The West Kill, an
tributary
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...
of
Schoharie Creek
Schoharie Creek is a river in New York that flows north from the foot of Indian Head Mountain in the Catskills through the Schoharie Valley to the Mohawk River. It is twice impounded north of Prattsville to create New York City's Schoharie ...
, flows through the town of
Lexington, New York
Lexington is a town in Greene County, New York, United States. The population was 770 at the 2020 census.US Census Bureau, 2020 Census, Lexington town, Greene County, New York https://www.census.gov/search-results.html?searchType=web&cssp=SERP&q= ...
, United States, from its source on
Hunter Mountain, the second-highest peak of 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 ...
.
Ultimately its waters reach 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 N ...
via the
Mohawk Mohawk may refer to:
Related to Native Americans
*Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York)
*Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people
*Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been t ...
. Since it drains into the Schoharie upstream of
Schoharie Reservoir
The Schoharie Reservoir is a reservoir in the Catskill Mountains of New York State that was created to be one of 19 reservoirs that supplies New York City with water. It was created by impounding Schoharie Creek. Portions of it lie in the towns of ...
, it is part of the
New York City water supply system
A combination of aqueducts, reservoirs, and tunnels supplies fresh water to New York City. With three major water systems ( Croton, Catskill, and Delaware) stretching up to away from the city, its water supply system is one of the most extens ...
. It lends its name to both
a mountain to its south and
a small town midway along its length.
The West Kill's
watershed accounts for 10 percent of the reservoir's basin. It has the highest elevations
and steepest slopes
of any of the Schoharie's subwatersheds, with
runoff
Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to:
* RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program
* Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed
* Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...
from seven of the 35
Catskill High Peaks
The Catskill High Peaks are all of the mountains in New York's Catskill Mountains above in elevation whose summits are separated either by ''or'' a vertical drop of at least between it and the next nearest separate summit. By usual standards, ...
draining into the stream. Due to limited development and extensive land protection in the stream's watershed, its water is relatively clean, supporting a habitat for both wild and
stocked trout; historically it has drawn
fly fishers and other
anglers. However, the West Kill has contributed to
turbidity
Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality.
Fluids can ...
issues with the Schoharie creek and reservoir due to recent floods; several government agencies have worked together to develop a management plan that will mitigate the floods and the turbidity.
Course
The upper of the West Kill flows west through the Spruceton Valley to the hamlet of
West Kill
The West Kill, an tributary of Schoharie Creek, flows through the town of Lexington, New York, United States, from its source on Hunter Mountain, the second-highest peak of the Catskill Mountains. Ultimately its waters reach the Hudson River vi ...
. From there it turns to a more northerly course to the
Schoharie at Lexington.
Spruceton Valley
Two streams that later join rise in the
cirque
A (; from the Latin word ') is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from Scottish Gaelic , meaning a pot or cauldron) and (; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform ...
between
Hunter
Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...
and
Southwest Hunter mountains, amidst the dense forests of the
West Kill Wilderness Area, part of the
Catskill Park
The Catskill Park is in the Catskill Mountains in New York in the United States. It consists of of land inside a Blue Line in four counties: Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, and Ulster. As of 2005, or 41 percent of the land within, is owned by ...
. The
source
Source may refer to:
Research
* Historical document
* Historical source
* Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence
* Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...
of the northern stream is at , the higher of the two. It flows through a narrow groove down the steep upper slopes of the cirque for its first quarter-mile (400 m).
Just under in elevation, the terrain becomes gentler. At the town line between
Hunter
Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...
and
Lexington, the
two streams join.
The West Kill flows steadily downhill for its next half-mile (800 m) as the
Devil's Path hiking trail, itself descending the mountain, gradually comes closer to the stream and follows it along its north side.
At
Diamond Notch Falls
Diamond Notch Falls is a waterfall located on the West Kill, east of Spruceton in the Hunter-West Kill Wilderness in Greene County, New York. Diamond Notch Falls is a side by side waterfall, both being about in height.
The Diamond Notch Trail ...
, the Devil's Path merges briefly with the Diamond Notch Trail coming in from the west. The two cross the West Kill on a wooden bridge, the uppermost crossing of the stream. Just south of the stream, the trails again diverge, with the Devil's Path following the stream for a short distance on that side before beginning its ascent of
West Kill Mountain
West Kill Mountain, or Westkill Mountain, is located in Greene County, New York.
The mountain is named after the West Kill stream which flows along its northern side, and is part of the Devil's Path range of the Catskill Mountains.
To the east ...
to the southwest. The Diamond Notch Trail runs parallel to the
kill
Kill often refers to:
*Homicide, one human killing another
*cause death, to kill a living organism, to cause its death
Kill may also refer to:
Media
*'' Kill!'', a 1968 film directed by Kihachi Okamoto
* ''Kill'' (Cannibal Corpse album), 2006
* ...
for another to the
trailhead
A trailhead is the point at which a trail begins, where the trail is often intended for hiking, biking, horseback riding, or off-road vehicles. Modern trailheads often contain rest rooms, maps, sign posts and distribution centers for information ...
parking lot, the eastern end of
Greene County Route 6, known locally as Spruceton Road, at elevation.
