Tin Brook

Tin Brook
Tin Brook
	Tin Brook in Walden's Wooster Memorial Grove
Etymology	Early settler known as John Tinne or Tinbrook, various Dutch words
Location
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Orange
Municipality	Town of New Windsor,; Town of Montgomery,; Village of Walden
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	S of Coldenham
• coordinates	41°30′45″N74°09′07″W / 41.51250°N 74.15194°W
• elevation	420 ft (130 m)
Mouth	Wallkill River
• coordinates	41°34′31″N74°11′26″W / 41.57528°N 74.19056°W Coordinates: 41°34′31″N74°11′26″W / 41.57528°N 74.19056°W
• elevation	260 ft (79 m)
Length	9 mi (14 km)
Basin size	19.2 sq mi (50 km2)

Last updated January 11, 2022

Tin Brook is a 9-mile-long (14 km)^[1] tributary of the Wallkill River almost entirely located in the town of Montgomery in Orange County, New York, United States, where it drains 19.2 square miles (50 km²).^[2] Near its mouth it flows through the village of Walden. It is one of the few named tributaries of the Wallkill that drain into it from the lowlands between it and the Hudson River to the east, rather than the Shawangunk Ridge to the west.

Several possible origins have been proposed for the name, which appeared on local maps as early as 1774.^[3] The most likely points to an early landowner along the midlands of the stream variously named John Tinne, Thinne or even John Tinbrook. Another theory suggests that it was named by the Dutch settlers who were the first European inhabitants of the Hudson Valley and that it comes from the words meaning "thin breeches" in that language. Supposedly one of them had reconnoitered south from New Paltz and found the soils around the brook to be thin, or insufficiently deep for the kind of farming they preferred.^[4]

Course

Tin Brook rises in a 535-acre (217 ha) complex of wetlands and vernal pools on the northern edge of Stewart State Forest, near Interstate 84.^[5] Almost immediately afterwards it crosses the Montgomery town line from New Windsor, and then reaches NY 17K. It continues flowing north through rural, mostly wooded land, veering slightly eastward and receiving an unnamed right tributary, until it reaches NY 52. There it receives another tributary, turns south, and crosses the highway again.

It loops again very quickly, turning north after passing a trailer park. Now wider, it crosses 52 again between Berea and St. Andrew's roads. It then turns west and runs roughly parallel to the highway until it reaches the Walden village limit, where it turns south and crosses 52 for a third time in the midst of a residential neighborhood. Here it makes a long loop around the village's Wooster Memorial Grove park and comes so close to its upper course that it can be found on both sides of the main entrance road near 52. It meanders south again through some light industrial neighborhoods, then crosses 52 for the last time a short distance east of the park.

Then it turns west, running aside 52 (now West Main Street) for a block, then north to divide a residential neighborhood and a commercial property. In the woodlands north of the village, Tin Brook turns west for the last time, crosses under NY 208 and then drains into the Wallkill.

History

In 1724 Cadwallader Colden, a future colonial official whose 3,000-acre (1,200 ha) estate included much of the brook's headlands, proposed that the many rivers and streams of New York be tapped for canals to improve transportation across the colony. He decided to use his own land as a demonstration project, diverting some of the brook's waters into a pond which fed a short canal, the first in New York. Its rafts carried peat for fuel and stone to build his house, and whatever other freight was needed around the estate.^[6]

In 1892, the brook provided water for Walden's first municipal electric utility, a coal-fired power plant on Elm Street. At the time only the mills on the Wallkill generated power, and that was used mostly for the mills themselves. The Elm Street plant, which still stands although it is used for other purposes, began providing power for the village in 1893. Within 15 years demand outstripped supply, and as the knifemaking plants along the Wallkill river went into decline, they began providing power to the village, supplanting the Elm Street plant.^[7]

After heavy rains, Tin Brook sometimes floods near its mouth, particularly at Wooster Grove. Following Hurricane Irene in August 2011, the creek rose to such a height that not only was most of the park flooded, some nearby areas were as well, forcing the village of Walden to close some streets. Further upstream, the intersection of Route 52 and St. Andrew's Road also had to be closed.

