The Otis Elevating Railway
ENGINEERING NEWS
August 11, 1892
The Otis Elevating Ry., running from Otis Junction, where it connects with the Catskill Mt. Ry., to the top of the mountain near the Mountain House, has been opened for regular freight and passenger traffic. The road is operated by a cable and is 7,000 ft. long, with a total rise of 1,630 ft. The contractors for the grading were Pennell & O'Hern, and for the remainder of the work, with the exception of the boilers and machinery, Mairs & Lewis, of 18 Broadway, New York City. We expect to give a full description of this line in an early issue.

August 18, 1892
THE OTIS ELEVATING CABLE RAILWAY.
The longest cable incline railway in this country, and with but few exceptions the longest in the world, has just been opened for traffic up the eastern slope of the Catskill Mts. in New York, as briefly noted in our last issue. Inclined planes, or more properly inclined railways, operated by cables, have a very early history. Nearly every engineer has beard of what was probably the earliest and most important attempt to overcome steep grades by cable traction in this country, viz., the series of planes on the first Portage Ry., between Hallidaysburg, Pa., on the eastern base, and Johnstown, Pa., on the western base of the Allegheny Mts., on the line of the Old Pennsylvania Canal. Similar but much shorter planes were also formerly used, and are still to some extent, to transfer canal boats on the old Morris & Essex Canal. In England inclined lifts for canal boats were used at even an earlier date, being mentioned as early as 1774. Compared with the cable inclines of the present day, however, their grades were very light, rarely exceeding 10% in extreme cases, and for short distances only, and nearly always much less.
Of modern cable inclines having steep grades throughout probably the longest is that running from the steamboat station Kehrsiten, on Lake Lucerne, to the summit of the Burgenstock in Switzerland, although this grade is exceeded on short inclines in this country, notably the Duquesne incline at Pittsburg, Pa., which has an average grade of 58½%. The Burgenstock incline is 3,071 ft. long on the incline and 2,713 ft. long on the horizontal, with a rise of 1,444 feet. For the first 1,312 ft. from the bottom the grade is 32% and for the remainder of the line 57%, giving an average grade of 53% throughout. This line is also notable as being one of the only two inclines of any length, so far as we know, which use electric power generated by dynamos actuated by turbines to operate the cables. The power is supplied by two of Thury's dynamos operated by turbines situated about 1,400 ft. below the summit station, to which it is transmitted by copper wires and there reconverted into mechanical energy. The cable incline up the Monte San Salvatore, at Lugano, Italy, which was fully described in our issue of April 21, 1892, is the only other using electric motors to operate the cables.
By far the longest cable inclines in the world are located in Italy. The older and better known of these is the line to the summit of Mt. Vesuvius, which is 10,500 ft. long. This line, however, is operated in two divisions, 6,900 ft. and 3,600 ft. long, respectively, the power house for both divisions being located at the Atrio del Cavallo at the end of the first division, where the passengers are also transferred from one line to the other. The other line ascends the Supurga, near Turin, Italy, on which is located the sepulchral chapel of the Italian royal family and is 10,243 ft. long. The grades on this line are comparatively low, the maximum being only 20%, and this for a short distance only. A very full description of this line was given in our issue of June 19, 1888.
Aside from the Otis Elevating Ry. up the Catskills and the Lookout Mt. Incline in Tennessee, which was described in our issue of Jan. 7,1888, the most important cable inclines in this country are located at Pittsburg, Pa., and Cincinnati, O. The first ever built are in San Francisco (Eng. News April 4, 1878; Nov. 10, 1883), but the inclines are neither very high nor very steep. There are quite a number of isolated plants in the Pennsylvania coal mining regions and in different localities. Such of the more important cable inclines as we have been able to collect details of in a hasty examination are given in the following table, to which we add details of the new Catskill Mountain line for comparison.
As compared with other incline railways to overcome mountain heights the Otis Elevating Ry. up the Catskills is in some respects a new departure. It starts from Otis Junction, on the Catskill Mountain Ry., and runs directly to the summit of South Mt., near the Catskill Mountain House. It is of the three rail type, the middle rail being common to both tracks, and one train ascends as the other descends. The trains pass each other about midway on the line where a fourth rail is introduced for a distance of about 100 ft., making a turnout. The total length of the line on the incline is 7,000 ft., and its total rise in that distance is 1,630 ft. A general profile of the line is given in Fig. 1. The maximum grade is 34%, and the average grade is about 12%. The gage of the track is 3 ft., the same as that of the Catskill Mountain Ry., with which it connects.
—OFFICIAL PROFILE OF THE OTIS ELEVATING CABLE RAILWAY UP THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS—
With the exception of the turn outs the road runs in a straight line from end to end. In respect to its grade line, however, the road is decidedly novel. This is composed of a series of vertical, compound circular and parabolic curves so designed that the trains with equal loads exactly balance each other at all points on the line. This method of compensating for differences in weight between a long and short cable, and thus keeping the force exerted by the, engines constant, is familiar to engineers, and in many cable railways the natural slope of the ground has aided in its partial application, but this is, we believe, the first time in which the principle has been put into practice on a work of any magnitude. The credit for this innovation is due to Mr. Thos. E. Brown, M. Am. Soc. C. E., the designing engineer.
Surveys for the line were begun in December, 1891 The grading, earth and rock work were finished early this year. Beyond the large rock cuts and the natural difficulties of the ground there was nothing worthy of especial notice in this work.
Throughout the entire length of the road, with the exception of 1,000 ft. at the lower end, where the rails are laid on cross ties with broken stone ballast, the rails and ties are laid on a timber superstructure. We may note that all the stone used for ballast and for the masonry in the foundations for the various buildings and for the trestle bents was obtained from the rock cuts along the line. It is a blue stone of a slaty structure, such as is commonly used for flagging, in which is imbedded nodules of some trap-like stone, and it is apparently very durable. With the exception of the trestles the timber superstructure consists of two courses of longitudinal timbers 6 x 10 ins., laid on subsills placed 6 ft. apart, c. to c., and supporting 6 x 6 in. x 8 ft. crossties, spaced 2 ft. c. to c. The crossties are gained into the longitudinal timbers, and between each is a block of scantling 6 ins. thick, spiked to the longitudinal to prevent any tendency of the rails and ties to creep. The total length of trestling on the road is between 2,500 and 2,600 ft. and its maximum height is 72 ft. The construction of the trestle bents and the arrangement of the track are shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4. The rails weigh 35 lbs. to the yard, and are laid with suspended joints with 4 bolt angle bars slotted to receive the spikes.