Shortly after that, the valley begins to widen slightly. The West Kill receives its first tributary, an unnamed stream that flows into it from the slopes of the eponymous mountain to its south. West of that confluence the kill begins to pass some cleared areas and structures. As Spruceton Road bends to the north away from the stream, its first named tributary,
Hunter Brook
Hunter Brook is a brook that converges with West Kill
The West Kill, an tributary of Schoharie Creek, flows through the town of Lexington, New York, United States, from its source on Hunter Mountain, the second-highest peak of the Catskill Mo ...
, flows in from the north just east of where Spruceton Road crosses. After receiving
Pettit Brook from the south, Spruceton Road returns to the north side of West Kill.
Privately-owned Wolff Road crosses the West Kill beyond.
A half-mile further west, a short local street, Ad Van Road, crosses.
Just below, at the former
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
of Spruceton,
Herdman Brook
Herdman Brook converges with West Kill by Lexington, New York#Communities and locations in Lexington, Spruceton, New York.
References
Rivers of New York (state)
Rivers of Greene County, New York
{{NewYork-river-stub ...
flows into the West Kill from the slopes of
Evergreen Mountain to the north.
Styles Brook follows shortly, draining the cirque below West Kill Mountain's summit, from the south, just west of where Baker Road crosses to provide access to several farms on that side. Cleared fields and structures are now found on both sides of the stream.
Another further west, the kill again crosses under Spruceton Road.
The road and stream
meander
A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...
west another mile (1.6 km), never getting very far from each other, as the West Kill receives more unnamed tributaries from the mountains to the north and south.
Auffarth and Tumbleweed Ranch roads cross the kill along this stretch.
After returning to the south side of Spruceton Road, the West Kill receives
Hagadone Brook
Hagadone Brook converges with West Kill west of Spruceton, New York. Hagadone Brook drains the northern slopes of North Dome
North Dome is a granite dome in Yosemite National Park, California. It is the southernmost summit of Indian Ridge, ...
from the valley on its south, between the two ridges on the north face of
North Dome
North Dome is a granite dome in Yosemite National Park, California. It is the southernmost summit of Indian Ridge, north of Washington Column and the Royal Arches on the northeastern wall of Yosemite Valley. It can be reached by trail from th ...
.
Schoolhouse Brook
Schoolhouse Brook converges with West Kill by West Kill, New York
West Kill is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in the town of Lexington, Greene County, New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city ...
flows in from the north further west.
Shoemaker Road, providing access to several properties on the stream's south side, crosses east of where
Bennett Brook flows in from the south.
Long Road crosses over the West Kill 0.6 mile (1 km) downstream,
just above where
Newton Brook
Newton Brook is a tributary of Greasby Brook, in Wirral, Merseyside. The brook starts as two branches, one of which is in the same system of lowland field drainage, south of Hoylake, as the Birket. The other branch begins in Caldy. The two br ...
flows down from a valley on the slopes of
Mount Sherrill
Mount Sherrill is a mountain located in Greene County, New York, and is named after Eliakim Sherrill, and is part of the Catskill Mountains.
Mount Sherrill is flanked to the east by North Dome, and to the west by Balsam Mountain.
Mount Sherril ...
to the south. After following Spruceton Road closely for an equivalent distance, the stream crosses under it for the last time. As the West Kill reaches
the similarly-named hamlet, it descends under in elevation.
Below West Kill hamlet
As the West Kill passes north of West Kill, at first flowing right behind some of the hamlet's houses, it begins to turn toward the northwest as it widens briefly through an area with several
bars.
After the stream narrows again, it returns more to the west-northwest to flow under
New York State Route 42
New York State Route 42 (NY 42) is a north–south, discontinuous state highway in the Catskill Mountains region of New York in the United States. The southernmost of the highway's two segments begins at an intersection with U.S. Rout ...
. About beyond the bridge, it veers back to north-northeast, then north-northwest again, paralleling the highway. Through this stretch it receives three unnamed tributaries from the west, all rising from the slopes of the unnamed mountains northwest of
Deep Notch.
At a bend in the stream a mile (1.6 km) north of West Kill, where the
Shandaken Tunnel
The Shandaken Tunnel is an aqueduct in Eastern New York State, part of the New York City water supply system. It was constructed between 1916 and 1924. The tunnel starts in Gilboa, New York at the Schoharie Reservoir, which is in the counties o ...
's visible surface
right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
, along with a power line, cross the kill twice,
Beech Ridge Brook
Beech Ridge Brook converges with West Kill near West Kill, New York
West Kill is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in the town of Lexington, Greene County, New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous cit ...
flows in from the west.
