Quassaick Creek
Quassaick Creek Quassaic Creek | |
---|---|
City of Newburgh, Town of New Windsor | |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | E of Tuckers Corner |
• coordinates | 41°39′45″N 74°01′34″W / 41.66250°N 74.02611°W |
• elevation | 680 ft (210 m) |
Mouth | Hudson River |
• coordinates | 41°29′16″N 74°00′26″W / 41.48778°N 74.00722°W |
• elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• right | Bushfield Creek |
Quassaick Creek (Quassaic Creek on federal maps;
It was one of the earliest places settled by Europeans in the vicinity of what is present-day Newburgh. Milling and other industries were drawn to its banks, and it is impounded several times in its lower course, most significantly at Chadwick Lake, the Town of Newburgh's local water supply. The industrial development of the lower banks led to serious pollution of the creek in the 20th century. In the wake of successful cleanup efforts, some local citizens and organizations have proposed a system of parks and trails along the lower creek.[5]
Course
The creek rises on the western slope of the long glacial ridge known as
After the dam, NY 300 crosses and Quassaick Creek remains parallel what is now Route 300 as it continues south. Here the surrounding land grows more developed and primarily residential. Finally, just north of Newburgh's Town Hall, it crosses 300 again and turns to the east, paralleling Gardnertown Road for almost a mile to county-owned Algonquin Park. In the marshes at the southeastern corner, it receives Bushfield Creek, its largest and only named tributary, then crosses under NY 52 and into another impoundment, Winona Lake, which gives the suburban area and its local fire district their name.
From the lake's decaying
History
In 1709, over 50
As the settlement grew into the city, and other towns were established nearby, both before and after
In 1879 a large
The dam creating Chadwick Lake along the creek further upstream, where water came from lands that remain rural, was built by the Chadwick family in 1926. The lake was built for recreational purposes and remained in private hands until the Town of Newburgh purchased it for use as a water supply in 1962. Throughout the rest of the century, the factories clustered along the creek in the city of Newburgh continued to freely discharge wastes into it.
Nothing was done about this until 1984, when
He and Cronin hiked along the lower seven miles (11 km) of the creek, taking notes and photos wherever they could. They dived and swam into ponds to collect samples, exposing themselves to raw
In December 2023, the organization Riverkeeper was awarded nearly 4 million dollars in federal funding to remove Holden Dam, now failing and obsolete, from Quassaick Creek.[13]
See also
References
- ^ "Quassaick Creek.org". Archived from the original on 2003-07-15. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Quassaic Creek
- ^ French, J. H. (John Homer); Place, Frank (1860). Gazetteer of the State of New York: embracing a comprehensive view of the geography, geology, and general history of the State, and a complete history and description of every county, city, town, village, and locality. With full tables of statistics. Syracuse, N.Y., R.P. Smith. p. 509.
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed October 3, 2011
- ^ "Goals". Archived from the original on 2008-11-18. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
- ^ McTamaney, Mary (2006). "History of the City of Newburgh - European Settlement". Retrieved 2008-02-14.
Newburgh's first settlers arrived in the spring of 1709 — a ship of refugees originally from the Palatinate, a strip of land along the middle of the Rhine. Driven out by Louis XIV, the Palatines had taken shelter in England. Queen Anne sponsored their passage, granted them the land north of Quassaick Creek and charged them to make it productive. Soon the land was divided and conveyed officially to the Palatine settlers ... In 1714 a patent from King George awarded 50 acres (200,000 m2) to every man woman and child on the land,
- ^ Anderson, George (2006-06-01). "The Palatines" (pdf). United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada. p. 3. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
All traces of the first Palatine settlement have vanished from Quassaick Creek.
- ^ Ruttenber, Edward and Tice, Charles, History of the Town of Newburgh; 1859, E.M. Ruttenber & Co., 133.
- ^ "Not Pleasant Neighbors; A Tramps' Encampment at New-Windsor" (pdf). The New York Times. 1879-07-09. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
- ^ Werth, Barry (November 1997). "Somewhere Down the Crazy River". Outside. Archived from the original on May 25, 2006. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
- ^ "The Laws of Nature: A Profile of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr". DigitalJournal.com. 2004-11-27. Retrieved 2008-02-14.
Kennedy is in this fight for the long haul; he discovered his own life in the polluted waters of upstate New York, and he will not rest until he has cleaned up every stream.
- Times-Herald Record. Retrieved 2008-02-15.
- ^ Bellamy, Lana. "Riverkeeper gets $4M federal grant to remove dam in Orange County". Times Union. Retrieved 2024-02-05.