PURPLE MOUNTAIN PRESS
BOOKS ABOUT NEW YORK'S
MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS
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In this section:
The Catskills •
The Capital •
The Mohawk Valley - Central New York
The Adirondacks •
The Champlain Valley •
The Lake George Area
The Shawangunks •
The Hudson Valley
THE CATSKILLS
General Books • Art and Architcture • Folklore • Mystery FictionDelaware County • Sullivan County • Ulster County
General
Chains, Links, and Gavels
The Surveyor in the Courtroom
Norman J. Van Valkenburgh
109 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, 2005
12.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
Land surveyor Norm Van Valkenburgh shares two boundry disputes that ended in trials, one in the western Catskills and one in the Shawangunks.
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When Cauliflower Was King
Diane Galusha
48 pages, illustrated, 5.5 x 8.5, 2004
6.50 booklet--A Purple Mountain Press original
When Cauliflower Was King describes the
birth, growth and demise of the cauliflower growing industry in the
Catskills. It contains 26 photographs and draws on information and memories
supplied by more than 60 people, as well as newspapers and other period
accounts.
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Old Stone Walls: Catskill Land and Lore
Norman J. Van Valkenburgh
109 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9,2004
12.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
Some walls are relics left by previous generations to record their history on the landscape of the Catskills. Those with dignity are followed confidently by land surveyors trying to research old deeds. Along the way they meet those characters who are a part of the lore of the mountains and other surveyors--some with character and some without. It's all here in the narratives of one who roamed these hills looking for the lost corners and boundary lines and found people, vistas, and experiences worth remembering.
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The Catskill Forest: A History
Michael Kudish
218 pages, illustrated, 8.5 x 11, index, 2000
45.00 laminated hardcover--A Purple Mountain Press original
The results of a 30-year study of the Catskill forest. The natural history of the forest from the last glaciation to the present. It is accompanied by a stunning, full-color map, 26" x 34", showing old growth, first and second growth, agricultural lands, burned areas, landslides, etc. The reverse in two colors shows forest-products industries and railroads, past and present.
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The Ulster and Delaware:
Railroad Through the Catskills
Gerald M. Best
210 pages, 320 illustratioms, 8.5 x 11, 2000, reprint
65.00 hardcover--A Purple Mountain Press reprint co-published with Golden West Books
The only history of the important line from Kingston to Oneonta that opened the central Catskills to tourism.
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Fire Towers of the Catskills: Their History and Lore
Martin Podskoch
120 pages, 150 illustrations, 8.5 x 11, 2000
20.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
At one time there 23 fire towers in and around the Catskills watching over the forest. The author tells their stories and about the five remaining in the Forest Preserve, restored by citizen volunteers.
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Cub Scouts Climb the Tower:
Hunter Mountain, 1963
Norman Van Valkenburgh, illustrated by Russell Van Valkenburgh
46 pages, illustrated, 5.5 x 8.5, 2000
6.00 booklet--A Purple Mountain Press children's original
The adventures of a den of cub scouts on a two-day hike to the Hunter Mountain fire tower. Their night in a lean-to part way up the mountain is shattered by a frightful thunderstorm. The next day they reach the summit and meet Casey, who staffs the tower and watches for forest fires.
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Dutch Schultz and His Lost Catskills' Treasure
John Conway
40 pages, illustrated, 5.5 x 8.5, 2000
6.50 booklet--A Purple Mountain Press original
One of America's most enduring lost treasure legends is that of Dutch Schultz, who many think secreted a vast fortune in or near the Central Catskills' hamlet of Phoenicia.
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Liquid Assets:
A History of New York City's Water System
Diane Galusha
303 pp, illustrated, 8.5 x 11, 2002
25.00 paperback--a Purple Mountain Press book.
This is the first history to treat as a whole this important subject.
It examines New York City's water system from colonial times to the
present: from early city wells to the building of its massive
upstate water collection and distribution system.
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The Catskills:
A Winter Sports Guide
George V. Quinn
112 pages, illustrated, 5.5 x 8.25, 2001
12.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original.
Enjoy the Catskills in winter. This book includes 35 trails and areas with descriptions, directions, maps, ratings and tips for cross-country, telemark, downhill, tobogganing, shoeshoeing, snow boarding.