Immediately north of the bend, the West Kill crosses under Route 42, entering a section where both banks are shored up with
riprap
Riprap (in North American English), also known as rip rap, rip-rap, shot rock, rock armour (in British English) or rubble, is human-placed rock or other material used to protect shoreline structures against scour and water, wave, or ice erosion. ...
for the next as the stream and road again follow a north-northeasterly course. The natural banks return where
Roarback Brook, the lowest tributary of the West Kill, flows in from slopes of
Vly Mountain
Vly Mountain is a mountain located in the town of Halcott, New York, United States in Greene County.
The mountain is part of the Catskill Mountains.
Vly Mountain is flanked to the northwest by Bearpen Mountain, to the east by Vinegar Hill, to t ...
to the west.
After a mile (1.6 km), the West Kill crosses under Route 42 for the last time just west of the hamlet of Lexington. Shortly afterwards, it turns east then slightly east-southeast to its mouth at
Schoharie Creek
Schoharie Creek is a river in New York that flows north from the foot of Indian Head Mountain in the Catskills through the Schoharie Valley to the Mohawk River. It is twice impounded north of Prattsville to create New York City's Schoharie ...
. At this point it has descended to just above in elevation.
Watershed
The West Kill's
watershed, accounting for 10 percent of the total Schoharie Reservoir watershed,
is, like the stream itself, predominantly in the town of Lexington. Its eastern area, where the stream rises, is in Hunter, and some of the uppermost areas where its lower western tributaries arise are in another neighboring town,
Halcott. Ridgelines between the mountains on either side form the watershed's boundaries except for the area around its mouth at Lexington.
On the north side
Rusk Mountain
Rusk Mountain is a peak located in the towns of Jewett and Lexington in Greene County, New York, United States. At 3,680 feet (1,121 m) in elevation, it is the 20th-highest peak in the Catskill Mountains and considered a member of the Catski ...
and the peaks to its west form the boundary between the West Kill watershed and the Schoharie's. South of the range from Southwest Hunter Mountain to Mount Sherrill drainage flows into
Esopus Creek
Esopus Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east-central Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Winnisook Lake on the slopes of Slide Mountain, the Catskills' highest peak, it flows across Uls ...
, another Hudson tributary in
Ulster County
Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster.
History
...
. The unnamed peaks over in elevation between
Halcott and Vly mountains on the southwestern boundary are part of the Catskill Divide, since the
Vly Creek basin on the opposite side is part of the
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...
watershed. On the northwest is the smaller watershed of the
Little West Kill
Little West Kill flows into the Schoharie Creek by Lexington, New York#Communities and locations in Lexington, Lexington, New York.
References
{{authority control
Rivers of New York (state)
Rivers of Greene County, New York
Rivers of Delaw ...
, another Schoharie tributary.
The highest point in the West Kill watershed is the approximately summit of Hunter Mountain, also the highest point in the Schoharie and
Mohawk Mohawk may refer to:
Related to Native Americans
*Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York)
*Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people
*Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been t ...
watersheds. As a whole the watershed has the highest overall elevation of any subwatershed within the Schoharie basin.
It also boasts the steepest average slope, at 29 percent, with a
drainage density
Drainage density is a quantity used to describe physical parameters of a drainage basin. First described by Robert E. Horton, drainage density is defined as the total length of channel in a drainage basin divided by the total area, represented by t ...
of 0.0013 m/m,
lower than average for the Catskills.
Within the watershed, the predominant
land use
Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. Land use by humans has a long h ...
is
open space. Almost two-thirds of the land,
, is deliberately undeveloped, much of it in forested lands on the mountains, most of which are
protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
managed by the state
Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Most of the watershed is within New York's Catskill Park, where the
state constitution requires that land owned by the state be kept "forever wild" as part of New York's
Forest Preserve
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...
.
Most of the forest in the watershed is
deciduous
In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the watershed's total
land cover
Land cover is the physical material at the surface of Earth. Land covers include grass, asphalt, trees, bare ground, water, etc. Earth cover is the expression used by ecologist Frederick Edward Clements that has its closest modern equivalent being ...
. These woodlands are mostly the beech-birch-maple
northern hardwood forest
The northern hardwood forest is a general type of North American forest ecosystem found over much of southeastern and south-central Canada, Ontario, and Quebec, extending south into the United States in northern New England, New York, and Pennsyl ...
that covers much of the Catskills. The next largest amount is
coniferous
Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extant ...
forest at 14 percent, most of it in the montane spruce-fir
boreal forest
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, ...
that grows on the higher-elevation mountain summits and the ridges between them, with some remaining
Eastern hemlock
''Tsuga canadensis'', also known as eastern hemlock, eastern hemlock-spruce, or Canadian hemlock, and in the French-speaking regions of Canada as ''pruche du Canada'', is a coniferous tree native to eastern North America. It is the state tree of ...
stands and
reforested areas of
Norway spruce
''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe.
It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very close ...
also included.
Mixed forests
Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest is a temperate climate terrestrial habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature, with broadleaf tree ecoregions, and with conifer and broadleaf tree mixed coniferous forest ecoregions.