From the contractor's point of view the building of this timber superstructure and the track-laying and trestle work were, the most difficult parts of the work. Owing to a delay in securing the timber this work did not begin until May, some time after the contractors had arrived on the ground. Meanwhile, however, work was begun changing the line of the Catskill Mountain Ry., by moving it some distance toward the mountain in order to obtain the grade necessary to operate the incline. All the timber used was Southern pine, shipped from the South to New York and transferred to lighters for Catskill, and thence shipped by rail to Otis Junction. The necessary framing was done at the foot of the mountain and the timber hauled by team to its position. Owing to the rugged and precipitous character of the mountain side this work was very difficult and expensive, necessitating the use of block and tackle in many places. Even with this loads of only about 500 ft. B. M. could be hauled. It is stated that the cost of hauling some of the timber from the foot of the mountain to the point of erection was $15 per 1,000 ft. B. M. Considerable trouble was also experienced in laying the track on the steep grades, the heavy longitudinal timbers and rails developing a marked propensity for unexpected journeys to the foot of the mountain. This work, however, was completed by the contractors, Messrs. Mairs & Lewis, 18 Broadway, New York, without any serious accident, either to property or employees. The same firm also had the contract for the terminal stations and the machinery and boiler houses. About 1,250 M. ft. B. M. of timber were used in the various trestles and superstructure.
The engine and boiler houses are located at the upper end of the line, the latter being at one side of the track some 50 ft, away from and below the level of the engine house. Steam is supplied by two 150-HP. Manning patent vertical tubular boilers, each containing 152 tubes 15 ft. long and 2½ ins. in diameter, with a total heating surface of 1,563 sq. ft. The total height of the boilers from the floor line to the top of the bonnet is 22 ft. 10½ ins., and their diameter at, the waist is 56 ins. The thickness of their shells is a in. and of their heads v in. The outside diameter of the furnaces is 73 ins., the inside diameter 66 ins., and the height 44 ins. The boilers were tested to 200 lbs., and will be run under a pressure of 125 lbs. They were furnished by the Q. N. Evans Construction Co., of New York city. In connection with the boilers the same company furnished a smokestack 72 ft. high and 18 ins. diameter.
We expect to give full details of the hoisting machinery in a future issue. In brief, however, we may say it consists of two 12 x 30 in. Hamilton-Corliss reversing engines geared in a ratio of 22 to 100 to one of two Walker differential winding drums, each 12 ft. in diameter and placed tandem. Cut-off at one-fourth stroke the engines are rated at about 80 HP. each. They are controlled by the throttle valve, reversing lever and the brakes, in addition to the usual cut-off gear. The levers operating the friction brakes and the reversing gear and controlling the steam are located in the operating tower from which a full view of the entire line is had by the operator. The cables, two in number, are of steel, with a hemp center 7,250 ft. long and 1¼ ins. in diameter, and weigh 2½ lbs. per lin. ft. The ends of the two cables are attached to the two trains of cars. The car on the right track ascending the cables pass from the right track to the winding drums which they encircle twice, and thence to an inclined sheave 8 ft. in diameter in the rear of the building which transfers them to a guiding sheave, and thence to the left track. Of course this order is reversed when the left car is ascending. The shifting sheave is placed some distance to the rear of the drums and is supported by massive timbers anchored to the rock with drift bolts 15 ft. long and 1½ ins. thick. Steam is transferred from the boilers to the engine by a pipe 5 in. in diameter. The cables are supported along the track in the usual manner by ground idlers placed 30 ft. apart, its weight being sufficient to keep it in place.
On a road of this kind the precautions taken to prevent accidents are of course especially important. In addition to the safety clutches on the cars, details and descriptions of which we defer until another issue, each of the engines is fitted with a strap or friction brake operated from the operating tower, as noted before. The main hoisting drum also has a strap brake which is to be connected with an automatic stop, to prevent the car from overrunning its proper position at the top of the incline The two terminal stations and each car are connected by electric gong signals.
The rolling stock used on the line is very simple. It consists of four cars; two for passengers and two for baggage. Each train is made up of a passenger and baggage car. The passenger cars were furnished by Jackson & Sharp, of Wilmington, Del., and are 46 ft. long and 7 ft. 6 ins. wide, built on an angle of 10^o 30'. They can seat comfortably 75 persons, and with crowding 90 persons. They weigh 22,000 lbs. each, and are provided with stationary seats said to be the counterparts of those used in the elevators of the Eiffel Tower. Each is mounted on two 4-wheel trucks provided with the ordinary hand brakes. The baggage cars are open, being simply platforms with sides and ends but no top.
As before stated the road has been opened for regular operation, and runs trains in connection with the regular trains on the Catskill Mt. Ry., and the steamboat lines on the Hudson River. Its upper terminus is within a few rods of the Catskill Mountain House and from it the most popular, summer resorts of the mountains can be reached by a short drive, and in about four hours time from New York city. The ascent of the incline is made in about 10 minutes, or at the rate of about 700 ft. per minute.
The road was built by the Otis Elevating Ry. Co., of which Mr. Chas. L. Rickerson is President, C. C. Hager, Secretary and Treasurer, and Chas. A. Beach, Superintendent. Its total cost was $275,000. The general contractor for its construction was Chas. L. Bucki, of New York, who sublet the grading to Pennell, O'hern & Co., of New York; the trestles, track-laying, buildings and timber work to Mairs & Lewis, of New York, and the machinery to Otis Bros. & Co., of New York. Otis Bros. & Co. again sublet the engines and hoisting machinery to the Walker Mfg. Co., of Cleveland, O., and the boilers to the Q. N. Evans Construction Co., of New York. The chief and designing engineer was Mr. Thos. E. Brown, M. Am. Soc. C. E., who designed the elevators for the West Shore R. R. at Weehawken, N. J. (Eng. News, Jan. 17, 1891). The assistant engineers were Mr. W. G. Howell, of Washington, D. C., and Mr. Gaylord Thompson and Mr. Chas. F. Parker, of New York, and the engineer for Mairs & Lewis was Geo. C. MacGregor. We are indebted to Mr. Brown and the two last named gentlemen for the details of the work given herewith.

