Bob McCue

In a Catskills gone by Bob McCue

It is the 1890's, the height of the "Gilded Age" where vast fortunes are being made by giants whose mantra is bigger, higher, faster. No mountain is too high, and no ocean too vast. America, the great industrial machine, is a beacon for waves of immigrants searching for a better life in the fabled land beyond the ocean. Two of these are Agnes Gale, and her twelve-year old son, Thomas, nicknamed "Fiver". The sea that is not yet through with the Gale family will put Agnes's son amid a cast of character, events and machines, the likes of the grandest Irish tale could not imagine. Set in the legendary Catskill Mountains, the land of Rip Van Winkle. Half history, half tall tale, many of the pictures pay homage to the towns lost to the construction of the Ashokan Reservoir."If there were a Mount Rushmore for the Catskillsthe first faces on it would surely have to be from the Hudson River School of Art. Thomas Cole, Fredrick Church, just to name two. Their artwork of the natural beauty of 19th century America told a story on canvas in a way that had not been done before or since. The first generation of artists opened the world's eyes to the beauty that lay to the north, far from the confines and of Manhattan Island, bothnatural and man-woven. In that same affection, Washington Irving wouldadmit to never venturing into the Catskill Mountains, but three words from his pen would forever place him in a special place on the Catskill Rushmore-RipVan Winkle. So many times has this legendary talebeen retold that the Rip and the Catskills are as much intertwined as Hendrik Hudson and the river that is named for him. In another century and another age, a generation ofhistorians would immortalize a golden age of theCatskills. Not with canvas and a brush, but print and photos. This golden age was when generation aftergeneration of summer vacationers came by rail andsteamboat to the grand hotels that lined virtuallyevery Catskill peak and every back Catskill Road. Passengers unboarded from majestic Hudson Riversidewheelers onto waiting trains of wooden coachesand snorting, hissing steam locomotives. SullivanCounty Historian, Manville B. Wakefield wouldpublish in 1970, a history of the heyday of the Catskill Hotels and the railroads of Sullivan County. The title would coin in five words a bucolic era we shall never see again -"TO THE MOUNTAINS BY RAIL"."