Verkeerder Kill
Verkeerder Kill | |
---|---|
Wawarsing | |
• coordinates | 41°41′41″N 74°19′39″W / 41.69472°N 74.32750°W |
• elevation | 2,060 ft (630 m) |
Mouth | Shawangunk Kill |
• location | SW of Pine Bush |
• coordinates | 41°36′7″N 74°19′33″W / 41.60194°N 74.32583°W |
• elevation | 333 ft (101 m) |
Length | 8 mi (13 km), North-south |
The Verkeerder Kill, sometimes Verkeerderkill and locally shortened to Kaidy Kill
It is best known for
Course
The Verkeerder rises as two small streams a short distance apart in the
After another 500 feet, with the stream flowing on a bed of white stone, the Verkeerder Kill Falls Trail, part of the Long Path, fords the stream. Shortly afterwards, it reaches the distinctive cliffs of the Shawangunks and tumbles over Verkeerder Kill Falls, dropping 187 feet (57 m)[4] and entering the town of Shawangunk. Below the falls it continues to descend steeply down a wooded gorge, passing some remote houses as it continues to the south. Almost a mile (1.6 km) below the falls, it receives from the northwest its first tributary, the Lake Maratanza outlet brook.[3]
After descending another 100 feet (30 m) in its next quarter-mile (400 m), it reaches more gently sloping ground, having dropped 1,200 feet (370 m) in elevation during its first 2.5 miles (4.0 km). A half-mile (800 m) further to the south and 150 feet (50 m) below the foot of the ridge, still surrounded by woods, it flows under Indian Springs Road for its first road crossing. From here it veers to the southeast, crossing under two long dead-end roads in its next mile of woodlands with some cleared areas near the stream. The surrounding terrain levels out.[5]
For its next mile, the Verkeerder Kill returns to its southerly heading through unbroken forest. Shortly before reaching a wetland just under 500 feet (150 m) in elevation, it turns to the southwest. Half a mile downstream it turns southeast just before receiving its next tributary, the Murrays Pond outlet stream, from the west as well.[6]
Shortly afterwards, it begins flowing closely along Sinsabaugh Road, paralleling it as it bends back to the southwest and then southeast again over the next mile.[7] Here the woods begin to be broken by farmland. When the stream reaches the town's 83-acre (34 ha)[8] Verkeerderkill Park on its west a half-mile below the Murrays Pond tributary confluence, a thin wooded buffer stands between it and open fields on either side.[9]
At the southeast corner of the park the stream crosses under
History
If the Iroquois or any of the other Native American tribes in the area had a name for the stream, it was never recorded before European colonization. The first known mention of it is in a 1717 land patent application by Johannes Hardenbergh, in which the stream is referred to as Verkerde Kill. Hardenbergh also notes that it was also known as Pakanasink Creek, a name now used for a tributary that flows into the Shawangunk just downstream of the Verkeerder from the other side, in Orange County.[1]
According to Shawangunks historian Marc Fried, the words "Verkeerder Kill" came from the Dutch for "wrong brook". Dutch was the first language of Hardenburgh and other settlers who had moved into the Shawangunk Valley since the 1680s.
The reason for this name has always been something of a mystery. Since it can also have the sense of "perverse", he had at first speculated that perhaps the stream had been at flood stage when the first explorers came to it, or someone had fallen into it and inadvertently named it with an ensuing ill-tempered outburst. But then Fried consulted with an expert on the New Netherland era, who told him that if that strongly pejorative meaning had truly been intended, a word more fully conveying that sense like slecht or quaad (spelled kwaad in modern Dutch) would have been used instead.[1]
This led him to propose that perhaps the name merely indicated an inaccuracy. "Pakanasink" had been used since 1684 to refer to the land around the Verkeerder Kill's lowest reaches, where Ulsterville is now, and by extension the Shawangunk Kill was also known during that time as Pakanasink Creek. It was possible that a later group of explorers had reached the area, and originally believed the stream flowing in from the west to be the Pakanasink, only to later learn that that name was already used for the Shawangunk above the confluence. They might, he reasoned, have then begun referring to that western tributary as "the wrong brook", a name that might well have persisted after the distinction no longer needed to be made.[1]
During the 19th century the stream took on a different alternate name, one that persists today, according to Fried. Locals began calling it Kaidy Kill or Cater Kill, finding the full name too challenging. An 1899 map gives both the long and short names for the stream. This created some confusion with
Ecology
Since it is surrounded by extensive forests along most of its course, the Verkeerder Kill is relatively unpolluted. New York's
Crossings
- Verkeerderkill Falls Trail (part of Long Path) via ford
- Indian Springs Road/Oregon Trail
- Indian Springs Camp Road
- Forestdale Lane
- New York State Route 52
- Johns Estate Road
- Burlingham Road (Ulster County Route 7)
- Ulsterville Road
- Pirog Road
See also
- List of rivers in New York
Other tributaries of the Shawangunk Kill:
- Dwaar Kill
- Little Shawangunk Kill
References
- ^ ISBN 9780966335125.
- ^ "Stream Trace Summary Report". United States Geological Survey. February 2, 2016. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
- ^ a b Napanoch Quadrangle – New York – Orange, Ulster Cos (Map). 1:24,000. USGS 7½-minute quadrangles. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
- ^ "Minnewaska State Park Preserve: Sam's Point Area". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. 2016. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
- ^ Napanoch Quadrangle – New York – Orange, Ulster Cos (Map). 1:24,000. USGS 7½-minute quadrangles. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
- ^ Napanoch Quadrangle – New York – Orange, Ulster Cos (Map). 1:24,000. USGS 7½-minute quadrangles. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
- ^ a b c Pine Bush Quadrangle – New York – Orange, Ulster Cos (Map). 1:24,000. USGS 7½-minute quadrangles. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
- ^ "Shawangunk Town Parks". Town of Shawangunk. 2016. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
- ^ ACME Mapper (Map). Cartography by Google Maps. ACME Laboratories. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
- ^ ACME Mapper (Map). Cartography by Google Maps. ACME Laboratories. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
- ^ a b "The Lower Hudson River Basin Waterbody Inventory and Priority Waterbodies List" (PDF). New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. August 2008. p. 279. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
- ^ "6 CRR-NY 701.6 Class A fresh surface waters". New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. 2016. Retrieved February 4, 2016.
External links
- Media related to Verkeerder Kill at Wikimedia Commons