Pictures I Wish I Had

[Corinne]

These just popped into my mind, hope others can think of some too!

The actor John Savage --and who's girlfriend was in a blue chiffon layered dress -- showing up at the stables before dinner to check on an injured pony one of his children had ridden that day.
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John Savage in an impromptu swim in his skivvies at Awosting.
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The N.Y. Theatre group sitting on the west porch, and the baritone who sang "They Call The Wind Moriah".
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My face when in a spit-second had to convince a horse not to back up over Patterson's Pellet (I was warned!).

The same horse's face when he tried to sit down in Awosting to get rid of me only to discover I was still "up there".
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Same horse who spooked on the trail to Echo Rock and ended up 15' down, facing the other way, standing on ice in June in a crevice, ended up with just a really bad gash.
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"Excercising" this same horse one afternoon. Went way below Upper Awosting Falls toward Coxing Kill, and all collies were with me. I did turn around, but too late! The storm came up. It's the only place in my life that I've ever seen a storm sky go absolutely unfriendly PINK. And the legend in the Hudson Valley about the gods bowling in the sky? Very True. Unfortunately with the horse's (Gray's) injury, a walk was IT, no faster. Of course then all the collies hid in the woods, so I had that to worry about too. We were all SOAKED! And cold. What would this do to his recovery? But made it back to the stables, and Elise was waiting because she got worried. While I rubbed Gray down, got him all dry, and checked his healing stitches, all the collies showed up like nothing happened! Gray recovered very nicely.

Standing way up on the platform in the top of the barn where we sent grain in the huge bin down to the feed bin, and the collies running through below us. We'd call to them, they'd look around really puzzled and run back out. So we called them again, and same thing happened again. Of course it was MY collie who finally looked up and called our bluff.

All the people who visibly relaxed at Minnewaska.
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>Me walking one of the carriage horses (Nestor) down from Cliff House lawn. We'd tried a training session with a new horse -- didn't work.
>Reins broke and all I had was my pants belt, so I threaded it through his bit rings, extremely tenuous hold on an 1800 lb animal who's upset. I've got the dark glasses on, wearing a dark navy shirt over jeans, and my knee-high round toed boots. Horse is 6' only at the shoulder, never mind the head, and I'm 5'2". Meanwhile, a group of
>riders were arguing with Nan over a "bad ride" (sometimes this happened when they didn't want to pay). Nan points to me, says "well, if you want to argue, argue with her!" They split. I get to the stables, like "what is everybody looking at!"

The Roberts from I think Texas. They came to ride every year, and we let them out on their own, they were very accomplished, in fact we didn't know just how much. And their silent Russsian wolfhounds that were not personable to us but friendly. They finally figured out that our white horse had been trained as a cutting horse, where you don't use your reins, just bodyweight changes! Sure enough, they were right. Thank god, because we tried every bit we could think of, and none were that successful.

Oh, the Roberts were the ones riding Gray went he spooked and went down into the crevice ... hey, everybody has their skills.

A visit by Linda Ronstadt's backup band. I never knew just what the impulse was for them to come up to Minnewaska. I was taking a trail ride of guests past the old golf course, and just as I turned the corner to the highest tee-off, one of the band swung to hole-marker and spooked my lead horse (guess who, but Gray).
They apologized very much, but I felt sorry for them because they seemed bored.

That same top tee, a doe ran off in one direction. They weren't really skittish of horses, so I wondered what was wrong, but I kept going. Suddenly, the fawn, still all in spots, finally jumped out of the tall grass and ran into the woods because we got too close. Beautiful! I'm sure they settled back down again later.

The herd of deer, munching along the golfcourse at sunset ... very peaceful, very "pastoral" in the terms of Minnewaska's founders.

Riding out to Echo Rock, long before guests would start to arrive. No leaves on the trees whatsoever. A color in the woods? Flaming Azalea.

Same path, later in June. Trying to get the horses to stand still so we could stand up on the sadles (try it some time!) and pick the June berries.

Several busloads of the local Mennonites, up to pick the blueberries. There were certainly enough to go around.

On the path up from the bottom of the lake (Stepping Stones) back to the stables ... my first introduction to Tanqueray gin. Good thing those blueberry bushes were soft (enough)! I don't know what was funny, but I was sure laughing! The introducers of Tanqueray kindly kept giving me a hand up (you know who you are!).

Cliff House Dock: one of our stable staff, Maury, felt that for one of our horses with a docked ("shortened") tail he'd had had enough of bugs he mostly imagined but was driven crazy anyway, Maury should swim him. It worked. That's the good news. The bad news was that sometimes horse "muffins" would drift up to Minnewaska dock -- oops. Yup, we got spoken to about that.

Same path, up from Stepping Stones, early morning, a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers rising up.