September 8, 1892
HOISTING MACHINERY AND SAFETY CLUTCHES;
OTIS ELEVATING CABLE RAILWAY. (With inset.)
In our issue of Aug. 18 we gave a general description of the construction and equipment of the Otis Elevating Cable Railway, up the eastern slope of the Catskill Mountains, and called attention to some of the peculiarities of its design. We show in the accompanying cuts and on our inset sheet this week some general photographic views of the incline and complete details of the hoisting machinery and safety devices, which are used in its operation. It will be remembered that the incline is 7,000 ft. long along the grade and has a rise of 1,630 ft., with a maximum grade of 34%. Fig. 1 gives a general view of the line from a point near its bottom and shows very clearly the construction of that portion of the track laid with ballast in the ordinary manner. In Fig. 2 is shown a portion of the long trestle, detail drawings of which were given in the previous article.
With regard to the hoisting machinery there is little to be said in addition to the description given in the first article which is not plainly shown by the drawings. In general it does not vary materially from that in use on other cable inclines except, perhaps, in its magnitude and the unusual precautions taken to insure safety in operating the road. It is located at the top of the incline and consists in brief of two Hamilton-Corliss, reversing engines, with 12 x 30 in. cylinders, driving a single shaft which is geared to two spur wheels operating the drum shaft and winding drums. The foundation is of brick and stone masonry on solid rock. The winding drums are 12 ft. in diameter and are provided with six grooves for the cables and also with seats for friction brakes, which are to be connected with a suitable mechanism for throwing them into operation should the car overrun its proper position at the station. In addition to the brakes on the drums there are also friction brakes on the engine shaft which an operated by one of the levers in the operating tower.
As noted in the previous article, the machinery is operated from a tower directly above and from which a clear view of the whole line is had. This is accomplished by three systems of levers operating the steam and reversing valves and the friction brakes on the engine shaft.

