Hooverville : Schodack / Castleton NY 12033

Parts of 2008 and time this yr 2009 have been spent looking for a remnant of the dark days of the Great Depression , a Hooverville. This was essentially an encampment of unemployed people and families in the especially early yrs of The Depression named for President Hoover. They were essentially homeless living off the land or occasional found work. I have been told in interviews done in college that the Town of Schodack near Castleton had a small one as well. The location was somewhere north of Castleton near the Hudson River south of the city of Rennsslear NY. near the railway tracks. I searched primarily the Papscanee Island Preserve. With metal detector and digging equipment in hand I went over a large area off the paths used by hikers. After much searching , finding bottle caps , old broken beer bottles , an old car or boat steering wheel , old railroad ties , railroad spikes all bent up , one metal dog collar and part of an old row boat oar assembly , I can honestly say I did not find any definitive evidence of the Hooverville. I did find outside of the Schodack Town Limits a couple of very rusted nails and old insulators used for electrical fences about 1 foot down. The Hoovervilles of this era were temporary and made to be able to be vacated on a moments notice. These were not popular places. They were frowned upon as few municipalities welcomed these people. Often raided by police from what I have been told. I believe some churches in the area attempted to help , The St. Paul's Methodist Church then located on Main Street in Castleton sent some food on a couple of occasions I gleaned from interviews. There were perhaps as many as 75 people there at perhaps it's height of population. The jobless and homeless often went through the town looking for work in that era. Route 9J was a fairly heavily used road from the greater NY area in those days. Rt 9&20 on the eastern side of the town often saw people walking or hitchiking through looking for work The then Superintendant of Highways Lewis Hudson would often allow people to sleep in the Town Highway Garage in the early 30's so they would not have to sleep outside in the open weather. Not a popular decision among some of the voters but there were few social services available then in that era. So after many muddy visits especially this year I can only use the couple of old interviews as evidence of it's existance. Long gone , temporary shelter from economic distress , a port in a 20th Century storm.