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The Opalescent River is a river in
In the 1800s, David Henderson, the owner of an iron vein, thought to dam the Opalescent River to run water past his blast furnaces. The dam was eventually built, but only after Henderson died in a gunshot accident while scouting locations for the dam. The dam diverted water to Calamity Brook (named after the aforementioned accident) until 1984, when it was broken by the DEC over safety concerns.
In 2015, the DEC purchased the 6,200 acre MacIntyre East Tract (which contains seven miles of the lower part of Opalescent River) from
Essex County, New York
Essex County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 37,381. Its county seat is the hamlet of Elizabethtown. Its name is from the English county of Essex. Essex is one of only 2 counties that are e ...
. It is both a tributary of and the longest source of the Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...
. Part of the river is designated by New York State as a Wild River
A wild river (United States, Australia, & New Zealand) or heritage river (Canada) is a :river or a river system designated by a government to be protected and kept "relatively untouched by development and are therefore in near natural conditi ...
in the Wild, Scenic, and Recreational Rivers system.
Course
Opalescent River has its source on the west side of Little Marcy Mountain, at over in elevation. After nearly two miles,Feldspar Brook
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldspa ...
—which itself originates from Lake Tear of the Clouds
Lake Tear of the Clouds is a small tarn located in the town of Keene, in Essex County, New York, United States, on the southwest slope of Mount Marcy, the state's highest point, in the Adirondack Mountains. It is the highest pond in the state ...
—converges with the Opalescent. The river then passes through Flowed Lands, and 11 miles later reaches Calamity Brook
Calamity may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Calamity'' (album), by The Curtains (2008)
* Calamity (board game), board game released by Games Workshop in 1983
* ''Calamity'' (film), 1982 Czechoslovak film
* ''Calamity, a Childhood o ...
, at which point the stream becomes cartographically known as the Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...
.
The 11-mile stretch from Flowed Lands to the confluence with the Hudson River is designated a New York State Wild River
A wild river (United States, Australia, & New Zealand) or heritage river (Canada) is a :river or a river system designated by a government to be protected and kept "relatively untouched by development and are therefore in near natural conditi ...
by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (informally referred to as NYSDEC, DEC, EnCon or NYSENCON) is a department of New York state government. The department guides and regulates the conservation, improvement, and protection ...
(DEC).
History
In the 1800s, David Henderson, the owner of an iron vein, thought to dam the Opalescent River to run water past his blast furnaces. The dam was eventually built, but only after Henderson died in a gunshot accident while scouting locations for the dam. The dam diverted water to Calamity Brook (named after the aforementioned accident) until 1984, when it was broken by the DEC over safety concerns.
In 2015, the DEC purchased the 6,200 acre MacIntyre East Tract (which contains seven miles of the lower part of Opalescent River) from The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US.
Founded in 1951, The Nat ...
for $4.2 million. This acquisition gave more access to visitors for wilderness paddling, as well as opening up the shores to picnicking, fishing, and camping.
In 2018, the DEC proposed the creation of three parking areas along the upper Hudson River with put-ins and take-outs for paddlers, including one near the confluence of the Opalescent River and the Hudson River.
References