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The Delaware River
bordering the western Catskills
Sam's Point Preserve
atop nearby Shawangunk Ridge
Chat Room - The Catskills: A Paradise Lost?
TransCyberian Express
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New York's legendary Catskill Mountains lie within minutes of New York City's northern suburbs. Yet, many New Yorkers have all but abandoned them  and  most Americans  have forgotten them...
Recommended Catskills Nonfiction:
Recommended Catskills Fiction:

Which one of the following would best benefit the Catskills region?
Many small non-resort casinos
One or more major casino resorts
One or more major non-casino resorts
One or more major seasonal theme parks or water parks
One or more major year-round theme parks or water parks
One or more major seasonal sporting venues such as automobile racing or minor league baseball
One or more major year-round entertainment centers such as a concert hall
One or more major shopping malls or outlet centers
A major college or university
A major museum dedicated to the history of the entire Catskills region
A Borscht-Belt living history museum

Catskills Factoids and Trivia:
  • The Catskill Mountains are remnants of a plateau that suffered extensive erosion by wind & water.
  • The Catskills were America's first wilderness area and the setting for its first environmental movement.
  • Catskill Park covers over 700,000 acres, almost 300,000 of which are designated as state forest.
  • The Catskills are the setting of Washington Irving's classic short story Rip Van Winkle.
  • The Catskills region became a major leather-tanning center during the early 19th Century and a major supplier of leather to the Union Army during the Civil War.
  • Sullivan County's Loomis Sanitarium was once a major center for treating Tuberculosis.
  • The Catskills were the birthplace of American Fly Fishing during the early 1800s and Roscoe (in Sullivan County) is widely considered to be the Trout fishing capital of the world.
  • The site of 1969's historic Woodstock Music and Art Fair in Bethel is now home to Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, a world class outdoor performing arts center and Woodstock history museum.
  • Saugerties (in Ulster County) hosted Woodstock's official 25th anniversary concert in 1994.
  • Storm Mountain is the highest peak in the Catskills at over 4000 feet tall.
  • Kaaterskill Falls are the highest and tallest waterfall in New York State.
  • The long defunct Hotel Kaaterskill was once the world's largest and most notable hotel.
  • Huguenot Street in New Paltz is one of the oldest streets in the America.
  • During the 1950s, the Catskills were promoted as a refuge from nuclear attacks against New York City.
  • Borscht Belt resorts assimilated millions of immigrant Jews into American society and reduced racial barriers for black entertainers (including Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis Jr, Nipsy Russell, Chubby Checker, and Richard Pryor) and Hispanic entertainers (including Tito Puente, Freddie Prinz, and Cuban Pete & Millie).
  • Harry Belafonte was the first entertainer to perform in the Concord's legendary Imperial Room.
  • When it closed in 1998, the 1700 acre, 1230 guest-room Concord Resort was America's second largest self-contained resort.  Only Nashville's Opryland was larger.
  • Defunct since 1986, the 1200 acre, 600 guest-room Grossinger's Hotel in Liberty is widely considered the most famous Borscht Belt resort and had its own airport & post office.
  • The world's first artificial snow was produced at the Grossinger's Hotel ski area in 1952.
  • Actress Debbie Reynolds married singer Eddie Fisher at Grossinger's.
  • Actress Lucille Ball was a good friend of the Grossinger family and was a frequent guest of the hotel.
  • Jennie Grossinger appeared on the popular TV show "This Is Your Life" in 1954.
  • The Ambassador Hotel in Parksville was home to the first night club in the Catskills.
  • The Grand Mountain Hotel in Greenfield Park was famous for its late night strip show.
  • The movie "Sweet Lorraine" was filmed at the Heiden Hotel in South Fallsburg.
  • Bobby Darin made his professional singing debut at the Sunnylands Hotel in Parksville.
  • Comedian Andrew Dice Clay began his career by playing drums at the Delmar Hotel in Loch Sheldrake.
  • Prior to making it "big" in the 1970s, porn superstar Ron Jeremy worked as a waiter at both the Paramount Hotel in Parksville and at the Concord Hotel in Kiamesha Lake.
  • Singer/Composer Neil Sadaka was fired (as a camp counselor) by the Stevensville Hotel, in Swan Lake.
  • During the 1970s, Wonder Woman star Linda Carter sang professionally with Speedy Garfin and the Garfin Gathering at the Pines Hotel in South Fallsburg.
  • Wilt Chamberlain was a bellhop at Kutsher's Country Club and played on the hotel's basketball team.
  • Comedian Sid Caesar was a waiter at the Avon Lodge in Woodridge and a hotel band member.
  • Comedian Jackie Mason was a Social Director at the Esther Manor Hotel near Monticello.
  • Pulitzer Prize winning author Herman Wouk once waited tables in the children's dining room at the Tamarack Lodge in Greenfield Park.
  • Boxing legends (including Jack Dempsey, Floyd Paterson, Archie Moore, Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier, and Mohammed Ali) often trained in the Catskills and made frequent appearances at many of the resorts.
  • A famous caricature of Jerry Lewis was created for a Brown's Hotel ad campaign.
  • Martin Luther King Jr. met with Jewish leaders several times in the Catskills during the 1960's.  His final visit was on March 25, 1968 just 10 days before he was assassinated.
  • To dedicate a new hospital in Ellenville in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson stayed at the Nevele.
  • Doctors, lawyers, bankers and Wall Street executives would return to the Catskills during peak periods to work as waiters at the same resorts where they had worked as teen-agers and college students.
  • Morris Katz (the world's most prolific artist) frequently appeared at various Catskills resorts to entertain audiences and sell his art.  Click here to visit his Web site.
  • The multi-million dollar fortune of gangster Dutch Shultz may be buried somewhere in the Catskills region.
  • Unseeded rye bread, from Jennie Grossinger's original recipe, is sold throughout the northeastern US from H&S Bakery, Inc. of Baltimore, Maryland.   Please click here for additional information.
This chat room is not moderated.  If nobody is chatting, several Catskills message forums are listed below.
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THE CATSKILLS
A PARADISE LOST?
Jimi Hendrix

