The Heart of the Catskills [Paperback]

Bob Steuding (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 18, 2008

The Heart of the Catskills by Bob Steuding, author of the popular and highly acclaimed The Last of the Handmade Dams: The Story of the Ashokan Reservoir describes the early settlement of the part of the Catskills centered on its highest peak, Slide Mountain; the area's exploitation by the tanning industry; and the building of the Grand Hotel near Belleayre Mountain. He presents the stories of colorful personalities, such as Jim Dutcher, the mountain man; John Burroughs, the writer and naturalist; and others, who once peopled this wild and beautiful place.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A writer on Catskill Mountain and Hudson Valley subjects since the 1960s, Bob Steuding has served the region as a teacher, town historian, and county poet laureate. A native of the Catskills, Steuding is the author of two collections of poetry--Ashokan and Winter Sun--as well as A Catskill Mountain Journal; a critical biography of Pulitzer Prize poet Gary Snyder; and two other regional histories--The Last of the Handmade Dams: The Story of the Ashokan Reservoir, Rondout: A Hudson River Port. Bob lives with his wife Martha in Olivebridge, NY. near the Ashokan Reservoir and is a Professor of English and Philosophy at SUNY Ulster.

Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Purple Mountain Press; First edition (October 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930098928
• ISBN-13: 978-1930098923
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,543,924 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thorough and Fascinating Book, March 6, 2010

By 

Peter Weissman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Heart of the Catskills (Paperback)

As one among the numerous "transplants" from New York City who have settled in the Mid-Hudson Valley over the past few decades, it's embarrassing to admit how little I knew about the place I've now lived for twenty-plus years ... even as I've developed an appreciation for the landscape that goes beyond its obvious attraction to tourists in spring, summer, and fall, and to the skiers who ply the high Catskill slopes in the winter.

Bob, who's a friend of mine, has been just about forever. A Kingston native now living in Shokan (hard by the reservoir) and working out of his restored Dutch house, he uncovered marvelous old photographs of the old towns and cities, resort hotels and tanneries, for this book. And he matched them with a comprehensive written history that covers the region with the thoroughness of a microscope. The naturalist John Burroughs (of Roxbury) is in here--hiking the highest peak in the Catskills, Slide Mountain, to mourn the death of his friend Walt Whitman--and the painter Frederic Church, of the "Hudson River School," whose home at Olana is now a national landmark.

But much of the Catskill story is about environmental degradation--of the streams, as a result of the mid-nineteenth century tanneries; of species of birds and fish, from hunters and stream diversion for the luxury hotels and later the reservoirs; and ultimately, so far as many old-timers who live here are concerned, the worst of all: construction of the New York City reservoirs.

Wisely, Bob mentions but holds back on this last: the eminent domain destruction of towns and hamlets in order to flood the landscape and build the great reservoirs that would (and still) supply the city with what's purported to be the cleanest water in the world: the Cannonsville, Pepacton, Ashokan, and Neversink. It's the topic of the book he's currently working on.

I Think, Therefore Who Am I?