North–South Lake
North-South Lake | |
---|---|
![]() View from Sunset Rocks | |
Location | Greene County, New York |
Coordinates | 42°11′56.87″N 74°2′27.86″W / 42.1991306°N 74.0410722°W |
Basin countries | United States |
Surface area | 83 acres (34 ha) |
Average depth | 5.6 ft (1.7 m) |
North–South Lake is an 1,100-acre (4.4 km2) state campground in the
The area is rich in history. It was a favorite subject of painters in the Hudson River School, particularly Thomas Cole. For a long time, the prestigious resort hotels in the area made it synonymous with the Catskills.
Today, the area provides hiking, swimming, boating (no motors), and fishing.
History
Early America
The North–South Lake area is not only the beginning of the recreational history of the Catskills, but "America's First Wilderness."
This goes back to the years before the
Hudson River School
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/North-South_Lake2.jpg/300px-North-South_Lake2.jpg)
In the early years of the 19th century, American artists seeking a subject matter unique to the new nation were drawn away from New York City and up the Hudson Valley. There they focused on the wildness of the landscape where mountains drew close to the river, first in the Hudson Highlands and then, further north, the Catskill Escarpment, where mountains rise to nearly 4,000 feet (1219 m) from a flat valley floor. Their work was known, at first derisively, as the Hudson River School and eventually became America's first homegrown artistic movement.
On that escarpment they found the two lakes. Painters like Thomas Cole depicted them [1] Archived 2007-04-20 at the Wayback Machine in many works that sold far and wide.
Resort hotels
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Catskill_Mountain_House_View.jpg/300px-Catskill_Mountain_House_View.jpg)
Cole would be a frequent guest at, and lend his fame to, the Catskill Mountain House, built in 1823 by a group of businessmen from the nearby village of Catskill on the "Pine Orchard" overlook that the Bartrams had made famous in their visit 70 years earlier. In 1839, Charles Beach took over. He made it into a premiere attraction for the country's elite, a sort of Hamptons of its day where politicians (including some presidents), captains of industry, artists, poets and writers would rub shoulders, admire the view, take walks in the adjacent forests by day and excellent dinners by night.
The hotel owners told guests that an Indian legend had it that the two lakes were the eyes of a fallen giant, and his buried body the escarpment itself (in reality, there is no such legend).
Other hotels were built in the area. Beach's remark to a dissatisfied guest, a Philadelphia businessman, that he should build himself his own hotel led to the creation of the Hotel Kaaterskill near the top of neighboring South Mountain, and the smaller Laurel House Hotel on Laurel House Road in Haines Falls, N.Y. boasted control over one of the top attractions of the area, Kaaterskill Falls.
The popularity of the resorts led to the construction of
The area's reputation suffered a major blow in the early 1880s when
In the early 20th century the hotels began to decline as other mountain regions in the
Fires leveled both the Kaaterskill and Laurel; neither was ever rebuilt.
Public ownership
In 1929 the state parks department, under the leadership of Robert Moses, took advantage of the downturn in the hotel business to acquire some of the land around the lakes and keep them "forever wild" under Article 14 of the New York State Constitution. At that time the two lakes were separated by an earthen dam, and South Lake and the land east of North Lake beach were privately owned. The original campground consisted of 10 sites (there are currently 219 sites) and a small picnic area. The beaches were added in 1936.
Eventually, the state was able to acquire all the land save that around the original Mountain House, which finally closed for good after a failed attempt to revive and relaunch it in 1940. After the war that, too, would come into state ownership.
While
In the 1970s, the dam between the lakes was removed and a new dam built at the outlet of South Lake to create one large lake.
Today
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/North-South_Lake.jpg/220px-North-South_Lake.jpg)
The campground now plays host to 219 sites and thousands of visitors, both day and overnight, annually. It is the most popular state property in the Catskill Park.
Visitors can choose from a wide array of recreation, either waterborne or land-based. The most common activity is the same as it was in the days of the Mountain House ... hiking via the many trails to nearby points of interest such as the ruins of the Kaaterskill and the Mountain House, Kaaterskill Falls, Mary's Glen and its smaller waterfall, and the many views of the Hudson Valley along the Escarpment Trail. The latter retain names from the 19th century such as "Artists' Rock." Some have etchings dating back to those days as well.
The hardiest visitors usually take in the trip up North Mountain to the views at North Point.
Closer to the ground, there are also many clever balanced-rock displays made by hotel guests. One rarely missed is Alligator Rock, in which a pair of
DEC charges a
North–South Lake was used in the music video by the band Simple Minds for their song Alive and Kicking. The song reached No.3 on the US Billboard.
See also
References
- ^ "North-South Lake Campground & Day Use Area". New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)