Ecology

Several New York State species of concern — the blue-spotted, Jefferson's and marbled salamanders — have found habitat dependent on the brook. Indiana bats, a federal endangered species, use trees near it as roosting sites and have been found to forage in it. The Eastern box, wood and spotted turtles also make their homes in and near the brook.^[5]

Related Research Articles

Walden is the largest of three villages of the town of Montgomery in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 6,978 at the 2010 census. It has the ZIP Code 12586 and the 778 telephone exchange within the 845 area code. Walden is part of the Poughkeepsie−Newburgh−Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York−Newark−Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.

Montgomery is a village located in Orange County, New York, United States, 60 (97 km) miles northwest of New York City, and 90 miles (140 km) southwest of Albany. The population was 3,814 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area. The village is named after General Richard Montgomery, an officer of the American Revolution.

Montgomery is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 22,606 at the 2010 census. It was named in honor of Richard Montgomery, a Revolutionary War general killed in 1775 at the Battle of Quebec. The northern town line is contiguous with the Ulster County border. Montgomery is immediately west of the town of Newburgh. Within its borders are three villages, one eponymous, as well as Walden and most of Maybrook.

The Wallkill River, a tributary of the Hudson, drains Lake Mohawk in Sparta, New Jersey, flowing from there generally northeasterly 88.3 miles (142.1 km) to Rondout Creek in New York, just downstream of Sturgeon Pool, near Rosendale, with the combined flows reaching the Hudson at Kingston.

Rondout Creek is a 63.3-mile-long (101.9 km) tributary of the Hudson River in Ulster and Sullivan counties, New York, United States. It rises on Rocky Mountain in the eastern Catskills, flows south into Rondout Reservoir, part of New York City's water supply network, then into the valley between the Catskills and the Shawangunk Ridge, where it goes over High Falls and finally out to the Hudson at Kingston, receiving along the way the Wallkill River.

New York State Route 17K (NY 17K) is an east–west state highway located within Orange County, New York, in the United States. It extends for 22.01 miles (35.42 km) from an intersection with NY 17 east of Bloomingburg to a junction with U.S. Route 9W (US 9W) midway across the city of Newburgh. The western terminus was where NY 17K originally connected to its parent route, NY 17; it now meets NY 17 a short distance to the east at an interchange with the Quickway. In Newburgh, NY 17K becomes Broadway and serves as the city's primary east–west street. The road can be divided into a half west of Montgomery, where it runs through relatively undeveloped land, and an eastern half where it closely parallels Interstate 84 (I-84) and serves much more populated areas.

New York State Route 52 (NY 52) is a 108.72-mile-long (174.97 km) state highway in the southeastern part of the state. It generally runs from west to east through five counties, beginning at the Pennsylvania state line in the Delaware River near Narrowsburg, crossing the Hudson River on the Newburgh–Beacon Bridge, and ending in Carmel. NY 52 and NY 55, both major east–west routes of the Mid-Hudson Region, run parallel to each other, intersecting in downtown Liberty.

New York State Route 211 (NY 211) is a state highway located entirely within Orange County, New York, in the United States. The western terminus is at the intersection with US 209 located in Cuddebackville, and the eastern terminus is located at Montgomery at NY 17K, where it becomes the main thoroughfare.

New York State Route 208 (NY 208) is a state highway located in southern New York in the United States. The southern terminus is at an intersection with NY 17M in the Orange County village of Monroe. Its northern terminus is located at an intersection with NY 32 and NY 299 in the Ulster County village of New Paltz.

The Wallkill Valley Railroad is a defunct railroad which once operated in Ulster and Orange counties in upstate New York. Its corridor was from Kingston in the north to Montgomery in the south, with a leased extension to Campbell Hall. It crossed both the Wallkill River and Rondout Creek.

The Jacob T. Walden Stone House is on North Montgomery Street near the intersection with Wait Street in Walden, New York. It was built in the 1730s, around the time the thousand-acre Gatehouse Patent was first sold, and is one of the oldest houses remaining in the area.