These fo ...
, including areas where the deciduous forest is transitioning to coniferous on mountain slopes, accounts for another 11 percent of cover, and grass in open fields is 2 percent of the total.
Water covers ;
the
National Wetlands Inventory The National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) was established by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to conduct a nationwide inventory of U.S. wetlands to provide biologists and others with information on the distribution and type of wetlands ...
maintained by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with oth ...
has identified 79 separate
wetlands
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
within the West Kill watershed, totaling , including all open water. While the largest portion is the stream itself, about 54 percent of the total acreage is
palustrine wetland
Palustrine wetlands include any inland wetland that contains ocean-derived salts in concentrations of less than 0.5 parts per thousand, and is non- tidal. The word ''palustrine'' comes from the Latin word ''palus'' or marsh. Wetlands within this ...
s such as marshes and swamps.
Only of the basin is covered with
impervious surface
Impervious surfaces are mainly artificial structures—such as pavements (roads, sidewalks, driveways and parking lots, as well as industrial areas such as airports, ports and logistics and distribution centres, all of which use considerable p ...
s like road pavement
(the watershed has a road density of of road per of land area).
After open space, low-
density
Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematical ...
and vacant residential use accounts for most of the remaining land in the watershed, at 33.3 percent.
Agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
, most of it the raising of
livestock
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...
, accounts for 2.6 percent. Hotels come in at 0.7 percent.
History
Before
European colonization
The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Turks, and the Arabs.
Colonialism in the modern sense began ...
, it is possible that the
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
and other
Native American peoples who lived in the Catskill region might have explored the West Kill valley. But there is no evidence that they did, and they did not settle in the mountains due to their low-quality farmland, preferring the richer soils closer to the rivers. If they did venture into the Catskills, it was to travel across them, hunt or practice religious rituals.
Even when Europeans came, settlers did not go to the West Kill valley. It was surveyed, and
lot
Lot or LOT or The Lot or ''similar'' may refer to:
Common meanings Areas
* Land lot, an area of land
* Parking lot, for automobiles
*Backlot, in movie production
Sets of items
*Lot number, in batch production
*Lot, a set of goods for sale togethe ...
lines were drawn up as part of the 1708
Hardenburgh Patent
Major Johannes Hardenbergh (1670–1745), also known as Sir Johannes Hardenbergh, was the owner of the Hardenbergh patent of land in the Catskill Mountains.
Biography
He was born in Albany, New York, in 1670. He was Sheriff of Ulster County, New ...
, the
land grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
that marks the formal beginning of European land ownership in the Catskills. There is no record of anyone living in the current boundaries of the town of Lexington before
independence
Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...
.
Robert R. Livingston
Robert Robert Livingston (November 27, 1746 (Old Style November 16) – February 26, 1813) was an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat from New York, as well as a Founding Father of the United States. He was known as "The Chancellor", afte ...
, whose family had traded shares of the patent and eventually came to own half of its two million acres (), leased one lot in the town in 1777, but it is not known whether the lessee chose to live there.
The earliest known settler in Lexington was a man named Dryer, who used the West Kill's waterpower to operate a woolen factory in 1780. Some other settlers, the first inhabitants of the hamlet of West Kill, were also reported as having moved in around the same time. Others followed quickly, drawn by the promise of abundant furs and timber on land that was still cheap. In 1813 Lexington was separated from
Woodstock
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...
into the present town.
How much of this early growth took place along the West Kill is uncertain. In his 1813
gazetteer
A gazetteer is a geographical index or directory used in conjunction with a map or atlas.Aurousseau, 61. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup, social statistics and physical features of a country, region, or co ...
of the state as it was at the time, Horatio Gates Spafford (who described Lexington under
Windham) describes the Schoharie and the
Batavia Kill, which empties into it upstream from Lexington, as already supporting many rapidly-built mills. He does not mention the West Kill, which, while some other accounts also report similar milling operations along it, may also indeed have been comparatively undeveloped at that time.
[Ravage, pp]
18–38
accessed June 10, 2020
Within a decade that changed. The Catskills became home to many small
tanneries
Tanning may refer to:
*Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather
*Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin
**Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun
**Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...
, who found the bark of the range's many stands of
Eastern hemlock
''Tsuga canadensis'', also known as eastern hemlock, eastern hemlock-spruce, or Canadian hemlock, and in the French-speaking regions of Canada as ''pruche du Canada'', is a coniferous tree native to eastern North America. It is the state tree of ...
to be an excellent source of
tannin
Tannins (or tannoids) are a class of astringent, polyphenolic biomolecules that bind to and precipitate proteins and various other organic compounds including amino acids and alkaloids.
The term ''tannin'' (from Anglo-Norman ''tanner'', ...
. Hides from all over the Americas were shipped to Greene County to be
tanned. In 1821 one tannery was opened on the West Kill at the site of today's hamlet, spurring that community's growth. It made up for its remote location with access to the stream's water and the vast supply of bark in the surrounding forests.