It will be seen that with the exception of the automatic stop the operating of the safety devices connected with the hoisting machinery is in the hands of the operator. To provide against accident, should the operator become careless, or incapacitated for any cause, or should the hauling cables break or stretch, safety clutches are attached to each passenger car. These clutches are designed to work either when one cable breaks or stretches unduly or when the car exceeds a certain fixed rate of speed. Details of the clutches are shown in Figs. 7—11, on the inset sheet. They were designed by Mr. Thos. E. Brown, Jr., M. Am. Soc. C. E. (to whom we are indebted for the blue prints, from which our drawings are made), and are used for the first time on this line.
The operation of the clutches is as follows:
Each set of two cables after passing through guides is fastened by open sockets to the drawbars which bear against the levers B, B, shown in Figs. 7 and 10. These levers swing upon the shaft E and bear in turn against the frame D, which is keyed to the shaft E, and also against the double pivoted plate or disk A. Should one of the cables break or stretch sufficiently to about double the strain on the other, the disk A revolves around one of the pivots through an angle limited by the curved slots C, C, and the lever B, or B, attached to the unbroken cable, swings forward moving the frame D, and causing the shaft E to make a partial revolution. This causes the lever arm F, which is keyed to the shaft and abuts against the spring G, to swing forward, thus compressing the spring G, and causing a pull on the rod H, which is connected with the long arm of the bell crank I. The bell crank I is connected by the rod J to a second bell crank K (Fig. 9), which presses against the jaw L of the clutch, bringing it into contact with the wooden guard rail. The movement of the jaw L, by means of a system of levers, brings the other jaw of the clutch into contact with the rail and the friction causes the clutch to swing back toward the frame T, bringing the teeth into such a position that any forward motion of the car increases the grip of the clutch.

