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2009 SIA Fall Tour - Mid-Hudson River Valley, New York
Oct. 8, 2009 (starting Thursday evening) to Sunday Afternoon, Oct. 11, 2009
The Kilmer Lithograph of Newburgh is owned by the Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands. Used with permission.
Tours and Events
Although we expect tours to proceed as described, individual sites and other details may change. Please consult your confirmation letters and the SIA website for updates. Final details will be provided at the registration desk upon check-in.
Many events will be outside in the foothills of the Catskill and Shawangunk Mountains. Please dress warmly for cool autumn weather and bring sturdy footwear.
Remember that the SIA Road Rules for safe tourgoing always apply. Additional required safety gear is noted.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Opening Reception & Program
5:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Following time for cocktails (cash bar) and catching up with your IA friends. a buffet dinner will be served in the former boiler shop of the Cornell Steamboat Co., the largest towing company in the U.S. in the late 1800s. The building, on the shore of Rondout Creek, was later a steel fabrication shop for Millens Steel, and now home to Steel House Restaurant. A presentation on the local shipbuilding industry will begin at 7:15 in the former Cornell repair shop next door.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Choose one of two all-day tours. Both include lunch.
Southern Tour: Newburgh, Beacon, Poughkeepsie
8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Hardhats and safety glasses required. Expect strenuous walking through overgrown and rubble-strewn sites.
Visit Tilcon’s Clinton Point quarry and rock crushing operation where you will follow the product from the working face through the 1929 mill building, its equipment said to be salvaged from the construction of the Panama Canal, to loading on barges. After a presentation on Newburgh history, tour the American Felt and Filter plant, operating in a ca. 1890 factory built for Kilmer Wire. After a stop at the Newburgh Steam Mills, dating to the 1830s, the tour goes on foot to view remnants of 12 mills once powered by Quassaick Creek. End the day at Polich Art Foundry, a 1950s factory that now houses a large-scale sculpture casting operation.
Northern Tour: Kingston, Catskill, Bloomington
8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Hardhats and safety glasses required.
The day will kick off with a visit to Northeast Solite, manufacturer of lightweight aggregate concrete products since 1947. A tour of Cobra Systems, the oldest continuously operating manufacturer of barbed wire will be followed by a behind-the-scenes tour of the Hudson River Maritime Museum. Then, it’s out on Rondout Creek aboard the 1950 Lehigh Valley Railroad Tug Cornell for a narrated cruise stopping in at Feeney shipyard and Rondout II Lighthouse while remnants of Fitch Bluestone, Hutton Brick yard, and Tilcon cement operations will be viewed from the water.
Saturday October 10, 2009
All registered attendees will visit the same sites although each bus will see them in a different order. Lunch is included.
Rosendale Cement Tour – 8:15 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.
Hike through cement works remnants at Williams Lake. Tour the grounds of the Snyder Estate, where cement was produced until the 1970s, and enter the Widow Jane limestone mine, guided by Dietrich Werner and others from the Century House museum. Lunch will be among the ruins of Whiteport’s Newark and Rosendale Lime and Cement Co. where cement was produced from the 1840s until 1902. The stop at Whiteport includes tours led by guides who produce and use natural cement in historic restorations. D&H Canal Museum staff will lead tours of canal remains. Finally, a tour of an Iron Mountain document storage facility will demonstrate the re-use of a former cement mine. Complimentary copies of The Industrial Archeology of a Rosendale Cement Works at Whiteport, by Dennis Howe, will be given to all attendees.
Banquet
6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Attendees not opting for dinner will have the chance to tour the distillery for $12 (payable on site) before returning to the hotel.
Travel directly from the day’s tour to Tuthilltown Spirits for a catered outdoor dinner with cash bar and preprandial facility tours and tastings at New York’s only active distillery. Built as a gristmall, Tuthilltown ground local grain into flour using waterpower for 220 years. In 2001, one of the mill’s granaries was converted into a micro-distillery and two and a half years later the first batches of vodka were being produced. Now, the distillers use fresh cider from nearby orchards to make vodkas, whiskeys, rum, eau de vie, brandy, and infusions.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
The same tour will be offered at two different times to accommodate attendees’ travel schedules. Choose one of the two scheduled times. Snacks are included.
Clermont
9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. OR 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Ride a vintage PT Boat to Clermont State Historic Site for a customized tour of the house and grounds of one of the great Hudson River estates. Clermont was the seat of the politically and socially prominent Livingston family for more than 230 years. It was the home of Robert R. Livingston, Jr. when he entered into a partnership with Robert Fulton, a Pennsylvania- born painter and inventor who shared Livingston’s fascination with steam navigation. Their creation, which they called the North River, is known to history as the Clermont. Their steamboat embarked on its maiden voyage between New York City and Albany in 1807, setting off a transportation revolution in the United States.
The PT boat will drop tourgoers at the train station in Rhinecliff after each tour. (There is room on board for your bags.) Shuttle buses to Stewart Airport will run after each tour, stopping at the hotel for baggage. Remember that the next day is Columbus Day, allowing extra time for traveling.
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