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The Catskills:
A Geological Guide, Third Edition
Robert Titus
119 pages, illustrated, 7 x 10, 2004
14.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
The story of glaciers, continental collisions, lost mountain ranges, meteors from
space, fossil creatures and more.
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Catskill Weather
Jerome S. Thaler
167 pages, illustrated, 8.5 x 11, 1996
22.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
The hottest, coldest, wettest, driest, snowiest, earlist, latest--all are all
covered in detail along with weather averages, weather extremes, weather trends
and weather cycles.
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The Forest Preserve of New York State
in the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains:
A Short History
Norman J. Van Valkenburgh
39 pages, illustrated, 5.5 x 8.5, 1996
6.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press reprint co-published with the Adirondack
Research Library
An accessible history of often misunderstood subjects: the Forest Preserve and the
Adirondack and Catskills Parks.
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Rock and Woodstock
P. Smart and T. P. Moynihan
192 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9, 1994
13.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press book
Looks before and beyond the famous festivals at Woodstock as the place that nourished
rock and roll in America from Dylan, Morrison, Hendrix, Joplin and the Band through
jazz fusion.
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In the Catskill Mountains:
A Personal Approach to Nature
Walter F. Meade
127 pages, 63 color plates, 10 x 8, 1991
Originally published at 25.00, now on sale: 15.00 hardcover--A Purple Mountain Press book
One of the Catskills' most beloved storytellers was also one of its best nature
photographers. He tells of growing up in Roxbury and how, through the encouragement
of a few perceptive adults, he began to study to study and photograph nature at an
early age. His columns appeared regularly in Kaatskill Life and in The
Catskill Quarterly.
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The Last of the Handmade Dams: The Story of the Ashokan Reservoir
Bob Steuding
128 pages, illustrated, map, 5.5 x 8.5, 1989, revised edition
12.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press book
The dramatic story of the building of New York City's first and greatest Catskills' reservoir
and its impact on the land it covered and people it displaced.
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Folklore
A Catskill Woodsman:
Mike Todd's Story
As told by Norman Studer
122 pages, illustrated, 5.5 x 8.5, index, third printing
$12.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press reprint
Mike Todd (1877-1960) was a bear hunter, a fire observer, a water
witch, a raftsman, a quarryman, a musician, a poacher, but most of all,
he was a storyteller, the central Catskills most famous.
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Mystery Fiction
Murder in the Catskills
A Murder and a Mystery and a Bit of History by Norman J. Van Valkenburgh
109 pages, 6 x 9, 1992, reprinted 1998, 2001
$12.50
A Catskills land surveyor discovers a skelton on a high rock
deep in the woods. So begins the first Ward Eastman mystery, layered in
topography, genealogy, and history.
Mischief in the Catskills
A Ward Eastman mystery by Norman J. Van Valkenburgh
159 pages, 6 x 9, 1998
Surveyor-sleuth Ward Eastman returns to solve the mystery of a hunter
lost in a blinding Catskill Mountain snow storm: Did he perish in the
snow, was he murdered, or did he cleverly disappear to start a new life?
This mystery novella comes with five masterful short stories.
12.50 paperback- A Purple Mountain Press Mystery original
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Mayhem in the Catskills
A Ward Eastman mystery by Norman J. Van Valkenburgh
158 pages, 6 x 9, 1995
12.50 paperback
25.00 limited edition hardcover--A Purple Mountain Press mystery original
Ward Eastman, the mystery-solving surveyor who was the hero of Murder in the
Catskills returns to consider a locked-room mystery in a remote cabin in the
central Catskills.
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Delaware County
A Free Soil--A Free People:
The Anti-Rent War in Delaware County, New York
Dorothy Kubik
176 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9, index, 1997
An important treatment of the last year of the conflict that convulsed the Catskills
and Hudson Valley in the 1840s as it played itself out in Delaware County with the
murder of Undersheriff Osman Steele.
15.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press orginal
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Sullivan County
LOOMIS: The Man, The Sanitarium, and The Search for the Cure
John Conway
119 pages, 7 x 10, 2006
15.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
After curing himself and a younger colleague, Edward Livingston Trudeau, of tuberculosis and promoting the "Rest Cure" successfully at their sanitarium in Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks, Dr. Alfred Loomis (1831-1895) wanted another facility closer to New York City and its many poor who suffered from the disease. He chose Liberty in Sullivan County where thousands were treated in the decades before antibiotics were introduced. This new book by Sullivan County historian John Conway tells the story of the respected doctor and his Catskills' sanitarium, today an architectual treasure.