Another tannery on the West Kill opened in 1830, about two miles (3.2 km) above the hamlet. The same year there was a
schism
A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...
among the
Baptist
Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
congregation in Lexington over whether to replace their elderly pastor, and the dissenting group left to form their own church in West Kill. Three years later, a post office was established in the hamlet, showing how the upper West Kill valley had gained population in three decades.
By the mid-19th century, tanneries had begun to close as supplies of usable hemlock bark dwindled. In the years after the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, few were left, and the operators of the
boarding houses built or converted from farmhouses to provide housing for tannery workers began reopening them as summer resorts. They promoted them as offering a quieter, more relaxed vacation experience than more popular, more accessible resorts like the
Catskill Mountain House
The Catskill Mountain House, which opened in 1824, was a famous hotel near Palenville, New York, and in the Catskill Mountains overlooking the Hudson River Valley. In its prime, from the 1850s to the turn of the century, it was visited by thre ...
to the east.
In 1867, records showed several of these resorts existed, as far up the West Kill as Spruceton. Despite their economic success, during the latter half of the century the area's population declined, due not only to the loss of the tanning jobs but the difficulty of farming the land.
Dairy farming
Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or ...
had the most potential, but without a railroad in reach farmers could not get their products, even butter and cheese, to larger markets.
With that loss of population, the infrastructure along the West Kill was also neglected. Old
millrace
A mill race, millrace or millrun, mill lade (Scotland) or mill leat (Southwest England) is the current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel (sluice) conducting water to or from a water wheel. Compared with the broad waters of a mi ...
s and dams were no longer recorded on maps, and the road up the valley went unmaintained past the Hunter town line since fewer people lived that far up the valley. Another road that had once provided an outlet for the valley other than through West Kill, to Peck Hollow past North Dome, also fell into disrepair.
Just before the end of the century, Article 14 of the 1894 state constitution, retained ever since, established the Forest Preserve, under which all state land in the Catskill Park (established in 1904) was to remain forever wild, constraining development in the West Kill watershed. The protection this provided the watershed led New York City to construct Schoharie Reservoir in the mid-1920s to supply its growing population. During the same time, the advent of the automobile gave Americans more control over where and how long they vacationed, leading many New Yorkers to go places other than the Catskills, while those who still came generally spent less time there. Some motels were built along the West Kill in the Spruceton Valley to capture this traffic, but farming began to play an even larger role in the area's economy.
This state of affairs changed slightly in the later 20th century. Hikers began regularly visiting Diamond Notch Falls and climbing the mountains (both with and
without trails) around the valley. As some older farmers on the gentler northern slopes of the Spruceton Valley got out of the business, the former farms and some of the privately owned forests around them were
subdivided to create large lots for weekend and summer residences
In 2017 West Kill Brewing, a
microbrewery
Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis o ...
, was established near the head of the Spruceton Valley, using locally sourced yeast,
thyme
Thyme () is the herb (dried aerial parts) of some members of the genus ''Thymus'' of aromatic perennial evergreen herbs in the mint family Lamiaceae. Thymes are relatives of the oregano genus ''Origanum'', with both plants being mostly indigenou ...
, maple syrup, and other ingredients along with the waters of the nearby streams.
Geology
While the Catskills originated during the
Devonian
The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...
period, around 375 million years ago, as a former
river delta
A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by deposition (geology), deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, res ...
uplifted
''Uplifted'' is the second studio album by Nigerian singer Flavour N'abania. It was released on July 20, 2010, by Obaino Music and 2nite Entertainment. The album features guest appearances from Jay Dey, Oloye, Stormrex, Waga Gee, Asemstone, M-Jay, ...
and became a
dissected plateau
A dissected plateau is a plateau area that has been severely eroded such that the relief is sharp. Such an area may be referred to as mountainous, but dissected plateaus are distinguishable from orogenic mountain belts by the lack of folding, me ...
, the Spruceton Valley evinces the comparatively recent
effects
Effect may refer to:
* A result or change of something
** List of effects
** Cause and effect, an idiom describing causality
Pharmacy and pharmacology
* Drug effect, a change resulting from the administration of a drug
** Therapeutic effect, a ...
of the
Wisconsin glaciation
The Wisconsin Glacial Episode, also called the Wisconsin glaciation, was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which nucleated in the northern North American Cor ...
, which ended 12,000 years ago. Cirques, the
U-shaped valley
U-shaped valleys, also called trough valleys or glacial troughs, are formed by the process of glaciation. They are characteristic of mountain glaciation in particular. They have a characteristic U shape in cross-section, with steep, straight s ...
s including the one in which the West Kill rises, abound, and other mountain valleys from which the stream's tributaries descend were formed by
alpine glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...
s that remained as the large
ice sheet
In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than . The only current ice sheets are in Antarctica and Greenland; during the Last Glacial Period at Las ...
s retreated to the north in the face of the warming climate. Meltwater fed many streams, which eventually became today's West Kill.