When the fixed rate of speed exceeds a certain limit, 12 miles per hour, the jaws of the clutch are thrown into action by an entirely different mechanism, which is actuated by an Otis wheel governor, shown in elevation at M. No details of this governor are given, but its construction is exactly the same as the governor used with the Otis elevators in the Eiffel Tower, an elevation and section of which are shown in Figs. 3 and 4. It consists of two toothed weights shown in section at A, A, and in elevation at A', A', (N, N, on inset Fig. 7). Each of these weights is fastened to arms of two bell crank B, B, the other arms of Which are pivoted to the sliding rods C, surrounded by spiral springs D. When the revolutions of the wheels exceed a certain number per minute, the weights tend to fly apart under the influence of centrifugal force, this motion being allowed by the bell cranks and springs as plainly shown in the figures.
Turning now to the operation of the clutch, Figs. 7 and 8, it will be seen that as the weights N, N, fly apart their teeth come in contact with the trigger O, fastened to one end of a rocking shaft to the other end of which is attached a short arm P, which locks with the nut Q on the rod R, and holds in compression the spring S. When the teeth of the weights strike the trigger the rocking shaft makes a partial revolution, lifting the arm P, and releasing the spring S. This expands and presses the rod R against the long arm of the bell crank I. This pressure is transmitted to the mechanism of the clutch, causing it to operate in the manner already described.
The whole mechanism is very ingenious and all tests, both in the shops and on the cars, have shown its operation to be effective. It would seem, however, as if the construction lay open to the charge of unnecessary complexity. The fewer parts such a mechanism has and the simpler these parts are put together the better, generally speaking.
The contractors for the construction and equipment of the road proper were given in our issue of Aug. 18. The contractors for the engines and hoisting machinery were the Walker Mfg. Co., of Cleveland, O., to whom we are indebted for the drawings of that machinery shown on the inset. The safety clutches were manufactured by Otis Bros. & Co., of New York City.

Winter Clove Inn

Round Top NY

The origins of Winter Clove Inn begin in the late 1700’s just after the Revolutionary War when the Slater family received a large land grant as payment for Revolutionary War services in present day Round Top, NY. The Slaters began farming this land and it is here they would establish their homestead. Around this time the name Winter Clove also first appeared on an early map of the Northern Catskill Mountains. When the surveyors ran their lines through this clove, or mountain valley, they found the ice and snow of winter had not given way to spring as it had in the surrounding area, thus the name Winter Clove was born.

  Then in the early 1800’s travel to the Catskill Mountains increased as visitors looked for an escape from the summer heat and commotion of New York City. In the summer of 1838 Mr. Slater opened his farmhouse to visiting guest and soon after the name Winter Clove was first used in reference to the house.

   In the 1860’s Henry Barber Whitcomb arrived to survey the Slater’s land and would fall in love with and wed Mary Slater. The two would eventually inherit the farm and boarding house which they would continue to operate during summer months. Many renovations and nearly 200 years and five generations later the Whitcomb Family still owns and operates the resort making it the oldest single family owned hotel in the United States. Today the Whitcombs are proud to continue the family tradition of welcoming guest who are attracted by the same principals of family, relaxation and natural beauty that attracted Winter Clove’s first guest in the early 1800’s. 

Winter Clove Inn © 2016

The Cry of the Hillborn

by: Bliss Carman

I AM homesick for the mountains—

My heroic mother hills—

And the longing that is on me

No solace ever stills.

I would climb to brooding summits

With their old untarnished dreams,

Cool my heart in forest shadows

To the lull of falling streams;

 

Hear the innocence of aspens

That babble in the breeze,

And the fragrant sudden showers

That patter on the trees.

I am lonely for my thrushes

In their hermitage withdrawn,

Toning the quiet transports

 Of twilight and of dawn.

 

I need the pure, strong mornings,

When the soul of day is still,

With the touch of frost that kindles

The scarlet on the hill;

 

Lone trails and winding woodroads

To outlooks wild and high,

And the pale moon waiting sundown

Where ledges cut the sky.