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Sullivan County Tales and Sketches
Stephen Crane, edited with an introduction by R. W. Stallman and a preface by John Conway
151 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, 1995 reprint
15.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press classic
Crane's earliest published pieces, all about Sullivan County, reveal the beginnings of
his development of a writer and themes that would be developed later in his famous
novels.
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Retrospect: An Anecdotal History of
Sullivan County
John Conway
148 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9, 1996
15.00 paperback- A Purple Mountain Press original
The best of Sullivan County lore by a great storyteller.
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Ulster County
Shandaken, New York: A Pictorial History
The Mountains Look Down:
208 pages, illustrated, 7 x 10, 1995
The Last of the Handmade Dams: The Story of the Ashokan Reservoir
Mohonk: Its People and Spirit
The People's Choice:
Schenectady Genesis:
Remembering the New York, Ontario & Western Railway
The Golden Age of Onondaga Lake Resorts
Marinus Willett: Defender of the Northern Frontier
Memory Stones: A History of the Welsh-Americans
in Central New York and Their Churches
Lonnie and Ruth Gale
87 pages, more than 200 illustrations, 8.5 x 11
17.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press book
Situated in the northwest corner of Ulster County, New York, the Town
of Shandaken is today mostly New York State Forest Preserve and offers
few employment opportunities for its citizens, but at one time
Shandaken prospered as the "most richly productive" township in the
county. Lonnie and Ruth Gale, long-time residents of the town and
collectors of Shandaken post cards and photographs, have chronicled
the rise and fall if its many industries, the coming of the turnpike
and the railroad, the growth of tourism, and daily life in its deep
valley from 1800 to 1950.
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A History of Chichester, A Company Town in the Catskills
Reginald R. Bennett, introduction by Howard Frank Mosher
143 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9
15.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press book
For the better part of a century a flourishing company woodworking
town in the Catskills and the setting of Reginald Bennett's
wonderfully entertaining anecdotal history.
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24.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press book
The vibrant, often rambunctious, life of the great port and the characters who built
it is portrayed: a tale of floods, fires and plagues, of commercial enterprise and
the acquisition of vast untaxed fortunes.
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Bob Steuding
128 pages, illustrated, map, 5.5 x 8.5, 1989, revised edition
12.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press book
The dramatic story of the building of NYC's first and greatest Catskills' reservoir
and its impact on the land it covered and people it displaced.
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A History of One Hundred Years of Growth and Service
See listing under The Shawangunks
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Albany County
A History of Albany County in Art and Architecture
Allison P. Bennett
152 pages, illustrated, 8.5 x 11, new edition 1995
23.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press book
A unique and thoroughly researched history of the county, now in its
fifth printing, told through a rich selection of historically significant
paintings, sculpture, architecture and artifacts.
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How a Dutch Colonial Village Became an American City, ca. 1661-1800
Vol. I: The Colonial Crucible, ca. 1661-1774
Susan Staffa
223 pages, 45 illustrations, 40 charts and tables, 8.5 x 11, 2004
29.00 paperback
A Purple Mountain Press original
Meticulously researched and very readable, this is the definitive history of early Schenectady as it emerged from colonial outpost to thriving metropolis. (First of two volumes.)
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Oswego to Sidney and Branches
John Taibi
416 pages, 400+ illustrations, 8.5 x 11, 2005
49.00 signed, limited edition hardcover
32.00 paperback
A Purple Mountain Press original
This is an historical and personal account of the O&W's Northern Division.
Built as a part of the New York & Oswego Midland Railroad during 1869-70,
this portion of the New York, Ontario & Western Railway meandered from one
small community to another, those villages embracing the personality and
charm of the country railroad they helped to build. Exacting history and
personal remembrances are the forte of this latest volume to deal with the
lore of the Old & Weary. This is John Taibi's sixth book to
perpetuate the memory of the NYO&WRy.
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Donald H. Thompson
141 pages, illustrated, 7 x 10, 2002
15.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
A history of the great Onondaga Lake resorts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Thousands of people poured out of Syracuse first by steamer and then by trolley every summer to dance, picnic, and enjoy rides rivaling those of Coney Island.
