Big Indian is a

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 ...

within the Town of Shandaken 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 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, United States. It is located along State Route 28, within 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 ...

, west of

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. ...

. The

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 ...

flows through the area, as Birch Creek feeds in from the north. Big Indian Hollow is located slightly to the west, while Big Indian Mountain sits to the southwest.

Origin of name

Once a

Munsee The Munsee (or Minsi or Muncee) or mə́n'si·w ( del, Monsiyok)Online Lenape Talking Dictionary, "Munsee Indians"Link/ref> are a subtribe of the Lenape, originally constituting one of the three great divisions of that nation and dwelling along t ...

Native American man named Winneesook (the name means "snowfall") lived near

Marbletown, New York Marbletown is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,658 at the 2020 census. It is located near the center of Ulster County, southwest of the City of Kingston. US 209 and NY 213 pass through the town. It is at the ...

; because of his height of about seven feet, he was also called ''Big Indian''. He was in love with a local woman, Gertrude Molyneux, who eventually loved him as well; because her parents opposed the match, they arranged a marriage with one Joseph Bundy. Disliking Bundy, Gertrude eloped with Winneesook into the wilderness. Some years later, a party of people searching for a missing cow was led by Bundy; still seeking revenge, he accused "that big Indian" of stealing the cow. When they finally found Winneesook, Bundy shot him with his rifle and injured him severely; after being left alone, Winneesook crawled to a pine tree where Gertrude found him later, dying. After Winneesook's death and burial, Gertrude and her children moved to the site; the hamlet of Big Indian later developed at that location. Local lore holds that the pine tree stood until the railroad through Big Indian was built in the 1880s.

Climate

This

climatic Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...

region is typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters. According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, Big Indian has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps.Climate Summary for Big Indian, New York
/ref>

Notable people

Alexander Chee Alexander Chee (born August 21, 1967) is an American fiction writer, poet, journalist and reviewer. Born in Rhode Island, he spent his childhood in South Korea, Kauai, Chuuk Lagoon, Truk, Guam and Maine. He attended Wesleyan University and the I ...

, author *

Lhasa de Sela Lhasa de Sela (September 27, 1972 – January 1, 2010), also known by the mononym Lhasa, was an American-Canadian singer-songwriter who was raised in Mexico and the United States and divided her adult life between Canada and France. Her first al ...

, singer *

Dean Gitter Dean L. Gitter (September 21, 1935 – November 21, 2018) was an entrepreneur, musician, and real estate developer in the Catskills in New York State. Biography Gitter was a graduate of Phillips Academy, Harvard College, the London Academy of M ...

, entrepreneur *

Albert Rudolph Rudi, born Albert Rudolph (January 24, 1928 – February 21, 1973), also known as Swami Rudrananda, was born in Brooklyn, New York. Rudi was a spiritual teacher and an antiquities entrepreneur in New York City.Swami Rudrananda udi ''Spiri ...

, spiritual teacher

References

Hamlets in Ulster County, New York {{UlsterCountyNY-geo-stub