At some point in our studies, it’s impressed on us that, if he had wanted to, George Washington could have become King of America. But we’re never told exactly where or under what circumstances that happened. The answer may surprise you.
“Every trail has a unique challenge, so I started to seek out techniques from other trades, whether it’s rigging from sailors or from the stone-quarry industries… The rocks I set in place will still be there until the next Ice Age. That’s very rewarding.”
The eminent Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus, father of modern taxonomy, called Bartram “the greatest natural botanist in the world.” And aristocrats eagerly awaited the arrival of their “Bartram’s Boxes”: bundles of seeds, saps and specimens shipped from North America. What brought him to the Catskills?
Having previously created large-scale images of Elvis, Einstein, the Statue of Liberty and Jimi Hendrix in a field in Ellenville by expertly manipulating a lawnmower, Roger Baker fired up his push-mower by Sandburg Creek and began crafting Beethoven’s eyes in May 2016. The completed drawing on the living canvas of grass culminated in a series of performances of Beethoven’s music held on-site. Days later, as the grass grew and the dark and light areas melded together, the image vanished. It lives on in John Hazard’s new film.
One wouldn’t think that people in the business of hunting whales far out at sea would ever have imagined Hudson to be an auspicious place to set up shop. But they did, beginning in 1783, just as the Revolutionary War was drawing to a close.
Considered by many to be the jewel of the Hudson River bridges, the Mid-Hudson Bridge was created by the famous bridge designer Ralph Modjeski. And the financing of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge is considered by many to be an innovative precursor of FDR’s New Deal economic systems.
The annual meeting of the New Paltz Study Club was held Tuesday at the home of Mrs. Bowman LeFever. The following officers for the year were elected: President, Miss Cora DuBois; secretary, Mrs. Louis D. LeFevre; treasurer, Mrs. Stahl. Miss Ella McLaury had charge of the program, which consisted of readings and phonographic selections portraying the humorous side of life among the American, British and Canadian soldiers during the war.
No legend in the making is impervious to the first gush of early praise. But a roster of remarkable players have much to say on behalf of Chogyi Lama so we’ll have to gamble on his humility holding up. Thursday night, April 4, Chogyi will begin his evening with an acoustic set at Colony Woodstock, 22 Rock City Road, featuring Daniel Littleton and local phenom singer Olivia Gabriel, before leading his own full band in a set.
The ‘‘Our town’’ column is compiled each month for the New Paltz Times by Carol Johnson, coordinator of the Haviland-Heidgerd Historical Collection. The entries have been copied from the March issues of the New Paltz Independent.
Betty Ballantine, editorial half of the husband/wife team who pioneered the American paperback, died — as she’d wished she might — in her home on Ballantine Hill in Bearsville.