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Larry Lowenthal
104 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9, index, 2000
15.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
During the War for Independence, citizens like Marinus Willett truly risked their "lives, fortunes and sacred honor" to establish a republic in which they fervently believed. Willett's bravery and unflinching dedication to the cause of liberty made him a hero of Fort Stanwix in 1777 and saved the Northern Frontier for the patriot cause in 1781.
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Jay G. Williams III
239 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9
16.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press book
The story of America's largest Welsh settlement from 1795 to the present.
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THE ADIRONDACKS
ADIRONDACK: Of Indians and Mountains, 1535-1838
Stephen J. Sulavik
246 pages, illustrated, 32 color plates, 12 x 9, 2005
39.00 hardcover--A Purple Mountain Press original
This unique work presents the early history, based on contemporary accounts and maps (many reproduced here for the first time), of the Adirondack and Iroquois Indians and the Adirondack Mountains.
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Breaking Trails: Remarkable Women of the Adirondacks
Peggy Lynn and Sandra Weber
182 pages, illustrated, 7 x 10, 2004
18.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
The accomplishments of Adirondack women have remained unknown and unsung for too long. No longer! Peggy Lynn is singing songs about Lydia and others, proclaiming "Mountain women can be heroes." Sandra Weber is
digging through archives and recovering pieces of women's history. Now
Peggy and Sandra have joined together to present the stories of remarkable Adirondack women--women who display courage, intelligence, fortitude, and backcountry buffoonery.
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Adirondack Fire Towers
Their History and Lore, The Northern Districts
Martin Podskoch
349 pages, 465 illustrations, 27 maps, 8.5 x 11, 2005
20.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
Adirondack Fire Towers
Their History and Lore, The Southern Districts
Martin Podskoch
256 pages, 325 illustrations, 27 maps, 8.5 x 11, 2003
20.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
New York State lost tens of thousands of acres of woodland to fires in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries. With no vegetation to hold
rain-soaked soil on devastated slopes, great floods resulted. In response,
the state began to erect fire towers in 1916, and they became destinations
for generations of hikers fascinated by the views the towers afforded and
by the stories told by observers. Made obsolete by aerial surveillance and
modern communication, today some abandoned towers have been or are being
restored for the benefit of hikers.
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Mount Marcy
The High Peak of New York
Sandra Weber
238 pages, illustrated, 7 x 10, 2001
20.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
At 5,344 feet Mount Marcy is New York's highest peak. This is the first history and natural history of this popular hiking destination.
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The Wilds of Northern New York
Farrand Northrup Benedict [attributed], Preface by Sandra Weber
12 pages, 9 x 9, 2001
4.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press reprint
Reprinted from an 1854 article, this is believed to be the earliest popular account of the Adirondacks.
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Two Adirondack Hamlets in History
Keene and Keene Valley
Richard Plunz, editor
373 pages, illustrated, 8.5 x 11, 2000
24.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
A history of these Essex County communities in the High Peaks region.
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The High Peaks of Essex:
The Adirondack Mountains of Orson Schofield Phelps
Bill Healy
114 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9, second printing
12.50--paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original.
Orson Schofield "Old Mountain" Phelps was an extraordinary early Adirondack guide who became a legend in his own time. His long-lost manuscript, presented and annotated by Bill Healy, is the earliest history of the mountains by a native Adirondacker.
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Why the Wilderness is called Adirondack
The Forest Preserve of New York State
in the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains: A Short History
Placid's View: A Mike Diamond Mystery
Wildlife and Wilderness:
A History of Adirondack Mammals
Long Lake
Chronicles of Lake Champlain:
Journeys in War and Peace
Sails and Steam in the Mountains: A Maritime and
Military History of Lake George and Lake Champlain
The French Occupation of the Champlain Valley from 1609 to 1759:
History of Lake Champlain,
1609-1814
Lake George Reflections:
Island History and Lore
Chronicles of Lake George:
Journeys in War and Peace
Sails and Steam in the Mountains: A Maritime and
Military History of Lake George and Lake Champlain
Chains, Links, and Gavels
Henry Dornburgh
32 pages, illustrated, 5.5 x 8.5, third printing
6.00 booklet--A Purple Mountain Press original
This is the story of the Adirondack Iron works (MacIntyre Mine) from
a newspaper account in 1885, later issued as a pamphlet and now rare.
