Catskill Mountains
| Catskill Mountains | ||
|---|---|---|
| Highest peak | Slide Mountain ( 1277 m ) | |
| location | New York State | |
| part of | Appalachian Mountains | |
|
||
| Coordinates | 42 ° 0 ′ N , 74 ° 23 ′ W | |
| surface | 15,259 km² | |
The Catskill Mountains ( Dutch : hangover Bach ; -kill = Bach ) than the boom of the Appalachian Mountains , a low mountain range in the US state of New York .
geography
The Catskill Mountains are located in Otsego , Delaware , Sullivan , Schoharie , Greene and Ulster Counties , a highly divided area of the Allegheny Plateau, which consists of sandstone on the surface .
In the north and east they are bounded by the valleys of the Mohawk ( Helderberg Mountains ) and the Hudson , the mountains drain mainly into the Delaware River . Some peaks reach heights of over 1000 m, the highest mountain is Slide Mountain at 1277 m . Around 100,000 hectares of the mountains are designated as a nature reserve ( Catskill Park ). The vegetation consists of mixed deciduous and coniferous forest .
Reservoirs such as Rondout, Downsville, Neversink and Ashokan ensure the water supply for the city of New York.
In the west of the Catskill Mountains, north of Roscoe, the fictional place Agloe, known from the novel Margo's footsteps , is shown on some maps .
Naming
The mountain range got its name from the settlement of Catskill, located at the mouth of the stream of the same name in the Hudson, which was created in the north of the former Dutch colony of Nieuw Nederland . From the small ridge between the center of Catskill and the Hudson, a particularly impressive panorama of the mountain range opens up to the west.
history
When the Dutch spread in the Hudson Valley in the first half of the 17th century, the Munsee people lived in the Catskill Mountains , the main northern group of the Lenni Lenape . Most of them fell victim to diseases brought in by the Dutch.
Not least thanks to the story Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving , published in 1819 and set in the "Kaatskill" mountains, the previously little-known Catskills received national attention. The simultaneous boom in steamship travel on the Hudson made it possible for New Yorkers to go on excursions into the Catskills.
tourism
The Catskill Mountains have been a popular vacation spot for New Yorkers ever since. In the area in particular are skiing , hiking and mountain bike ride very popular. There are numerous campsites. Water sports are very popular on Esopus Creek , a tributary of the Hudson.
From the 1920s onwards, numerous holiday settlements for New York Jews were built in the Catskill Mountains. The region, therefore colloquially known as the “ Borscht Belt ”, was a popular summer holiday destination, especially from the 1940s to the 1960s. Several comedians began their careers there, including Danny Kaye , Rodney Dangerfield , Henny Youngman and Don Rickles .
Web links
- http://www.catskillguide.com/ (Engl.)
literature
- Kenneth Myers: The Catskills. Painters, writers, and tourists in the mountains 1820-1895 . Hudson River Museum of Westchester, Yonkers 1987, ISBN 0-943651-05-0 .
- Stephen M. Silverman, Raphael D. Silver: The Catskills. Its History and How It Changed America . Penguin, New York 2015, ISBN 978-0-307-27215-7 .
Footnotes
- ↑ Jaap Jacobs: New Netherland. A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America . Brill, Leiden 2005, p. 48.
- ↑ Kenneth Myers: The Catskills. Painters, writers, and tourists in the mountains 1820–1895 . Hudson River Museum of Westchester, Yonkers 1987, p. 22.
- ↑ Jaap Jacobs: New Netherland. A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America . Leiden 2005, ISBN 90-04-12906-5 , p. 24.
- ↑ Kenneth Myers: The Catskills. Painters, writers, and tourists in the mountains 1820–1895 . Hudson River Museum of Westchester, Yonkers 1987, p. 33.
- ↑ Kenneth Myers: The Catskills. Painters, writers, and tourists in the mountains 1820–1895 . Hudson River Museum of Westchester, Yonkers 1987, p. 32.