 

I dream of upland clearings

Where cones of sumac burn,

And gaunt and gray-mossed boulders

Lie deep in beds of fern;

 

The gray and mottled beeches,

The birches' satin sheen,

The majesty of hemlocks

Crowning the blue ravine.

 

My eyes dim for the skyline

Where purple peaks aspire,

And the forges of the sunset

Flare up in golden fire.

 

There crests look down unheeding

And see the great winds blow,

Tossing the huddled tree-tops

In gorges far below;

 

Where cloud-mists from the warm earth

Roll up about their knees,

And hang their filmy tatters

Like prayers upon the trees.

 

I cry for night-blue shadows

On plain and hill and dome,—

The spell of old enchantments,

The sorcery of home.

 

 

The Land of Rip Van Winkle

By Thomas J. Illari

2018 will celebrate the anniversary of the most prominent resident of the Catskills who actually never resided there. Rip Van Winkle. It was in June 1818 that Washington Irving penned the classic short story. It was published a year later in a book which is a collection of short stories called “The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.”

Although the story is set in the Catskill Mountains, Irving later admitted, "When I wrote the story, I had never been on the Catskills”?  Irving’s first trip up the Hudson wasn’t until 1832.

In the opening of the story of Rip Van Winkle, Irving makes reference that the tale was found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker. A fictional character made up by Irving as narrator of the story. The word Knickerbocker later became synonymous with Dutch Americans living in New York State.

The story of Rip Van Winkle itself is widely thought to have been based on Johann Karl Christophe Nachtigal’s German folktale "Peter Klaus”. This story, set in a German village, tells of a goat herder by the name of Peter who goes looking for a lost goat. Peter finds some men drinking in the woods and after drinking some of their wine he falls asleep. When he wakes back up, twenty years have passed. Sound familiar? Nonetheless it was a hit.

The story of Rip Van Winkle gripped the imagination of nineteenth century America and it seemed that no matter what part of the Catskills you visited, Rip Van Winkle had been there ahead of you.

Although Irving wished to keep the location a secret, it didn’t stop local towns from laying claims that they were the home of Rip Van Winkle. Palenville, at the base of Kaaterskill Clove, was a popular 19^th century hamlet and taken as the village where Rip’s adventures began. But Irving himself wished to keep the exact location a mystery.

Another contender to Rip’s whereabouts was the old Mountain Turnpike leading up to the Catskill Mountain House. It had its own fame regarding Rip Van Winkle. Irving mentions a deep mountain glen in his story and, Sleepy Hollow; a horseshoe bend on the old Mountain Turnpike, took claim to fame as the exact location of Rip’s famous sleep. There was a boarding house at the horseshoe bend by the name of The Rip Van Winkle House and a boulder claiming to be the exact place that old Rip slept for twenty years.

When Irving himself was asked to help solve the exact location of Rip’s home he only made sure the mystery did not fade. In a letter dated February 5, 1858 Irving writes the following in response to a letter inquiring the location of Rip’s hometown:

“I can give you no other information concerning the localities of the story Rip Van Winkle, than is to be gathered from the manuscript of Mr. Knickerbocker…perhaps he left this purposely in doubt. I would advise you to defer to the opinion of the very old gentlemen with whom you say you had an argument on the subject. I think it probable he is as accurately informed as anyone on the matter”

Some other fun “Rip” facts:

Route 23A leading from Catskill West was known as “The Rip Van Winkle Trail”

In 1930 Tannersville had their very own airport – the Rip Van Winkle Airways Airport

Actor Joseph Jefferson made a lifelong career acting as Rip Van Winkle and would continue acting in his show for 40 years. Jefferson was able to take an American play and characters to places like Australia and England with great success.  Jefferson also starred in a number of films as the Van Winkle character starting in the 1896 Awakening of Rip.  Jefferson's son Thomas followed in his father's footsteps and played the character in a number of early 20th century films. Joseph Jefferson made several recordings, all of material from "Rip Van Winkle". The success of Rip Van Winkle was so pronounced that he has often been called a one-part actor.