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Norman J. Van Valkenburgh
39 pages, illustrated, 5.5 x 8.5, 1996
6.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press revised reprint co-published with the Adirondack
Research Library
An accessible history of often misunderstood subjects: the Forest Preserve and the
Adirondack and Catskills Parks.
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Murray Heller
196 pages, 6 x 9, 1997
22.50 cloth--A Purple Mountain Press mystery original
Now also in paperback: 12.50
Murder at the Olympic Arena.
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Philip G. Terrie
175 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9, 1993
14.50 cloth--A Purple Mountain Press original
A history of the interaction of man and wild animals in the mountains,
explores the ecological, political and esthetic issues involved
in reintroducing the large mammals in their former ranges.
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John Todd
Introduction by Warder H. Cadbury
100 pages, 5 x 7, facsimile of 1845 original, 1997
12.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press reprint
This is the first paperback edition of the earliest book
to deal exclusively with an Adirondack subject.
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Russell R. Bellico
440 pages, over 200 illustrations, 7 x 10, 1999
29.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original.
Fifteen firsthand accounts of travel to Lake Champlain are presented
by the Champlain Valley's premier historian with introductions and
annotations.
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Russell R. Bellico
396 pages, illustrated, 7 x 10, 2001, revised edition
29.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original.
From the French and Indian Wars to the steamboat era, this is the
first new history of the two lakes in over 30 years and covers all
of the recent underwater finds.
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Guy Omeron Coolidge
218 pages, 5.5x8.5, index
18.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press book
The only attempt at a connected account of more than 150 years of
French dominion over Northern Vedrmont and New York, from the moment
of Samuel de Champlain first saw the lake, which bears his name,
until the conquest of the area by the English in 1759. It is thus of
equal importance for the earliest history of the two states as it is
to that of the Province of Quebec.
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Peter S. Palmer
250 pages, illustrated, 5.5 x 8.5, 1886, reprint
14.50 paperback--A Harbor Hill-Purple Mountain Press reprint
No inland body of water has played as decisive a role in American
history as has Lake Champlain. This book has been a resource for study
of the three wars fought there for more than one hundred years.
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Frank Leonbruno with Ginger Henry
236 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9, 1998
18.00 paperback
"The Lake George islands and all public lands in the Adirondack Park are
protected as forever wild by the New York State constitution. But even
wild lands require loving stewardship. Frank Leonbruno provided that for
over four decades. He cared for our public property as though it were his
own. His work enriched the lives of thousands of folk who learned to
share his view that Lake George is one of the most beautiful bodies of
water on earth." --Peter Berle, director and host of The Environment
Show on National Public Radio; past president of the National Audubon
Society. This is story of the numerous islands of Lake George by the
ranger who watched over them.
Russell P. Bellico
416 pages, over 200 illustrated, 7 x 10, 1995
29.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original.
Firsthand reports of soldiers and travelers on Lake George covering
250 years: vivid accounts, each introduced and annotated, bear witness
to changes in the lake and people's perceptions of the landscape
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Russell R. Bellico
400 pages, illustrated, 7 x 10, revised edition, 2001
29.00 paperback
45.00 hardcover--A Purple Mountain Press original.
From the French and Indian Wars to the steamboat era, this is the
first new history of the two lakes in over 30 years and covers all
of the recent underwater finds.
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The Surveyor in the Courtroom
Norman J. Van Valkenburgh
109 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, 2005
12.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
Land surveyor Norm Van Valkenburgh shares two boundry disputes that ended in trials, one in the western catskills and one in the Shawangunks.
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Murder in the Shawangunks: A Ward Eastman Mystery and Class of '68: A Mountain Top Mystery
Norman J. Van Valkenburgh and Airilee Ellyn Blessing
Two mystery novellas in one volume. Our fourth Ward Eastman mystery finds America's only surveyor-sleuth on the trail of a murder committed years before in the little mountain range between the Catskills and the mid-Hudson River. In Airilee Blessings' Class of '68, a bookshop owner discovers murder at her 25th high school reunion in the Catskills.
166 pages, 6 x 9, 1999
12.50 paperback--a Purple Mountain Press book
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Mohonk: Its People and Spirit, A History of One
Hundred Years of Growth and Service
Larry E. Burgess
123 pages, illustrated, 9 x 8, revised edition 1996
15.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press revised reprint
Illustrated history of the area's greatest resort, which is also a
national historic landmark, and the story of the family who owns it.
