History
The history of the park area dates back around 400 years to a time when the trail now known as the Indian Ladder Trail was used by the Mohawk Iroquois Indians to reach the trading post run by Henry Hudson.
It was here that in 1777, at a spot known as Tory Cave, Jacob Salsbury found refuge from settlers during the Burgoyne Invasion.
The region is very well drained as all surface water runs into the limestone, making it an infertile area for farming. There are some fertile areas along the streams and Dutch settlers were brought in to the region by Patroons to whom they paid heavy rents until they freed themselves of the burden through the so called Helderberg War (also called the Anti-Rent War) of 1839.
The park tells us a lot about New yorks history, in fact, it brings us back in time hundreds of millions of years ago. Here you can see the Schnectady beds, the Roundout "waterlime" or dolostone, the upper and lower manlius, and much much more!
The park is named after Albany mayor John Boyd Thacher whose widow, Emma Treadwell Thacher, donated the land in 1914. Since its opening the area was designated as a State Park. The park soon became popular with the residents of Upstate New York and many amenities were added. The purchase of 500 acres (2 km²) of land in 2004 with a State grant of $750.00 from the Environmental Protection Fund and a donation of land from the Nature Conservancy of 81 acres (320,000 m²) and the further purchase of 188 acres (0.76 km2) on 3 August 2006 took the total area of the park to 2,155 acres (8.72 km2).
It is most likely that the most prominent feature of the park, the Helderberg Escarpment got its name from the Dutch Helder meaning bright or light and Berg meaning mountain.
Read more about this topic: John Boyd Thacher State Park
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