Most of the watershed's
bedrock
In geology, bedrock is solid Rock (geology), rock that lies under loose material (regolith) within the crust (geology), crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet.
Definition
Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface mater ...
is the combination of
shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...
,
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
and
siltstone
Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...
that underlies the Catskills. The upper Spruceton Valley is underlain by rocks of the Lower
Walton Formation
Description
Stratigraphy
The West Falls Group is a geologic group in New York. It preserves fossils dating back to the Devonian period.
The West Falls formation is bounded above by the Java Formation and below by the Sonyea Formation. It ...
;
puddingstones and other
conglomerates are found in the Upper Walton Formation at high elevations. From just above the hamlet of West Kill to its mouth, the West Kill flows over rocks of the
Oneonta Formation.
The
superficial deposits
Superficial deposits (or surficial deposits) refer to geological deposits typically of Quaternary age (less than 2.6 million years old). These geologically recent unconsolidated sediments may include stream channel and floodplain deposits, beach ...
within the watershed also reflect its glacial origins. While the high elevations are covered with rock,
glacial till
image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...
dominates further down, including in much of the West Kill's upper reaches.
Alluvium
Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
begins to be seen about midway down the Spruceton Valley, with
outwash
An outwash plain, also called a sandur (plural: ''sandurs''), sandr or sandar, is a plain formed of glaciofluvial deposits due to meltwater outwash at the terminus of a glacier. As it flows, the glacier grinds the underlying rock surface and ca ...
visible as the stream bends towards the north at the hamlet of West Kill. Closer to Lexington and the stream's mouth there are some
kame
A kame, or ''knob'', is a glacial landform, an irregularly shaped hill or mound composed of sand, gravel and till that accumulates in a depression on a retreating glacier, and is then deposited on the land surface with further melting of the g ...
areas along the banks.
Most of the eroded bedrock that has reached the West Kill's streambed is, in its upper reaches,
imbricated, worn into small plate-shaped rocks that nest with each other in a scale-like pattern. There are also areas where the bedrock forms lateral and vertical grade controls, Diamond Notch Falls being the most prominent example. Areas of the streambed where bedrock is not exposed and no imbricated rocks have settled are generally covered in a fine red
lacustrine
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...
silty clay.
Hydrology
The West Kill's watershed receives an average of precipitation annually, making it one of the wettest areas of the Catskills. Most of it is concentrated in seasonal events such as summer thunderstorms or remnants of hurricanes later in the year. Rain-on-snow events in springtime are another large contributor; the northern-facing slopes of West Kill, North Dome, Sherrill and the other mountains on the south side of the Spruceton Valley receive little direct sunlight during the year, thus retaining large areas of
snowpack
Snowpack forms from layers of snow that accumulate in geographic regions and high elevations where the climate includes cold weather for extended periods during the year. Snowpacks are an important water resource that feed streams and rivers as th ...
late into the spring.
This pattern of precipitation, combined with the West Kill watershed's slopes, the steepest in the Schoharie Basin, and low
drainage density
Drainage density is a quantity used to describe physical parameters of a drainage basin. First described by Robert E. Horton, drainage density is defined as the total length of channel in a drainage basin divided by the total area, represented by t ...
, results in
flashiness, as the stream and its tributaries rise and fall quickly in response to storm events. The forests that cover much of the watershed tend to mitigate this somewhat, but not so much on the north side of the valley since the limited sunlight makes for less dense vegetation.
The
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
(USGS) maintains two
stream gauge
A stream gauge, streamgage or stream gauging station is a location used by hydrologists or environmental scientists to monitor and test terrestrial bodies of water. Hydrometric measurements of water level surface elevation ("stage") and/or volu ...
s along the West Kill. One, in operation since the 1950s but not reporting continuous data until 1997,
is located on the lower stream, roughly north of the hamlet of West Kill, just downstream from the Beech Ridge Brook confluence.
The other, established in 1997 and reporting continuously since then, is located near the kill's headwaters, at the last crossing of Spruceton Road, just below the Hunter Brook confluence.
In 2016, the lower gauge reported an average
discharge of per second;
at Spruceton the mean flow was per second.
Both stations recorded their highest discharges ever on the same day: August 28, 2011, as
Hurricane Irene passed through the area. At the West Kill station the stream was flowing at per second,
and Spruceton's discharge was .
Minimums for both stations are
and
per second respectively, with West Kill's low coming over a period of several days in August 2002
and Spruceton's on several occasions in September 1998 and October 1999.
DEC rates the West Kill's
water quality
Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...
at Class C, suitable for fishing and non-contact human recreation. The agency also adds a "(TS)", indicating that the stream's waters are ideal for trout spawning.
The kill's waters are pure enough to be part of the
New York City water supply system
A combination of aqueducts, reservoirs, and tunnels supplies fresh water to New York City. With three major water systems ( Croton, Catskill, and Delaware) stretching up to away from the city, its water supply system is one of the most extens ...