When Rip wakes from his twenty-year slumber his world has changed. Many of his friends are dead. The image of King George III over the tavern has been replaced by one of General Washington. Rip has missed out on the entire era of the American Revolution. Some critics have pointed to this as evidence that Rip Van Winkle is a symbol of America itself, baffled by rapid political change and freed from tyranny.

Rip Van Winkle is full of symbols. The most noteworthy is the relationship between he and his antagonistic wife, Dame Van Winkle. She symbolizes the relationship between America and Britain prior to the revolution.

In 1954  “Rips Retreat” opened in Haines Falls on the East side of North Lake. The retreat was essentially commercial but also based upon historical and educational features. Rip was always on hand to greet visitors. It operated through 1960 and the land was then sold to New York State.

There was a short-lived amusement park called Rip Van Winkle Park built in 1908 on Catskill Creek in Leeds. It was built to increase trolley ridership from Catskill Landing to help the financially troubled Catskill Electric Railway Company. Both ventures later failed.

Rip’s Lookout was a souvenir stand, a small building, just past the horseshoe turn on 23A as you drive up Kaaterskill Clove (on the Rip Van Winkle Tail).  They had a viewing glass to see where Rip Van Winkle slept on the side of the mountain. There was a wishing in the front and the small building which operated as a refreshment stand and gas station.  It was a popular motorist stop with spectacular views of the Clove. (This location is now the parking lot for those wishing to hike to the lower Kaaterskill falls.)

The infiltration of Rip Van Winkle on the Catskills is profound. Rip Van Winkle Tours once ran from NYC to Sullivan County, one may cross the Hudson at Catskill over the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, or fill your gas tank at the Rip van Winkle Gas Station, drive along the Rip Van Winkle Trail, sleep at the Rip Van Winkle Lodge on a mattress by the Rip Van Winkle Bedding Company or rest on a Rip Van Winkle Recliner.

So as we approach the 200^th anniversary of Rip Van Winkle, let us not forget how this fictional resident of the Catskills has played a significant role in the identity of the region.  To this day we see his name associated throughout the Catskills and even throughout the US.  However, it is Greene County that remains identified as the Land of Rip Van Winkle.

Hidden in Plain Sight - Symbolism and the Hudson River School

By Thomas J. Illari

The Hudson River School artists were in search of an art form that would allow them to celebrate that which set America apart from Europe and this they found in the splendor of the American landscape. Over the course of the 19th century there was a remarkable change in attitudes toward nature, discoverable in all the arts, especially literature, painting and landscape architecture. It culminated in the Romantic landscape tradition in Europe and America in the 19th century. It was the golden age of landscape painting marked by a major change in the view of the relationship between man and nature.

The early Hudson River artists searched for the sublime and modified what they saw when they later applied the landscape to their canvases. They viewed the sublime as a manifestation of God’s power, to impress the mind with a sense of awe. They believed that there was a moral purpose for being an artist. Their goal was to recreate, not necessarily reproduce or just copy, what they found in nature. Their belief was that art itself is the process of creation and fundamentally religious. Rather than painting the actual landscape as first viewed by the artist their goal was to create their own allowing time to diminish unnecessary details.  They permitted themselves to embellish on those components of the landscape they wanted to emphasize by adding various elements, symbolism, and at times carefully hidden meanings within their landscapes. In the nineteenth century both the artists and their audiences were aware of the tradition of using symbols and they were fully able to understand and incorporate these into their works.

For example, in Thomas Cole’s series The Course of Empire he rejects the American nationalist pride by predicting its inevitable decline by showing in a series of five paintings the progression from wilderness  (The Savage State) to pastoral (The Arcadian State) to the empire (The Consummation of Empire), it’s demise (Destruction) and the landscape returning to wilderness (Desolation). This series could be taken as a warning that if we do not learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. And perhaps the next time our civilization collapses, it very well could be the last. Cole portrays the inevitable course of the empires of the past that have fallen into corruption, decadence and who brought about their own demise. It is a lesson in five panels outlining the historical course of empire building and a warning of what may be in store for his newly created country.