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Daniel Smiley of Mohonk: A Nauralist's Life
Larry E. Burgess
130 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9, 1996
14.50 paperback--A Purple Mountian Press original
A biography of Daniel Smiley, respected Mohonk hotelkeeper and pioneering amateur
ecologist, who spent 60 years meticulously recording changes in nature
in the Northern Shawangunk Mountains.
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THE HUDSON VALLEY
General Books • Art and ArchitctureSee also Ulster County in Catskills Section
General
Up On Preston Mountain
The Story of an American Ghost Town
John and Richard Polhemus
198 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9, 2005
12.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
A photograph from a 1922 Poughkeepsie Journal article about the last
residents on Preston Mountain shows two elderly men and a girl standing in
front of an old house with a massive stone chimney. They were Erben
Kennedy, Milton Preston, and Milton’s daughter Evangeline. Erben and
Milton were distant cousins, both great-great-grandsons of Martin and
Rebecca Preston, the first permanent settlers on Preston Mountain. In the
1700s, poor yankees and freed slaves carved out homesteads on a rugged
mountain on the New York-Connecticut border. They shared the mountain with
the embattled Schaghticoke Indian tribe. This is the story of both groups’
failed struggle to hold onto their land in the shadow of America’s first
industrial boom—the age of iron. The people abandoned the mountain and the
forest grew back. All that remains today is a ghost town. The authors grew
up in sight of Preston Mountain.
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Death Passage on the Hudson
The Wreck of the Henry Clay
Kris A. Hansen
208 pages, illustrated, 7 x 10, 2004
18.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
It was called a race by some while others denied the accusations. Whatever the truth, the steamboat Henry Clay burned on the shore of the Hudson River at Riverdale taking dozens of innocent lives. Death Passage on the Hudson: The Wreck of the Henry Clay chronicles the catastrophic events that occurred on that July day in 1852 along with its devastating aftermath.
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Defending the Hudson in the American Revolution
Lincoln Diamant and George S. Gardner
48 pages, illustrated, 5.5 x 8.5, 2004
6.50 booklet
From the earliest days of the Revolution, it was an article of faith among American and British military planners that whoever dominated the 150-mile-long Hudson Valley would control the course of the war. The authors have drawn on a series of contemporary nautical charts to pinpoint the location of each patriot action in defense of the river.
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The Great Hudson River Brick Industry
Commemorating Three and a Half Centuries of Brickmaking
George V. Hutton
240 pages, illustrated, 7 x 10, 2003
25.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
At one time, more bricks were manufactured in the Hudson Valley than anywhere else in the world. This is the definitive history of the region's most important industry.
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Twenty-five Years on the ND&C
A History of the Newburgh, Dutchess & Connecticut Railroad
Bernard L. Rudberg
207 pages, illustrated, 8.5 x 11, 2002
22.50 paperback
35.00 hardcover (signed/limited ed.)--A Purple Mountain Press original
The ND&C was the first railroad to run east and west across Dutchess County. Surviving record books provide an intimate glimpse of this early enterprise.
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The Battle of Fort Montgomery:
A Short History
Jan Sheldon Conley
39 pages, illustrated, 5.5 x 8.5, 2002
6.50 booklet
Patriots under Brig. Gen. George Clinton put up a brave battle to defend the Hudson Highlands at Forts Montgomery and Clinton. Fort Montgomery is now the state's newest historic site. It was opened to the public on Oct. 6, 2002.
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Bridging the Hudson:
The Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge and Its Connecting Rail Lines,
A Many-Faceted History (out of stock)
Carleton Mabee
296 pages, illustrated, 8.5 x 11, 2001
24.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
The Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge was the first bridge of any kind to be built over the Hudson between New York and Albany, and this book, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carleton Mabee, is the first comprehensive history of the bridge and the rail lines it served.
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Thomas Cornell and the Cornell Steamboat Company
Stuart Murray with an introduction by Roger W. Mabie
and essays by William duBarry Thomas
223 pages, illustrated, 8.5 x 11, 2001
39.00 hardcover--A Purple Mountain Press original
This is the story of a great New York State entrepreneur and his steamboat company, which endured for 137 years and was once the leading towboat company on the nation's waterways and dominated shipping on the Hudson River. Cornell was a man of many interests: railroad and hotel builder, two-term congressman, founder and president of two banks. The Cornell Steamboat Company, headquartered at the Hudson River port of Rondout, was the jewel of Cornell's vast business empire.