; after draining into the Schoharie they are impounded at
Schoharie Reservoir
The Schoharie Reservoir is a reservoir in the Catskill Mountains of New York State that was created to be one of 19 reservoirs that supplies New York City with water. It was created by impounding Schoharie Creek. Portions of it lie in the towns of ...
downstream, where they can be delivered through the Shandaken Tunnel back under the hamlet of West Kill to Esopus Creek at
Shandaken. From there they go to
Ashokan Reservoir
The Ashokan Reservoir (; Iroquoian languages, Iroquois for "place of fish") is a reservoir (water), reservoir in Ulster County, New York. It is at the eastern end of the Catskill Park, and is one of several in the region created to New York City ...
, which supplies 10 percent of the city's water, and then, via the
Catskill Aqueduct
The Catskill Aqueduct, part of the New York City water supply system, brings water from the Catskill Mountains to Yonkers where it connects to other parts of the system.
History
Construction commenced in 1907. The aqueduct proper was completed i ...
, to customers, without requiring
filtration
Filtration is a physical separation process that separates solid matter and fluid from a mixture using a ''filter medium'' that has a complex structure through which only the fluid can pass. Solid particles that cannot pass through the filter ...
.
Water quality
Because of the West Kill's role in the city's water system, 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 ...
(DEP) has monitored the stream's overall quality. That began in 1994 with a station one-eighth of a mile () above the stream's mouth; in 2002, a second station was established near the USGS stream gauge above Spruceton. Both have generally reported consistent high quality, better than the nearby subwatersheds of the
East
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...
and Batavia kills.
Metrics important to aquatic life habitat have remained above levels legally mandated or recommended. The West Kill has reported
dissolved oxygen
Oxygen saturation (symbol SO2) is a relative measure of the concentration of oxygen that is dissolved or carried in a given medium as a proportion of the maximal concentration that can be dissolved in that medium at the given temperature. It ca ...
at 10 mg/L, safely above the 7 mg/L level DEC considers safe for trout spawning.
Fecal coliform
A fecal coliform (British: faecal coliform) is a facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped, gram-negative, non-sporulating bacterium. Coliform bacteria generally originate in the intestines of warm-blooded animals. Fecal coliforms are capable of growth ...
levels have never exceeded 10 CFU/100 ml, less than 5 percent of the state legal maximum to be considered safe for drinking.
Phosphorus
Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...
and
sulfate
The sulfate or sulphate ion is a polyatomic anion with the empirical formula . Salts, acid derivatives, and peroxides of sulfate are widely used in industry. Sulfates occur widely in everyday life. Sulfates are salts of sulfuric acid and many ar ...
levels are low,
specific conductivity
Specific may refer to:
* Specificity (disambiguation)
* Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness
Law
* Specific deterrence, focussed on an individual
* Specific finding, intermediate verdict used by a jury in determining the fina ...
is also low, suggesting a low degree of
chloride
The chloride ion is the anion (negatively charged ion) Cl−. It is formed when the element chlorine (a halogen) gains an electron or when a compound such as hydrogen chloride is dissolved in water or other polar solvents. Chloride salts ...
contamination, and the stream's overall
pH has remained within the same 6.6–7.9 range as other streams in the upper Schoharie basin. The West Kill's water temperature is in a annual range, reflecting the considerable shade provided by forest cover around its headwaters.
However, the West Kill's
turbidity
Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality.
Fluids can ...
levels, while not abnormal, have been seen as sufficiently high to contribute to turbidity problems downstream of its mouth at the reservoir. Readings have generally been around 2 Nephelometric Turbidity Units, which by itself is not a problem, but is similar to that of the Batavia Kill, a longer tributary with a more developed watershed that drains into the Schoharie downstream from the West Kill. This may be the result of disturbances to the streambed and the loss of
riparian cover upstream; the lower stretches, particularly the channelized reach along Route 42, are showing signs of
incision. More of the silts and clays on the streambed could thus be stirred up and become
suspended sediment
The suspended load of a flow of fluid, such as a river, is the portion of its sediment uplifted by the fluid's flow in the process of sediment transportation. It is kept suspended by the fluid's turbulence. The suspended load generally consists of ...
.
Flood control
Before Hurricane Irene, which exceeded the
100-year flood
A 100-year flood is a flood event that has a 1 in 100 chance (1% probability) of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.
The 100-year flood is also referred to as the 1% flood, since its annual exceedance probability is 1%.Holmes, R.R., Jr. ...
levels as mapped by the
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...
's
flood insurance rate map and came close to 500-year levels,
there had been some major floods of the West Kill; a 1927 event that washed away every bridge in the valley and the flooding that followed the rapid melting of snow that fell in the
January 1996 blizzard are often cited as notable past floods of the stream.
But since streamflow has only been regularly monitored since the 1990s, there is not enough data yet to make estimates of flood frequency below the 100-year level and thus map the West Kill's
floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
more accurately. In the mid-2000s, DEC began developing newer maps of the floodplains using aerial
Lidar
Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...
mapping;
they were finished in 2006.
