Catharine Valley Trail

Catharine Valley Trail
Catharine Valley Trail
	Catharine Valley Trail, April 2010
	Location of Catharine Valley Trail within New York State
Type	State park
Location	Schuyler and Chemung counties, New York
Nearest city	Watkins Glen
Coordinates	42°17′11.7″N76°50′44.7″W / 42.286583°N 76.845750°W Coordinates: 42°17′11.7″N76°50′44.7″W / 42.286583°N 76.845750°W
Area	218 acres (0.88 km2) [1]
Created	2000
Operated by	New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation
Open	All year
Website	Catharine Valley Trail

Last updated October 01, 2019

Catharine Valley Trail is a state park and recreation trail located in Schuyler and Chemung counties, New York.^[2] The park is located near Watkins Glen State Park and maintained by its staff,^[3] as well as by volunteers.^[2]

State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, or recreational potential. There are state parks under the administration of the government of each U.S. state, some of the Mexican states, and in Brazil. The term is also used in the Australian state of Victoria. The equivalent term used in Canada, Argentina, South Africa and Belgium, is provincial park. Similar systems of local government maintained parks exist in other countries, but the terminology varies.

Schuyler County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 18,343, making it the second-least populous county in New York. The county seat is Watkins Glen. The name is in honor of General Philip Schuyler, one of the four major generals in the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War.

Chemung County is a county in the southern tier of the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 88,830. Its county seat is Elmira. Its name is derived from a Delaware Indian village whose name meant "big horn".

Description

The park encompasses a recreation trail that follows abandoned railroad grades and canal towpaths between Watkins Glen and Horseheads. The trail is level and finished with crushed limestone, and is wheelchair-accessible.^[2] The trail is open year-round, and allows for walking, biking, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing.^[3]

An abandoned railroad is a railway line which is no longer used for that purpose. Such lines may be disused railways, closed railways, former railway lines, even derelict railway lines. Some have had all their track and sleepers removed, and others have material remaining from the former use.

A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport was common where sailing was impractical due to tunnels and bridges, unfavourable winds, or the narrowness of the channel.

Watkins Glen is a village in Schuyler County, New York, United States, and it is the county seat of Schuyler County. Watkins Glen lies within the towns of Dix and Reading. The village is home to the Watkins Glen International race track, which hosts NASCAR Cup Series and IndyCar races and formerly hosted the United States Grand Prix of Formula One.

As of 2016, six miles (9.7 km) of the trail are open to the public, with plans for the trail to grow to 12 miles (19 km) in length.^[3]

History

Catharine Valley is named for Catherine Montour, a prominent Seneca leader who died in the late eighteenth century.^[4]

Catherine Montour, also known as Queen Catherine, was a prominent Iroquois leader living in Queanettquaga, a Seneca village of Sheaquaga, informally called Catharine's Town, in western New York. She has often been confused with Elizabeth "Madame" Montour, her aunt or grandmother who was a noted interpreter and adviser to the governor, and with "Queen Esther" Montour, usually described as her sister. Several places in western New York were later named in her honor, after most of the Iroquois had been forced to cede their lands and were driven out of the region.

The Seneca are a group of indigenous Iroquoian-speaking people native to North America who historically lived south of Lake Ontario. They were the nation located farthest to the west within the Six Nations or Iroquois League (Haudenosaunee) in New York before the American Revolution.

Portions of the park's trail are built upon towpaths originally constructed for the Chemung Canal, which was completed in 1830 and closed in 1878. Much of the trail's remainder follows the defunct Chemung Railroad, which was built parallel to the canal in 1850. The land that became the park was donated to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation in 1997 by Ed Hoffman, a local resident who had worked toward the creation of the park since the 1970s.^[4]

The Chemung Canal is a former canal in New York, United States. The canal connected Seneca Lake at Watkins Glen to the Chemung River at Elmira, New York. It was planned to connect the Finger Lakes region and Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River watershed with New York's Erie Canal system. The latter connected the Great Lakes with the Hudson River and ultimately the Atlantic port of New York City.

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (NYS OPRHP) is a state agency within the New York State Executive Department charged with the operation of state parks and historic sites within the U.S. state of New York. As of 2014, the NYS OPRHP manages nearly 335,000 acres of public lands and facilities, including 180 state parks and 35 historic sites, that are visited by over 62 million visitors each year.

The first mile of the trail was opened in 2000.^[5]

Related Research Articles

Seneca Lake is the largest of the glacial Finger Lakes of the U.S. state of New York, and the deepest lake entirely within the state. It is promoted as being the lake trout capital of the world, and is host of the National Lake Trout Derby. Because of its depth and relative ease of access, the US Navy uses Seneca Lake to perform test and evaluation of equipment ranging from single element transducers to complex sonar arrays and systems. The lake takes its name from the Seneca nation of Native Americans. At the north end of Seneca Lake is the city of Geneva, New York, home of Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, a division of Cornell University. At the south end of the lake is the village of Watkins Glen, New York, famed for auto racing and waterfalls.

Dix is a town in Schuyler County, New York, United States. The population was 4,197 at the 2000 census.

Montour is a town in Schuyler County, New York, United States. The population was 2,446 at the 2000 census. The town is one of two towns in the county named after Catherine Montour.

Montour Falls is a village located in Schuyler County, New York, United States. A population of 1,711 was reported by the US Census of 2010. A waterfall at the end of West Main Street gives the village its name. The name "Montour" is derived from Queen Catharine Montour, a prominent Native American woman of Seneca Indian heritage who lived at the village site in the 18th century.