In Cole’s scene from Last of the Mohicans he uses enhanced geological features including imagery of a large phallic next to a dark cave to expose the sexual tensions in the popular James Fenimore Cooper novel that inspired the painting.

In Coles painting The Oxbow the painting can almost be divided in half with the left side being an untamed wilderness with a storm passing through.  On the right side the storm has passed and everything is calm. It is an ideal rural scene, but the removal of trees has left scars on the hillside. On closer inspection, those scars are in the shape of Hebrew letters. For the viewer they spell Noah. Looking down, from God's perspective, they same shapes spell Shaddai, or the Hebrew word for God, or Almighty. Is Cole suggesting that the landscape be read as a holy text?

Aside from some of the obvious messaging, many Hudson River School artists used storm imagery that was originally used to represent the dark side of the sublime. However, as the 19^th century evolved the storm imagery grew to symbolize civic discord during the civil war and to represent the coming crisis and tension of industrialization and technology that threatened a sanctified landscape.

Other symbolic images such as lakes were used to link sky an earth, man with God. To Cole, the sky represented “the soul of all scenery”, the sublime in the landscape. Waterfalls represented unceasing change, everlasting duration and power. The blasted tree represented the cycle of nature – death coexisting with growth and life. The absence of ruins in the paintings signified America’s freedom of monarchy and corruption. The trees of the American landscape represented primeval forest, a sort of Eden, emphasizing that America was untouched, pure as the day of creation. The trees had a primitive quality to set them apart from the destitute European forests and they gave forth the autumn colors like no European had ever seen. Cole referred to trees as “they are like men…they exhibit striking peculiarities, and sometimes grand originality.”

The figure of a man in the landscapes was shown as small part of the larger environment that implied the insignificance of humans within the natural world. However, despite how diminutive man may be in nature, these artists knew well that humans could devastate the land. Many paintings were used as a plea for preservation of the American landscape. Examples include scenes of railways plowing through a picturesque landscape, open fields ravaged by man and tree trunks clearly identified as being cut down by the axe.

Thomas Cole’s The Picnic is a scene depicting sublime nature and man’s place within it.  Even here you see evidence of man’s dominate position with the tree stumps in the foreground cut by an axe.  This was Cole’s protest of the advancement into the wilderness. Wood was a basic commodity for homes, railroads and expansion of the American industrial age and the wilderness was being chopped by the ax at a rapid pace.

Artists of the Hudson River School added other symbols some of which were considered specific to the American landscape. Native Americans represented the wilderness and the savagery associated with it, deer as a symbol of wilderness before the arrival of man and the cow as a symbol of man cultivating the land and his co-existence with nature.

In pastoral landscapes, portraying the life in the country in an idealized and conventionalized manner, the Hudson River School artists celebrated the dominion of mankind over nature. The scenes are peaceful, often depicting harvests, gardens, lawns with broad vistas, and healthy livestock. The view was that man has developed and tamed the landscape which then yielded the necessities we need to live as well as providing beauty and safety. A classic example of this is the Pastoral Landscape by Asher Brown Durand.

In sublime landscapes nature is shown at its most fearsome. There is an awe and reverence for the wild. Humanity is small and impotent in front of raging waters and violent storms. These works can also be uplifting, in a spiritual way. The sublime emphasizes God’s dominion over humanity. An example is The Catskill Mountain House: The Four Elements by Thomas Cole.

Whatever messaging or themes that may be present in these landscape paintings, most of Hudson River School artists had one common message to convey - morality. Despite their different styles and subject matter, their purpose was a common one. It was to preserve their new nation’s beautiful and natural scenes. They wanted to express man’s harmony with nature, and viewed their new country as a gift, a second chance for mankind to live in the new Eden of the untouched American wilderness. 

As you view these 19th century landscapes it is of interest to think about how the artists have contributed to our view of the natural world and its significance in our lives even today. The era of the Hudson River School was complex. They created some extraordinary works leaving behind their vision of man’s association with nature. Almost two hundred years later their legacy continues and their revelations stand as strong today as it did when they first rambled through the Catskill Mountains in search for the sublime and picturesque.