The carriage rides were a nice way to see the Lake and go out to Beacon Point. We called in the Grannies Bus (for obvious reasons, used your imagination). Well, most rides were very nice and decent. But you have to remember that up to Bentley's, it was uphill and we had to jog up to the cliff from the road. Only problem was that there was a large tree up at the cliff and we had to make a hard right with an 18 foot-long carriage. So most folk's natural reaction was that we were going right off the cliff! Well, they laughed so hard and got such a kick out of it that we never did cut that tree back.

Driving back from Beacon, all uphill, and I forgot to take a ring off, which broke under pressure of the reins and pinched way into my finger. Kept on going all the way without missing a step.

All the horses turned loose up on Cliff House lawn. Misty foggy day. Sitting at the cypress circle (west side), just watching them do their horse thing.

[Corinne]

The last story ... I mention "cypress". Sorry, meant "cedar". And it isn't there anymore. Cedars were a very serious part of Victorian gardening. Also, near the old entrance were Lilacs of the most intense deep purple with curly leaves unlike our current flat leaf type, I've never seen their like ... and I couldn't find them either.

[Admin]

Well I have a bunch, but they're probably more "mechanical" and I'm late for work, so I'll add more later.

1) Wildmere freezer. A converted ice cream truck inside the shed!

2) My beloved Cleaver-Brooks south end boiler.

3) My girlfriend at the time Jeannie Tavis (not mechanical)

4) The shed near the dormitory at Wildmere which housed old carriages.

5) George, potwasher.

6) Various rooms I lived in there.

7) Basement laundry.

Dorms down under Wildmere.

9) Postoffice at Wildmere.

10) Snowplow and all the other old antiques from the garage.

11) A guy named Don (I think) who collected furniture and chandeliers.... in his room! We all lived in relative squaller, and you would enter his room, and it was like a room from Liberace's palace!

Ok, now I'm REALLY late for work!

[Nan]

Corinne,
Hopefully, you we able to view PICS-If not, I will attempt
to send in another format. I enjoyed reading your
words on Minnewaska site. Perhaps theses pictures will
help in remembering the past. I will try to get together
images for Sam as soon as I get time. I plan to burn a
CD and send. It will save a lot of download time. We
were very fortunate to have the experience of
Minnewaska.Whenever I feel a lot of stress I take myself
on a mental journey to Minnewaska, I relax and use all
of my senses to participate in my memories. True
beauty is everlasting. Some people take pictures and
they still can't remember where they were or what the
experience felt like; you have experiences that have left
pictures permanently etched in your memory: you
loved Minnewaska;it will never leave you!
Nan

[Elizabeth F.]

Corinne,

I loved your post. It brought back so many beautiful June weekdays when there were very few guests and the laurels were about to bloom. I actually remember Nestor and Gray. Thanks so much!

[Corinne]

Here we all are, working min. wage (that's not a complaint, just a fact of life back then), but we all had pedigreed dogs! Go figure.

I wish I had a picture of Cathy's Pomeranian, just freshly brushed and washed, jogging thru the stables as we were doing the packing thing to the water pipes. We had to wrap them, and then insulate with manure.

Well, the pomeranian (and I can't remember her name) goes jogging on thru and plops right into the pit that we were packing with manure!

More washing and brushing was definitely in order, I guess. That Pom never guessed she was a little dog, went head to head with the biggest dogs!

[Nan]

Corinne,I think Cathy's dog was named
Katie,and I do remember the incident;she was
a little four pound fluff ball that picked on all
the big dogs.I keep adding pictures to my
photo album.I remember when I first read
your letter,It was what inspired me to begin
sending images to this site.In working at Lake
Minnewaska we were priviledged to have the
experience;the beauty of the natural
surroundings,the history of the hotels;the
dedication of the Phillips family to save the
hotels for the future;the guests who loved
being at Minnewaska were always wonderful
to work for.

[Corinne]

Nan, you're right the Pom's name WAS Katie! She eventually lost an eye when she went for a German Shepard some years later. Carly and I went for a vist to Cathy and Ron. Here is Katie chasing Cathy's red vaccuum cleaner ... got back home and dad is using the red lawn mower and Carly is going after it! Carly was a good pup though, bless all of her 16 years.

We all thank you for posting your pic's, we are all much enriched by them, and I'm glad I inspired you to do it (now it's my turn). I have many favorites from your gallery, but I'm leaning toward "Shadows On Snow" and a pic of the sleigh down on the lake, and ... oh I can't really pick!

At one point you had 84 pics up there, now only 68 ... what happened?

I just got an email from someone who was just up there, and he had a Blooming Laurel report ... I have laurel in my area, but it's just not the same as Minnewaska's.

My favorite part is after 15 years, taking a friend up and introducing them to Minnewaska ... I know what I saw, but it was interesting to see the place thru HER eyes.