In 2005, a combined effort of the
Greene County Soil and Water Conservation District
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
and the DEP resulted in a management plan for the West Kill. The stream was subdivided into 21 sections from where it leaves Forest Preserve land to its mouth and inventoried in great detail. Issues of concern for habitat and flood management were identified and recommendations made.
The areas of greatest concern for flooding were the reach of the stream around the hamlet of West Kill and further downstream around the Beech Ridge Brook confluence. In both the stream channel widens, having shown considerable aggradation over the years, and floods have changed its course considerably in the past, leaving wide
bars on both banks and in the middle of the channel. As a result the 100-year-floodplain is wider than elsewhere along the stream in both areas.
While the Beech Ridge unit's floodplain boundary does not include any houses, there are three within it along Route 42 just north of West Kill, making effective flood control here important. The authors of the stream management plan speculate that the kill's lower than expected sinuosity as it flows out of the Spruceton Valley may be the result not of flooding but of an attempt to divert the stream further north and make more of the alluvial land to its south available for farming. While this has not increased the flood risk there, it has made the stream compensate with increased sinuosity further downstream.
The plan notes that, while a comparatively large portion (for the West Kill) of the stream banks have had some sort of revetment installed,
the riparian vegetation along the stream is in many areas lacking. Some mowed areas from adjacent properties in the hamlet come right up to the stream's banks. Japanese knotweed, an invasive species which can displace more appropriate riparian vegetation, was found in several spots; the plan recommends an effort to eradicate the species throughout the entire watershed.
Around Beech Ridge, by contrast, the many channels, resulting in Braided river, braiding when the stream is at bankfull levels, are the result of past floods. Even modest ones can easily reconfigure the channel, as has happened several times over the late 20th century. The inventory found less stabilization and more erosion on the banks as a result.
There was even more knotweed in this section. The erosion on the banks, the plan noted, had the potential to threaten sections of Route 42 alongside. At the bottom of the section the narrowing of the channel just above a private bridge (since destroyed) was causing severe aggradation, possibly worsening any flooding that might occur upstream from it..
Six years after that plan was released, that lower portion of the stream saw the most serious flooding from Irene and other events. In 2014, the town's Flood Commission hired Milone & MacBroom, a New Paltz (village), New York, New Paltz engineering firm, to evaluate various options related to the stream course between the hamlets of West Kill and Lexington. Two years later, after having run computer simulations of flood events at all frequency levels up to 500-year, the firm concluded that the only option which provided benefit worth the cost was to replace the lowest bridge over the West Kill on Route 42, just below where Loucks Road forks off to the west.
Milone & MacBroom explained that the former bridge, due to both the 45-degree angle at which it crossed the West Kill and its height over the stream, constricted the stream flow during 100-year floods. The firm indicated it was consulting with the state New York State Department of Transportation, Department of Transportation on the design for a new bridge. It called for the bridge's lower truss, chord to be raised a foot; the additional freeboard (nautical), freeboard would allow more water to flow downstream during floods, thus lowering their levels upstream, away from homes and businesses along the road.
In 2017 the bridge was replaced at a cost of $4.1 million, part of a larger ongoing project to replace bridges all over the state; a temporary bridge over the West Kill allowed traffic to continue using the route during construction.
Fishery
Art Flick, author of the influential fly fishing ''Streamside Guide'', published in 1947, lived in Lexington and ran the West Kill Tavern, a short distance up the stream, until his death in 1985. He hosted many visiting anglers, including some celebrities, at his family's West Kill Tavern, a short distance upstream from the Schoharie. When he was not fishing, writing or running the hotel, he was advocating for conservation of the streams.
While trout fishermen today have been advised to avoid the lower West Kill due to the turbidity issues,
DEC nevertheless fish stocking, stocks those waters with 700 brown trout yearlings annually, supplementing the stream's native population. Wild rainbow trout are also present, closer to the Schoharie, and brook trout become more common in the Spruceton Valley.
To provide access, DEC has acquired public fishing rights from local landowners in addition to those short stretches where it already owns land adjoining the creek. On the lower stream, these include both sides of the reach that runs alongside Route 42 between the highway's last bridge over the kill to roughly the Roarback Brook confluence and the braided areas from above Beech Ridge Brook to just upstream from the Route 42 bridge at the hamlet of West Kill. Upstream of the hamlet, there is a mile of access on both sides between the state land east of Deyoe Road and the Bennett Brook confluence. A small parking lot at the Spruceton Road bridge upstream from Hagadone Brook is available for anglers, and in the vicinity of Spruceton itself much of the stream is publicly accessible to the unnamed tributary on the south between Styles and Pettit brooks.
See also
* List of rivers in New York
Notes
References
Further reading
Scientific papers with data collected from the West Kill:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{authority control
Rivers of New York (state)
Rivers of Greene County, New York