Rondout Creek
The Rondout Creek is a 102 km long tributary of the Hudson River in the US state of New York .
It rises on Rocky Mountain in Ulster County in the eastern Catskills , flows south into the Rondout Reservoir and into the valley between the Catskills and the Shawangunk Ridge , where it falls over the High Falls and finally flows into the Hudson River at Kingston .
Thanks to the Wallkill River, the Rondout Creek drainage basin measures 2,850 square kilometers and covers the entire area as far as Sussex County , New Jersey . The rather high mountains on its upper course and around the reservoir, in which the water from three other drinking water reservoirs are brought together, contribute to the flow rate of the creek.
The waters became economically important in the 19th century when the Delaware and Hudson Canal was built following its course between Napanoch and Rondout , now part of Kingston , the latter growing rapidly to the northern port on the canal. Even today, the creek is of economic interest, not only because of the drinking water reservoir, but also because of the fishing and other recreational opportunities it provides.
Run
In its headwaters , above the drinking water reservoir, it is a typical mountain stream. Below the reservoir, the stream remains rocky, but widens at the bottom of a narrow valley. At Napanoch, where Rondout Creek bends northeast and receives its first major tributary, the Ver Nooy Kill , it becomes wider and deeper like the valley.
North of the Shawangunks , where the Wallkill River joins the Sturgeon Pool, the creek is wide enough in places to be called the Rondout River. At Creeklocks, the former northern outlet of the canal, Rondout Creek becomes wide and deep enough to be navigable, and several marinas are located on the banks of the water, which is over 30 meters wide at Kingston just before its mouth.
Catskills and headwaters
Rondout Creek rises below the pass between Rocky Mountain and Balsam Cap Mountain and flows south down the flank of Rocky Mountain into a narrow valley, receiving Picket Brook on the left and three unnamed streams coming from Peekamoose Mountain on the right . In the first two miles (3 km) of its course, the creek reaches private land and crosses the first street, Peekamoose Road (Ulster County 42). The river has descended by about 440 m. It bends southwest and follows a valley known locally as Peekamoose Gorge. Most of the land around the Creek is part of New York's Forest Preserve and is therefore not developed. The stony stream forms several popular natural swimming pools, of which the Blue Hole is known for the greenish hue of its deep water. South of the small stream that drains Peekamoose Lake, the creek crosses Peekamoose Road, which then initially runs high above its course, but then follows it closely.
In this area it receives several tributaries from the right - Buttermilk Falls Brook , High Falls Brook, and Bear Hole Brook . Most of them have their source, like Rondout Creek itself, in the Slide Mountain Wilderness Area to the west . Further east is another forest reserve, the Sundown Wild Forest , where some unnamed tributaries arise. Because of the forest sanctuaries on both parts of the creek and easy access to public land, the creek has become one of the most popular streams for catching trout .
The creek passes under the Peekamoose Road, which also leads the Long Path , directly north of a campsite in the Peekamoose Wild Forest again and then passes the hamlet of Sundown . It then becomes a little wider, and a flood plain forms on its banks. The land on the sides of the water is now largely privately owned, and public access to the creek is infrequent on its way into Sullivan County.
From the reservoir to Napanoch
After the creek passed under NY 55A , it widens to the reservoir below Grahamsville and begins to flow more in an east-southeast direction. NY 55 and NY 55A frame the reservoir to the south and north, respectively. After a third of the 14 km length, the reservoir crosses back into Ulster County. It is around 256 m above sea level. Below the drinking water reservoir, the creek continues on its way to the site of the former hamlet of Lackawack. He leaves Catskill Park , now facing east, in a stony, wide bed in an area with a little more buildings.
The creek is in close contact with State Route 55, from which it only deviates when it heads north to Honk Lake . Then he passes under NY 55 and reaches Napanoch. It runs under US 209 and the Ver Nooy Kill flows into it. Then Rondout Creek turns northeast, parallel to Shawangunk Ridge and the edge of the Catskill Plateau.
Rondout Valley
The creek is now deeper and wider and forms the bed of an expanding valley. It leads past the Eastern Correctional Facility , where the first remnant of the old canal is visible with an empty trench next to an abandoned railway station, further towards Kerhonkson , where NY 55 and US 44 cross the creek. US 209 runs parallel to the creek towards High Falls , where it makes a curve to the east that leads it around the northern end of Shawangunk Ridge.
Here the water falls over the waterfall , the landmark that gave the town its name, below NY 213 .
Lower reaches and Kingston
Around the northern end of the Shawangunks, Rundout Creek receives several streams from the Minnewaska State Preserve : Peters Kill , Stony Kill, and Coxing Kill . He then takes an easterly direction again. State Route 213 replaces State Route 209 as the road that runs parallel to the creek and the empty moat of the former canal to Rosendale , the next settlement in the valley that owes its existence to the construction of the canal and later to the cement factory that built the Kanal used to transport their products to customers.