Watkins Glen State Park is located in the village of Watkins Glen, south of Seneca Lake in Schuyler County in New York's Finger Lakes region. The park's lower part is near the village, while the upper part is open woodland. It was opened to the public in 1863 and was privately run as a tourist resort until 1906, when it was purchased by New York State. Initially known as Watkins Glen State Reservation, the park was first managed by the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society before being turned over to full state control in 1911. Since 1924, it has been managed by the Finger Lakes Region of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Fillmore Glen State Park is a 941-acre (3.81 km²) state park located in the Finger Lakes region of New York adjacent to the Village of Moravia in Cayuga County.

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is located in the District of Columbia and the states of Maryland and West Virginia. The park was established in 1961 as a National Monument by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to preserve the neglected remains of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and many of its original structures. The canal and towpath trail extends along the Potomac River from Georgetown, Washington, D.C., to Cumberland, Maryland, a distance of 184.5 miles (296.9 km). In 2013, the path was designated as the first section of U.S. Bicycle Route 50.

The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) is a rail trail system in Maryland and Pennsylvania—the central trail of a network of long-distance hiker-biker trails throughout the Allegheny region of the Appalachian Mountains, connecting Washington, D.C. to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It consists of several smaller trails including the Allegheny Highlands Trail of Maryland, the Allegheny Highlands Trail of Pennsylvania and the Youghiogheny River Trail.

Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Area, also known as the Harriet Hollister Spencer Memorial Recreation Area, is a 1,550-acre (6.3 km²) recreation area and part of the New York state park system. It is located six miles (9.7 km) south of Honeoye, off Canadice Hill Road in the south part of the Town of Canadice in Ontario County, New York.

This is a list of trails in Ithaca, New York.

The Old Erie Canal State Historic Park encompasses a 36-mile (58 km) linear segment of the original Erie Canal's Long Level section. It extends westward from Butternut Creek in the town of DeWitt, just east of Syracuse, to the outskirts of Rome, New York. The park includes restored segments of the canal's waterway and towpath which were in active use between 1825 and 1917. It is part of the New York State Park system.

The Genesee Valley Greenway is a rail trail in western New York's Genesee River valley.

The Wallkill Valley Rail Trail is a 23.7-mile (38.1 km) rail trail and linear park that runs along the former Wallkill Valley Railroad rail corridor in Ulster County, New York. It stretches from Gardiner through New Paltz, Rosendale, and Ulster to the Kingston city line. The trail is separated from the Walden–Wallkill Rail Trail by two state prisons in Shawangunk, though there have been plans to bypass these facilities, and to connect the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail with other regional rail trails. The northern section of the trail forms part of the proposed Empire State Trail.

The Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park is a part of the state park system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). This 1,000-acre (4.0 km²) park "recalls the role of canals in transporting raw materials and manufactured goods between emerging industrial centers." The Blackstone River and Canal Heritage State Park at Uxbridge, Massachusetts, is the midpoint of the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor of the National Park System. The Blackstone River and Valley is where the industrial revolution was born in America. The southern entrance to this state park is the site of the historic Stanley Woolen Mill, currently being redeveloped for commercial and tourism. The Native American Nipmuc name for the village here was "Wacentug", translated as "bend in the river".

The New York State Canalway Trail is a network of multi-use trails that runs parallel to current or former sections of the Erie, Oswego, Cayuga-Seneca, and Champlain canals. When completed, the system will have 524 miles (843 km) of trails following current and former sections of the canals. The longest of these is the 365 miles (587 km) long Erie Canalway Trail. It will form the east-west portion of the Empire State Trail.

Pine Valley is a hamlet and census-designated place in the towns of Catlin and Veteran in Chemung County, New York, United States. The population was 813 at the 2010 census.

References

↑ "Section O: Environmental Conservation and Recreation". 2014 New York State Statistical Yearbook. The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. 2014. Table O-9. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved January 31, 2016.
1 2 3 Price, Kimberly (Fall 2010). "On the Right Path". Life in the Finger Lakes. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
1 2 3 "Catharine Valley Trail". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved April 23, 2016.
1 2 Freeman, Rich; Freeman, Sue (2006). "Catharine Valley Trail". Take Your Bike: Family Rides in New York's Finger Lakes Region. Footprint Press, Inc. pp. 111–115. ISBN 9781930480223 . Retrieved January 23, 2016.
↑ "Catherine Valley Trail Milestones". Friends of the Catharine Valley Trail. February 19, 2007. Retrieved January 23, 2016.

External links

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[RIoG_ParkStats-1] "Section O: Environmental Conservation and Recreation". 2014 New York State Statistical Yearbook. The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. 2014. Table O-9. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved January 31, 2016.

[LITFL_CVT-2] 1 2 3 Price, Kimberly (Fall 2010). "On the Right Path". Life in the Finger Lakes. Retrieved January 23, 2016.

[NYSP_main-3] 1 2 3 "Catharine Valley Trail". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved April 23, 2016.

[TakeYoBike-4] 1 2 Freeman, Rich; Freeman, Sue (2006). "Catharine Valley Trail". Take Your Bike: Family Rides in New York's Finger Lakes Region. Footprint Press, Inc. pp. 111–115. ISBN 9781930480223 . Retrieved January 23, 2016.

[CVT_milestones-5] "Catherine Valley Trail Milestones". Friends of the Catharine Valley Trail. February 19, 2007. Retrieved January 23, 2016.