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Sybil Ludington: The Call to Arms
V. T. Dacquino
104 pages, illustrated, 5.5 x 8.5, 2000
15.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
Sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington earned a place in American history on a rainy night in 1777 when she rode 40 miles to muster her father's regiment to the defense of New York and Connecticut.
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Changing Tides: Tivoli Bays,
A Hudson River Wetland
Text and photographs by Esther Kiviat, foreword by John Winthrop Aldrich
160 pages plus 32 color plates, 120 black-and-white
photographs, 3 maps, users' guide, 8.5 x 10, 1999
25.00 quality paperback--A Purple Mountain Press book
"Esther Kiviat has captured the enormous vitality of the Bays, and the daily and seasonal dramas played out in their pools, tidecreeks, and marshy expanses. Her keen eye and unfettered fascination have produced a beautifully written and illustrated portrait." --Betsy Blair, Manager, Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve
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History Keepers'
Companion: A Guide to Sites & Sources of the
Lower Hudson Valley and
Western Connecticut
Lower Hudson Conference of Historical Agencies and Museums
Tema Harnig, Coordinator
264 pages, illustrated, 5.5 x 8.5
16.50 paperback--A Purple Moutain Press original
This guide, the first in ten years, encompasses more than 350 sites and
institutions of interest to public visitors, researches, and genealogists
in an area that includes Ulster, Dutchess, Putnam, Orange, Rockland,
Westchester and Bronx Counties in the Lower Hudson Valley and Fairfield
and Lichfield Counties in western Connectiucut.
The Hudson River Almanac Series,
1995-2001
New York State Department of Enviromental Conservation
Tom Lake, editor
128 pages, illustrated, 8.5 x 11, available:
Vol. II, 1995-1996
Vol. III, 1996-1997
Vol. IV, 1997-1998
Vol. V, 1998-1999
Vol. VI, 1999-2000
Vol, VII, 2000- 2001
10.00 each, paperback-A Purple Moutain Press original co-published with the NYSDEC
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My Heart Goes Home: A Hudson Valley Memoir
Thomas Sweet Losings
Peter D. Hannaford, editor
190 pages, 6 x 9, illustrated, 1997
17.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
A warm memoir of a happy boyhood in the Hudson Valley at the end of the nineteenth
century and life with the author's famous father, Benson Lossing.
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The West Point Foundry & The Parrott Gun
A Short History
Charles R. Isleib and Jack Chard
38 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, illustrated, 2000
6.50 booklet--A Purple Mountain Press original
"In telling the story of the West Point Foundry [at Cold Spring across the river from the USMA] this book gives a micro-view of American heavy industry in the early 19th century. The writing is crisp. Technical terms and manufacturing details crystal clear. A wealth of interesting history and piectures is packed into its pages." --Nimham Times Magazine
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History of the Tarrytowns
Jeff Canning and Wally Buxton
348 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9, third printing, 1993
24.95 hardcover
A Purple Mountain Press-Harbor Hill original
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The Jews of Westchester County: A Social History
See Ethnic Groups: The Jews
Art and Architecture
The Stamp of FDR:
New Deal Post Offices in the Mid-Hudson Valley
Bernice L. Thomas
88 pages, illustrated, 16 page color plate section, 8.5 x 11, 2002
19.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
Six post offices in the Mid-Hudson Valley stand out as distinctive among 1,100 built during Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal era. These Dutch Colonial revival buildings along the the eastern shore of the Hudson River in Roosevelt's home territory of Dutchess County (Beacon, Wappingers Falls, Pughkeepsie, Hyde Park, and Rhinebeck) and the sixth across the river in Ellenville in Ulster County bear what the Ellenville Journal called "FDR's Stamp." This book explores how and why these post offices carry the special imprint of the president of the United States.
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The People's Choice:
A History of Albany County in Art and Architecture
Allison P. Bennett
152 pages, illustrated, 8.5 x 11, new edition 1995
23.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press book
A unique and thoroughly researched history of the county, now in its
fifth printing, told through a rich selection of historically significant
paintings, sculpture, architecture and artifacts.
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