The Shawangunk Kill is a 47.2-mile-long (76.0 km) stream that flows northward through Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties, New York, in the United States. It is the largest tributary of the Wallkill River.

The Wallkill Valley Rail Trail is a 22.5-mile (36.2 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 Empire State Trail.

Moodna Creek is a small tributary of the Hudson River that drains eastern Orange County, New York. At 15.5 miles (25 km) in length from its source at the confluence of Cromline Creek and Otter Kill west of Washingtonville, it is the longest stream located entirely within the county.

Ward's Bridge carries NY 17K across the Wallkill River at the western end of the village of Montgomery in Orange County, New York, United States. It is named, as its predecessors were, for James Ward, an early settler in the area who established his grist mill on what is now the village side and built the first bridge in the mid-18th century. Originally, Montgomery was even called Ward's Bridge, and today a nearby restaurant calls itself the Ward's Bridge Inn.

Muddy Kill is a 4.2-mile-long (6.8 km) tributary of the Wallkill River that runs entirely through the town of Montgomery in Orange County, New York, United States. It rises from a small pond just over a mile (1.7 km) west of the village of Walden, flowing first southwesterly then roughly due south to empty into the Wallkill just upstream from the village of Montgomery.

The Walden Low Bridge is the downstream of the two bridges over the Wallkill River in Walden, New York, United States. It gets its name from being lower to the river than the Walden High Bridge a short distance upstream. It is a steel continuous truss bridge built in 1987, the latest in a series of bridges at that location that have been in place for at least a century. At 349 feet in length, it is the longest bridge over the river in Orange County that carries a surface road.

The Dwaar Kill is a 17-mile-long (27 km) tributary of the Wallkill River that drains a 28-square-mile (73 km²) area of Orange and Ulster counties in the U.S. state of New York. It is the Wallkill's second-longest tributary after the Shawangunk Kill, whose course it parallels somewhat to the east.

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References

↑ "Stream Trace Summary Report". U.S. Geological Survey. February 2, 2016. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
↑ "Wallkill River Watershed Conservation and Management Plan" (PDF). Orange County Water Authority. p. 10. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
↑ Eager, Samuel Watkins (1846). An Outline History of Orange County: Together with Local Tradition and Short Biographical Sketches of Early Settlers, Etc. T. E. Henderson. p. 274.
↑ "Town of Montgomery". History of Orange County. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-07-20. at American Genealogy and History Project.
1 2 Ulster County Soil and Water Conservation District, 2005, Draft Wallkill Watershed Conservation and Management Plan Archived 2007-07-15 at the Wayback Machine , 24, retrieved February 12, 2008.
↑ Wallace, Margaret V.S. (c. 1969). "The Erie Canal began in Little Britain, no, not in location, but in vision". Orange County Post. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
↑ "History of Walden, New York" . Retrieved 2008-02-11.^{[ permanent dead link ]}

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[NHD-1] "Stream Trace Summary Report". U.S. Geological Survey. February 2, 2016. Retrieved February 2, 2016.

[Watershed_draft_management_plan-2] "Wallkill River Watershed Conservation and Management Plan" (PDF). Orange County Water Authority. p. 10. Retrieved February 2, 2016.

[3] Eager, Samuel Watkins (1846). An Outline History of Orange County: Together with Local Tradition and Short Biographical Sketches of Early Settlers, Etc. T. E. Henderson. p. 274.

[Old_history_of_Orange_County-4] "Town of Montgomery". History of Orange County. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-07-20. at American Genealogy and History Project.

[Watershed_plan-5] 1 2 Ulster County Soil and Water Conservation District, 2005, Draft Wallkill Watershed Conservation and Management Plan Archived 2007-07-15 at the Wayback Machine , 24, retrieved February 12, 2008.

[Colden's_canal-6] Wallace, Margaret V.S. (c. 1969). "The Erie Canal began in Little Britain, no, not in location, but in vision". Orange County Post. Retrieved 2008-02-12.

[power_plant-7] "History of Walden, New York" . Retrieved 2008-02-11.^{[ permanent dead link ]}

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