The Ashokan Center (formerly the Ashokan Field Campus, listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
(NRHP) as the Ashokan Field Campus Historic District
is an outdoor
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
, conference, and retreat center located in the
Catskill Mountains
The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...
of upstate
New York. Schools have used Ashokan's "classroom" of forests, waterfalls, stream-fed ponds, and open meadows for over 40 years. Music camps, blacksmithing conferences, and retreat groups have called Ashokan home while schools are not in residence. The name ''Ashokan'' means "place of many fishes" or "where waters converge" in the Iroquois language.
The location was the inspiration for
Jay Ungar's song "
Ashokan Farewell
"Ashokan Farewell" is a piece of music composed by the American folk musician Jay Ungar in 1982. For many years it served as a goodnight or farewell waltz at the annual Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps run by Ungar and his wife Molly Mason, who ga ...
", which was used as the theme music for PBS's ''
The Civil War''. In 2019 it was listed on the NRHP.
History
The first homesteaders on the land were a third generation Dutchman named Jacobus Bush and his wife, Eycke Vandermerke, born in
Marbletown, Ulster County, New York in 1692 and 1687 respectively. Jacobus Jr. and his wife Annetje Merkel recorded their ownership on a deed of remembrance in 1762. In 1755, his brother Thomas and his wife's sister Elizabeth built a homestead a few hundred yards up the road. This is the house from which his son Fredrick's children were kidnapped by
Tory
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...
inspired "Indians". Thomas was an outspoken proponent of the patriot cause. This was the frontier during the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
and it was a common practice for Tories and their Indian allies to raid frontier homes. It had become such a problem that
General Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the ...
authorized the building of a fort at
Shokan, now under the waters of the Ashokan Reservoir.
The property was owned and operated by
SUNY New Paltz's College Auxiliary Service as the Ashokan Field Campus from 1967 until 2008.
The land was sold in 2008 to the Open Space Conservancy, part of the
Open Space Institute
Open Space Institute (OSI) (not to be confused with the facilitator network of open conversation space) is a conservation organization that seeks to preserve scenic, natural and historic landscapes for public enjoyment, conserve habitats while s ...
. The property was divided with a portion sold to the
New York City Department of Environmental Protection
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's water supply and works to reduce air, noise, and hazardous materials pollution.
Under a 1.3 billion do ...
and the rest to the non-profit Ashokan Foundation.
The Ashokan Foundation continues to support and develop environmental education programs for schools in partnership with non-profit partner the Ashokan Center. Additionally Ashokan's Music & Dance Camps for adults and families have remained in continuous operation since 1980 and additional new arts programs are currently in the works.
Geology
The story of Ashokan begins over 400 million years ago during the Devonian Period. The vastly swollen Esopus Creek struggled to find its present path through Ashokan which was well-blocked by glacial
moraine
A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice shee ...
. Winchell's Falls and Cathedral Gorge are relatively recent (past ten-thousand years) features. The newly uncovered till (glacial soil) was rocky and sterile, and much like northern
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
today. It was covered by tundra where feeding
mammoths
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...
and other ice age mammals migrated along the un-crossable
Esopus. As the climate continued to warm, the open landscape gave way to spruce and fir of the
boreal
Boreal may refer to:
Climatology and geography
*Boreal (age), the first climatic phase of the Blytt-Sernander sequence of northern Europe, during the Holocene epoch
*Boreal climate, a climate characterized by long winters and short, cool to mild ...
forest.
Mastodon
A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...
s and woodland caribou took over the trail blazing begun by earlier mammals. At some point during this time, the first people entered the area hunting the ice-age "mega-fauna". Evidence of these first people is scant in this area, but they undoubtedly followed the game trails along the Esopus.
See also
*
References
External links
Ashokan's Website
{{portal bar, Architecture, Education, Environment, Hudson Valley, National Register of Historic Places
Education in Ulster County, New York
Nature centers in New York (state)
Protected areas of Ulster County, New York
National Register of Historic Places in Ulster County, New York
Historic districts in Ulster County, New York
1967 establishments in New York (state)
Catskills