One picture I have, and it isn't very good, but no one else seems to have it and that's Echo Rock, so I'll put that up for better or worse ... that was a nice ride down there.

Corinne

[Corinne]

Pictures I Wish I Had:

Springtime, but not time yet to take the horses back up the mountain from winter pasture. Leaves not even peeking out of their branch buds, coltsfoot just barely blooming (oh, I'm sure the skunk cabbage was out).

Jean and I going out on a day-ride, tracing the old route from the Gatehouse (the one down in the valley on Rt.299) ALL the way up the way the old stages used to take people. Very interesting ride!

That gatehouse is also part of Minnewaska's history, a very inviting structure.

We had to cross new roads and new properties; some folks were curious and some confronted us, but after we explained what we were doing, everyone was cool.

It was amazing the number of old routes and roads that were really in the New Paltz /Gardiner/Kerhonsen area (sorry if I left any area out, just generalizing).

Oh, the horses didn't really want to work that hard that day, but they were better off when they got back on the mountain and did a couple of rides a day after that.

A day like that that ride asks you to pause for thought when you're in such a hurry.

Best Regards,
Corinne

[Admin]

Tell me about the "old" gatehouse. I wasn't aware of that. Was it the gatehouse for Minnewaska only? Was it manned? What years?

[Corinne]

Hi Sam,

Back in the day when Mohonk/Minnewaska were one, this building stood as the "entryway" up to the mountain. Don't forget, Minnewaska started as an overflow site for Mohonk, and according to the occupancy records, the flow was considerable! People would carriage up to Mohonk, then carriage past the Trapps the 7 or so miles down to Minnewaska.

I don't have years manned/occupied, but probably went into disuse in the car era.

The Gallery you have of the newspaper clippings is wonderful, lots of good information, even the old spelling of Lake Awosting, and the over-the-mountain Indian Trail! I wonder if that trail has been re-discovered. I asked Nan Lasher Ball if it was purely coincidence that a Rev. & Mrs. C.E. Lasher was referenced in the old records!

Here's a nice picture:

"1908, The Testimonial Gateway on the eastern approach to Mohonk via the former stage route."

http://www.mohonk.com/lowband/history/history.asp

If you go to just the mohonk.com site, history, there is also a hi-band option.

I believe that the Gatehouse was privately owned back in our day ... I didn't go that way last December, so I don't know how well maintained it is.

Also, see map at this site (address follows), Gatehouse Road starts near the bottom right, and the double dashes indicate "paths" (not for cars).

For awhile, I lived near an apple orchard off 299, and walking/riding distance from the Tunnel Aqueduct and Duck Pond, and seeing that map brought back alot of memories. It was a very old 1700's house complete with it's own ghost! No kidding!! We knew who he had been, he wasn't destructive, and very helpful, even to the point of "helping" Cathy open up cupboards (oops, her head was in the way, sorry), greeting guests, rearranging furniture. Not joshin' ya!!

Enjoy this site: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=18&n= ... =New+Paltz

It weirds me out that I used to live at one end of Rt. 209, now I'm living at the other end!

Regards,
Corinne

[Corinne]

Hiking west of the Lower Awosting road along Rt. 44-55 and finding a small water spill. I don't think it's Dallas Pool because it was very close to the highway.

And it had a perfectly preserved "bath tub" built out of stone on top of the spillway.

It looked very inviting.

Well, it LOOKED like a bath tub until I found a pipe running out of it. So I traced the pipe back out to the highway, and there it ended.

It wasn't until I saw an old brochure that detailed the road up to Minnewaska and showed the water stations for the carriage horses that I realized what I'd found.

Neat.

I wonder if the "bathtub" is still there!!

Not that today's heat made me think of it at all!!!

[Mark]

Here's a nice picture:

"1908, The Testimonial Gateway on the eastern approach to Mohonk via the former stage route."

http://www.mohonk.com/lowband/history/history.asp

If you go to just the mohonk.com site, history, there is also a hi-band option.

I believe that the Gatehouse was privately owned back in our day ... I didn't go that way last December, so I don't know how well maintained it is.

I spent the day up on the lake today, and remembered that you had posted about 'The Testimonial Gateway'. I thought I'd snap a pic of it for you. It's a private residence, and I had to stand out near 299 and zoom way in to get a pic. Here it is as it looks today.



Cheers,

Mark

[Admin]

Wow, privately owned? It looks like there are rooms in there. Is this being used as a house or a gateway to the main house down the road? Anyone know what the inside is like?

[Mark]

Yep, there's a sign at the end of the really long 'driveway' that this is a private residence, and tresspassers will be prosecuted. Can you imagine living in a place like that? I seem to remember it being in a state of disrepair in the 80's.. someone must have bought it and converted it into their home. It appears as if they have done a great job. The place has a lot of charachter, something you can't buy these days.

Cheers,

Mark