If bus tours to the Catskills were given, which one of the following would most interest you?
A 6 hour guided excursion with 1 or 2 stops at major attractions
An 8 hour guided excursion with 3 or 4 stops at major attractions
A 10 hour guided excursion with 5 or 6 stops at major attractions
A guided excursion with an overnight stay at a major resort hotel
Seeing the locations and/or ruins of many of the famous defunct resort hotels
Having a full-course kosher lunch and/or dinner in the main dining room of a major resort hotel
Participating in daily activities at a major resort hotel
Attending a night club show at a major resort hotel
Horse racing at Monticello Raceway and/or gambling at the Mighty M Gaming racino
Attending an outdoor concert at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
Shopping and/or antiquing
A price of $100-$150 (includes entertainment, lunch or dinner)
A price of $150-$200 (includes entertainment, lunch and dinner)
A price of $200-$250 (includes entertainment, lunch, dinner, resort activities)
A price of $250-$300 (includes entertainment and an all-inclusive 1 night stay at a major resort)
A price of $300-$350 (includes entertainment and an all-inclusive 2 night stay at a major resort)
Other suggestions for offerings (Please email your suggestion to info@clickywicket.com)

Legendary Catskills resorts included the Avon Lodge, Brickman's, Brown's, the Campbell Inn, the Catskill Mountain House, the Cliff House, the Columbia, the Concord, the Eldorado, the Evans, the Fallsview, the Flagler, Gilberts, the Grand Hotel, the Granit, the Green Acres, Grossinger's, the Heiden, the Homowack, the Hotel Kaaterskill, the Hotel Wawonda, Klein's Hillside, Kutsher's, the Laurel House, the Laurels, the Mohonk Mountain House, the Morningside, the Nemerson, the Nevele, the New Brighton, the New Roxy, the Olympic, the Overlook Mountain House, the Paramount, the Parkston, the Pines, the Pioneer, the Plaza, the President, the Raleigh, the Saxony, the Sha-Wan-Ga Lodge, Schenk's, Shagrin's, the Stevensville, the Sunnylands, the Tamarack, the Tansville, the Tremper House, the Waldmere, the Wayside Inn, the White Roe Inn, the White Sulphur Springs House, Wildmere, the Windsor, the Yama Farms Inn, and the Young's Gap.  Sadly, only the Fallsview, Hudson Valley Resort (formerly the Granit), Kutsher's, Mohonk Mountain House, Nevele, and Swan Lake Resort (formerly the Stevensville) survive today and, of these, only Kutsher's and the Mohonk Mountain House are owned and/or operated by their original proprietors.
Notable (but now defunct) smaller lodgings of the Silver era included the American, the Antlers, the Arlington, the Beckwith, the Birch Creek House, Blythewood, Brookdale, the Central House, Chichesters, the Claremont, the Cockburn House, the Cold Spring House, the Colonial, the Columbian, the Cornish House, Cors Mountain Home, the Cottages at Elka Park, the Dellwood, Duncan Villa, the Embought House, the Evergreen Grove, Foxhurst, the Glen Falls House, the Glenwood Farm House, the Grand American House, the Grant House, the Grand Canyon House, the Grand View Hotel, the Green Lake House, Haines Falls House, Hidecker House, the Holcomb House, Hotel Martin, Hotel St. Regis, Hotel Switzerland, Hotel Takanasie, Hotel Wellington, the Hunter House, the Irvington, Jennings's Hotel, the Kaatsberg Park Hotel, the Kenwood, the Kiskatom Retreat House, Lackawack House, Leaycrafts, the Lexington, the Lodge, Loxhurst, the Mackey, the Maleaska House, the Maple Lawn, the Millbrae, the Mountain Summit, the Mountain View Farm House, the Munroe House, the New Hart at Catskill Point, the Nightingale Hotel, the O'Hara House, the Orchard Park House, the Pine Grove House, the Pines, the Prospect Mountain House, the Prospect Park Hotel, the Rip Van Winkel House, the Ripley, the Rockwood, Round Top Farm House, the Salisbury House, the Squirrel Inn, the St. Charles, the Stony Brook House, the Summit Hill House, Sunrise Cottage, the Sunset Park Inn, the Twilight Rest, Walter's Hotel, the West End, Whiteside Cottage, Winchelsea, and Woodbine Cottage.
Several medicinal spa resorts were also constructed in the area during the period, the most famous of which was the (now defunct) White Sulphur Springs House, as were several facilities catering to Tuberculosis patients, the most famous of which was the (now defunct) Loomis Sanitarium.
"All you can eat" meals, exclusive activities, and unique amenities enabled most Jewish establishments to become full-service secular resorts and to dominate the Catskills tourist trade.  Sullivan & Ulster counties became known as the Borscht Belt because Borscht (cold beet soup) was frequently served.  In the decades that followed, these secular Jewish resorts played a vital role in assimilating millions of Jewish immigrants into American society.  Eventually, three types of Borscht Belt accommodations evolved:  communal self-service kuchaleyns, semi-comm