TRAPPS MOUNTAIN HAMLET

NAME: Trapps Mountain Hamlet
COUNTY: Ulster
ROADS: 2WD
GRID: 6
CLIMATE: warm summers, snow in winter
BEST TIME TO VISIT: spring, summer, fall
COMMENTS: No current residents. The hamlet is off the west side of Route 44/55 in the Town of Gardiner. There is a restored cabin, brightly painted and containing exterior wall panels, which will serve as an interpretative center detailing the settlers way of life for mountain visitors. The property is now owned by the Mohonk Preserve, Inc.
REMAINS: Restored Cabin serving as Interpretative Center
As per article in Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal, Sat.,Oct 14, 2000, the long-lost community once included many small homes, a store, a chapel, a couple of abandoned mills and family graveyards. Settlers first arrived on the Shawangunk Ridge in the 1700s, and for the next 200 years they lived off the land as woodcutters and berry pickers, or worked in various mountaintop hotels that were built after the Civil War. The community was finally abandoned in the mid-1950s. The restored cabin was last used as a residence in the 1920s, when Eli and Anna Van Leuven lived there. The family had made a living providing firewood for a hotel that once existed in what is now Minnewaska State Park. Most recently the cabin served as a shelter for hikers in the Mohonk Preserve. Submitted by: Edmond Spaeth


Van Leuven Cabin
Courtesy Carolyn Simmons


Gravestone
Courtesy Peggy Niethe

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