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.

Ocean to Ice Age In My Hometown Schodack NY

Sometimes in my rambling attempts at archaeology & history I sometimes forget my lessons in geology. My lessons in the truly ancient. My hometown south of Albany has been covered by oceans & by glaciers as have been many places. The rounded pebbles I find 3 ft down on a dig glacier made , ravines cut not simply by water erosion but by ancient forces through millions of uncounted yrs. Once an ocean bottom now random hills and dells. Spring floods flowed over the Hudson River Valley for thousands of yrs unabated by man. Places such as Newcomb NY fed our area parts of themselves. Leftovers from slow moving events over millions of yrs. Molding discarding , shaping , leveling.............and it continues......................

Hilltop Tavern: Town of Schodack NY 12033

Periodically I have stopped by Rt. 9 close to the Albany entrance ramp to I90 in the Town of Schodack NY. About one half mile from the Columbia County border. It was in this vicinity that once stood an old Road House type bar. The Hilltop Tavern located at the crest of an incline on Rt9. Minor digging and search with a metal detector has only turned up a couple of old rusty nails. The Hilltop was bought by the State of New York on EminentDomain when the final leg of the I90 interchange was being constructed for the entrance ramp. No basement remnants were found and I presume the entire structure was raised during ramp construction. This occurred circa early 1970's. This was an old style local bar on a once fairly busy highway. The original owner I remember was named Katie. A women from the bootleg era it was often said she kept her money in jewels for safety as did not trust banks. Later on in the 60's the Finn family took it over. The business was expanded to sell Pizza. A very good pizza for the time and place. Today , there is a very different beer market than that era. Many local beers such as Fitzgeralds of Troy , NY or Doblers beer brewed in Albany were bought out or went out of business. The national chains such as Schlitz or Budweiser had taken over. The most local beer was Genny brewed in Central NY. As we can observe with local brew pubs and small breweries such as the Brooklyn brewery in NYC times have seemed to have gone back to earlier years. Hilltop served only Genny beer and Genny Cream Ale. I believe no hard alcohol was there. Their claim to fame was their beer cooloing system. Refrigeration in the basement and then the beer was pumped up stairs by a hand suction pump at the bar. The beer would go through a series of coils that were packed in ice. This created a truly ice cold beer which gave the rather cheap Gennesse truly a richer taste. The best I ever drank. The bar also had a bowling machine people used and I have been told an occasional poker game was held on the premises. Generally speaking this was a locals bar. Local rules. Women were not encouraged to sit at the bar there was a table where the ladies would sit. Local people with names like Golden , Kunicki , Van Deusan etc frequented the place. It felt in a sense like home for the locals. You talked, discussed issues from the Vietnam War to how the lack of rain was affecting crops. Everyone knew your name. This rather ramshackle looking bar in need of a paint job was a major connecting point for South Schodack area people. Part of the fabric of small town life , that has slipped away as we sped up the pace of life in this country.

Town of Schodack NY Natural Gas Exploration

The exploration for natural gas in the United States in the last 30 yrs has been a fairly successful enterprise. The southern tier of NY has found several fields of gas now under use. In the late 1970's the southern area of Schodack had an exploratory well in the Graw Road area. The general area of the 12123 zip code. This area is near major highways and the NYS Thruway. It is also rather isolated on a small secondary road. It is barely a two car road. So , there was easy access of equipment by highway with relative isolation. The spot of the drilling is now overgrown , judged mainly by the newness of growth as compaired to the surrounding area. The woodlot is in back of the 26-28 Graw Rd area. Apparently , it was not a successful exploration as nothing came of it some 30 plus yrs later.

Graw Rd Stream Revisited

In my last blog I have described How I have been finding stream pebbles in the Graw Road area of Schodack N.Y. The zip area somewhat in the 12123 region. Further research and discussion with people in the area has informed me of a stream that was activeuntill appx the mid 1960's. It ran through the farms and hills of that area. Graw Rd as a consequence was often in a washed out condition. In he 1920's the then Supt. of Highways Lewis Hudson built a culvert across Graw Rd to channel the stream into the near by wet land. This was done at appx 28 Graw Rd. The stream ran as an all year stream with the Spring the heavest time of water supply. It was a reliable enough source of water that a wooden Barrel was sunk into the ground next to the road and was used to water teams of horses. Farmers used horse or ox power well into the 1940's and even early 1950's. The Town would on a regular basis rent horse teams from local farmers to use in the building of bridges or do road grading on the then numerous dirt roads. This watering area was used by local farmers and road crews atleast into the 1940's. The stream finally dried up in appx 1960's. There was a deep 5 yr drought in the early 60's. Many water sources dried up or were used more extensively. The stream dried up as well as the wet land which has been taken oven by woodland. It never returned. The barrel eventually collapsed or was removed. I believe, however, that on my most recent visit I located the original placement across from 28 Graw Rd.

Ancient Stream Beds in Schodack NY Area

On some of my past digs in the southern Rensselaer County area I have come across a couple of places with what appears to be of the smooth stream bed variety stones. Such is the case recently on Graw Road area. Even though this area has been farmed and developed over the last two and one half centuries and many of the rocks removed for stone walls or disposal. I have unearthed several oval smooth smaller rocks that appear to be the kind one finds along steam beds or rivers. Even from heights there is not a decernable indentation of stream bed activity that I can detect. There was at the end of the last glacier period appx 13,000 to 14,000 yrs ago many streams created and faltered. The slope of the Hudson River Valley would tend to pull streams in an east to west flow from the eastern side of the valley. Perhaps a stream or 2 may have been formed from springs reaching the surface that have ceased to flow. Don't know. I hope in the future to explore this area with time and permission to a fuller extent.

Spring Valley Dairy:South Schodack N.Y.

In a recent blog I wrote about local soda companies in the Schodack/Castleton N.Y. area. From my digs last summer I also uncover a couple of broken milk bottles. The writing in both quart bottles was seriously worn. But with magnification and careful cleaning I could ascertain the words South Schodack and the name Spring and the letters Va. Quite recently I came across a complete bottle. It was from the Spring Valley Dairy of South Schodack New York. There were also telephone numbers - PE2-7420 and PE2-7597. On the other side of the bottle reads Drink Chocolate Milk with a picture of a young lady in period 40's or 50's clothing on a picnic blanket reading a book and having lunch. So some additional research has followed. The Spring Valley Dairy was owned and operated by the Swartz Family. A family still in the Schodack area. There was a time when milk was delivered to ones home by milk men early in the morning. Up untill circa 1965 this was how the majority residence in many towns and cities got their milk. Most homes had a milk box on their porch or steps. Your bill was left weekly and money was left in the box for the milk man. There were atleast 4 companies working in Schodack area. Golden Farms and Peters Dairy were two examples. The telephone numbers are representive of the Pershing exchange. Telephones were much more localized back then and the first 2 letters put you into your local district. The exchange system ended by the late 50's early 60's so I judge the bottles to probably be of 1950's vintage. Perhaps 1940's but from the picture of the young lady I would judge 50's era bottle.