Town of Carmel Historical Society

Local Indigenous History: The First Voices of Putnam County

Local Indigenous History: The First Voices of Putnam County
Saturday, November 15, 11:00 AM—12:00 PM
Reed Memorial Library1733 Route 6, Carmel

Join Alicia Briley, for an enlightening talk in honor of Native American Heritage Month. Discover the deep-rooted Indigenous history of our region—long before Carmel, before Putnam County, and before New York as we know it today.

Alicia will share stories of the first peoples who lived, traveled, and traded across this land, exploring how their traditions, language, and stewardship of nature continue to shape our area’s history and landscape.

This program offers a thoughtful look at the original communities who called this place home and invites us to recognize their lasting legacy in our local story.

Registration preferred but drop-ins welcome as seating permits.

All members and other interested parties are invited to the next meeting of the Town of Carmel Historical Society, to be held on Monday, Oct. 20 at 7 PM. We will meet at the First Presbyterian Church, at the corner of Route 6N and Secor Road, Mahopac Falls, in the library room attached to the church. Parking is available across Secor Road.

See you at the County Park this weekend! We'll be in the History Pavilion, at the far end of the field.

From Carol Tompkins' family photos, here's the Lake Mahopac High School Glee Club for 1932, directed by Esther M. Eaton.

The annual gathering of the historical societies and historians of Putnam County will be at 9 AM on Thursday, June 12 in the Whipple-Feeley Chapel at Veterans Memorial Park, Gipsy Trail Road.

The public is welcome, but please pre-register. These sessions are very often SRO!

Constitution Island, West Point's property in Putnam County, will reopen on July 27 for its 2025 season, according to the Highlands Current. Also, a new retelling of the island's story was introduced yesterday on the online series "It's History" -- its part in the Revolutionary War defense of the Hudson, and its later home of the Warner family.

A side note for West Point Library researchers: access to the Archives and Special Collections at Bartlett Hall will be closed to the public on May 30 for its move to Cullum Hall, where it will reopen in Summer 2026.

Tomorrow, a national celebration of history begins, and will continue for years. In Carmel, it will start at noon Saturday on the steps of the County Courthouse -- with the reading of a poem.

250 years ago, on April 18, 1775, three riders set out from Boston to warn rebellious nearby towns that "the regulars (British troops) are coming out." Only Dr. Samuel Prescott made it to Concord. The other two, William Dawes and Paul Revere, warned Lexington, stopped for a fast-food break, and rode on, before being briefly detained by the British. The American Revolution began that night and did not end until the surrender at Yorktown in 1781 and the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

The New England Historical Society adds an interesting footnote to the legendary night. "Revere, of course, had a lot of help. Not just Billy Dawes or Samuel Prescott, either. Approximately 40 riders set out that night to warn that 'the regulars are out!'”

We're usually told that Sybil Ludington took a Revere-type ride in 1777. Of course, she was younger, rode farther and completed her route -- and was one of us! So, pardon us if tomorrow we celebrate Revere's Sybil-type ride!

Old maps remember this spot as Sunderlinville, between Mahopac and Carmel, where a bridge crossed the West Branch River. With the rushing waters, this would have been an ideal location for a mill.

Then, over a century ago, New York City looked north for a source of clean water. Now, the road crosses the larger of two dams on the West Branch Reservoir.

This spot has one unique significance. We can take pride in it as "The Crossing of the Longest." Here, US Route 6, once the longest road in America, crosses the deeply buried Delaware Aqueduct, still the longest tunnel in the world!

George Washington didn't chop the cherry tree, and Napoleon wasn't short. And the ancient Great Swamp canoe? Uh, well...

From the Patterson Historical Society website:

"Local history has been criticized because of some practitioners’ carelessness with data and their lack of intellectual rigor. The criticism has some merit unfortunately, for too much local history is parroting of old stories without re-evaluation of their content, promoting a cause or place without a comprehensive review and balanced presentation of available data, and failing to establish the relative merits of different kinds of evidence–for example, not distinguishing folklore from more reliable sources.

"A cautionary local example concerns a dugout canoe that was included in a traveling Hudson Valley Indian exhibit curated by the Putnam County Historical Society (now the Putnam History Museum) in the late 1980s. Charles S Zurhorst, who worked in public relations and authored one history book and another of criticism, had 'found the canoe in an old shed, about to be torn down, near the intersection of Routes 311 and 216 [now 164] in Patterson, New York.' The information that the owner had was quite sketchy beyond the fact that the canoe had been found ‘a long time ago on the shores of the Great Pine Swamp, near Patterson.' Mr. Zurhorst first loaned the canoe to the Southeast Museum and then presented it in 1985 to the Putnam County Historical Society. The canoe gained some local notoriety, even being mentioned in a 2010 archaeological report prepared for a local developer as having been carbon-dated to about 1620 and therefore being one piece of evidence that Native American’s hunted in the Great Swamp.

"For many years the canoe was housed out of public view at the Putnam County Archives. In 2015 interest was expressed in putting such a significant relic on permanent exhibit. The alleged carbon-dating results could not be located, however, and since there were reasons to question the purported age of the canoe, funds were raised by the Putnam County Historian for new tests. The findings were that the wood dated from the nineteenth century!

"Hoax? Publicity stunt? Product of wishful thinking?" Or a 200-year error of carbon dating?

Some dairy farmers number their cows, and others name them. Patrick Patterson of Stoneleigh Avenue identified each of his by their looks. From the County Historian's office:

The photo exhibit of Mahopac's past from the Greg Amato Collection opens Saturday at the Mahopac Library, third floor. Come on down for a nostalgic hour! The exhibit will run through April 16.