountains are crisscrossed with political and cultural lines that meander across the landscape like so many invisible trout streams, carving the landscape into more tame and manageable pieces. The result of all this slicing and dicing is that little attention gets paid to the Catskills as a whole, either by its own residents or by the larger powers that be.
If the national news doesn’t visit every few years for organic reasons, someone will do something to induce it.
Finding glycine among the raven clouds of night, amidst the Milky Way that spreads across the heavens these very nights, is stunning.
The world was opening up to scientific study in the 18th century, and many men took up the study of botany. Jane Colden is the first female on record to have done so. And her Flora — Nov Eboracensis is one of the most extensive botanical studies of a single region carried out at the time.
‘The nice thing about being a community pharmacist is that we are pretty much the most accessible health care professional.’
Folks come from miles around to stock up on delicious pierogies and other Eastern European fare.
The Youngbloods immortalized Spring Weekend at SUNY-New Paltz in 1970 by putting a shot of the crowd on the back cover of their album. That famous two-day concert also featured performances by Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker and Leon Russell.
Though public record is mute, word has come our way that the head of Lincoln was carved by one Ugo Lavaggi, whose grandson, Robert Lavaggi, sells organic vegetables (in season) at the top of Wittenberg hill, and who was more than pleased to speak to us about his grandfather two Sundays ago, on that very snowy Lincoln’s birthday.
It’s one of the most enduring and tantalizing local legends you’ll ever wonder about. Was novelist Stephen King inspired to write “The Shining,” one of his most famous horror stories, after visits to Mohonk Mountain House?