Here the Roundout Creek is crossed by NY 213 and NY 32 . It runs in this area in a bed that has been straightened and banked for flood protection , but soon returns to a more natural bed as it runs below the New York State Thruway . In the wooded area east of the Thruway flows from the south of the Wallkill River , whose water is fed by the Sturgeon Pool, which is a little upstream . Rondout Creek turns north and then east again, crossing State Route 213 again. At Creeklocks, the last lock and the end of the canal are still visible.
In Kingston itself the creek widens and flows under two bridges; the historic Kingston – Port Ewen Suspension Bridge , which carried US 9W until the neighboring John T. Loughran Bridge was built. The West Strand neighborhood along the waterfront has become youthful in recent years, and numerous boats are moored here on summer weekends. The old shipyards of shipbuilders line the northern bank. One of these buildings was converted into the Hudson River Maritime Museum . After a gentle curve through more swampy and less built-up area in the Kingston Point district, Rondout Creek empties into the Hudson River at Rondout Light , directly across from Rhinecliff .
history
Colonial times
The early Dutch settlers quickly realized the value of Rondout Creek for their colonial goals and established a trading post in the early 17th century to trade with the Indians who were in the area. In 1652 the Englishman Thomas Chambers became the first permanent resident of the place where today's Kingston was formed. Compared to Esopus Creek , Rondout Creek played only a minor role in the early colonization period; the tributary of the Hudson River, located further to the north, was still navigable and had more arable land on its banks.
Era of the canal
Settlement progressed slowly into the hinterland, but it was well after the American Revolution before Rondout Creek became economically important. In the 1820s, two Philadelphia businessmen realized that huge profits could be made by finding a way to get the high quality anthracite coal from undeveloped Northeastern Pennsylvania to the lucrative markets of New York City . The railways were not yet sufficiently developed, and the two businessmen saw the possibility of building a canal from Honesdale , Pennsylvania to the Hudson River at what was then Rondout . In 1828 they started a company and a few years later the Delaware and Hudson Canal opened. Coal was transported on barges to the river boats at Rondout, and the place developed rapidly. The canal remained a thriving business until the end of the 19th century. Then rail transport finally became cheaper, and after a brief period of use to transport cement from Rosendale, the days of the canal ended in 1904. The former port area at the end of the canal is now on the National Register as part of the Rondout-West Strand Historic District of Historic Places .
Era of the drinking water reservoir
In the course of the 20th century the water received another important use. The naturalist John Burroughs had anticipated it when he roamed the headwaters of Rondout Creek with a friend at the beginning of the century and wrote his essay A Bed of Boughs , in which he reflected on the purity of water and its benefits for people and fish:
“My eyes had never before beheld such beauty in a mountain stream. The water was almost as transparent as the air — was, indeed, like liquid air; and as it lay in these wells and pits enveloped in shadow, or lit up by a chance ray of the vertical sun, it was a perpetual feast to the eye — so cool, so deep, so pure; every reach and pool like a vast spring. You lay down and drank or dipped the water up in your cup, and found it just the right degree of refreshing coldness. One is never prepared for the clearness of the water in these streams. It is always a surprise. See them every year for a dozen years, and yet, when you first come upon one, you will utter an exclamation. I saw nothing like it in the Adirondacks, nor in Canada. Absolutely without stain or hint of impurity, it seems to magnify like a lens, so that the bed of the stream and the fish in it appear deceptively near. It is rare to find even a trout stream that is not a little 'off color,' as they say of diamonds, but the waters in the section of which I am writing have the genuine ray; it is the undimmed and untarnished diamond.
If I were a trout, I should ascend every stream till I found the Rondout. It is the ideal brook. "
Beginning in 1915 with the Ashokan Reservoir , the New York City government expanded the city's water supply with the construction of drinking water reservoirs in the Catskills. In 1937 construction began on Merriman Dam near Lackawack, with which the pure water Burroughs had written about was dammed and, from 1951, fed to the city's waterworks. Today, the reservoir provides half of the city's daily water requirements via the Delaware Aqueduct and its connection through the Neversink Aqueduct to the Neversink , Pepacton and Cannonsville reservoirs further west.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map
- ↑ a b COASTAL FISH & WILDLIFE HABITAT RATING FORM for Rondout Creek ( English , PDF;) Archived from the original on March 27, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
- ↑ Peak Streamflow data for New York, Rondout Creek ( English ) Retrieved on May 1, 2012th
- ↑ United States Geological Survey (USGS). Peekamoose Mountain quadrangle - Ulster County, New York [map]. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
- ↑ USGS. Rondout Reservoir quadrangle - Ulster and Sullivan counties, New York [map]. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
- ↑ a b A Tale of Two Ports: Newburgh and Kingston on the Hudson ( English ) Archived from the original on January 28, 2008. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 1, 2012.
- ↑ John Burroughs : A Bed of Boughs ; published 1910 in: In the Catskills ; Retrieved from catskillarchive.com on May 1, 2012.
