The Historic Railroads of Taconic State Park By Frederick Sutherland

Trains ran through the heart of Taconic State Park over 150 years ago. Back then, the Copake Iron Works owned a portion of the land the park now controls. The first owner of the Copake Iron Works, Lemuel Pomeroy, had selected the site in 1845 because it fulfilled three basic requirements for a successful iron works. The site had good quality ore, running water (Bash Bish Brook) to power the equipment, and plenty of timber nearby to burn as charcoal for the furnace. Another reason for building an iron works here is that Pomeroy probably knew where the local railroad would be built. This railroad track, now the Harlem Valley Rail Trail, connected the Iron Works to New York City in 1852. The prospective rail line is clearly depicted on county maps (Figure 1) as early as 1839 and is located almost exactly where it would be constructed 13 years later. The direct connection allowed the Iron Works to receive the raw materials it needed for production more easily and to transport finished iron products more quickly and inexpensively than by the Hudson River.

After Frederick Miles, the new owner of Copake Iron Works, took over in 1862, a narrow gauge railroad line was installed on the property to help move goods to and from the furnace (Figure 2). This railroad line appears in the 1888 Columbia County Atlas (Figure 3). The tracks ran between some of the workers homes. Just imagine all the noise and soot resulting from a locomotive going by these houses! The narrow gauge loop transported raw materials like iron ore from the mines just west of the furnace, now the Ore Pit Pond, to the furnace. The locomotive also transported completed cast-iron goods to Copake Station (a rail depot) for wider distribution and disposed of waste products, like slag.

Today much of this railroad system is still visible in and around the Park. The Depot Deli, beside the Harlem Valley Rail Trail and the Taconic State Park entrance, was a railroad depot for the Copake Iron Works (Figure 4). A cut in the hillside just north of Saint John in the Wilderness Church allowed the narrow gauge track to pass through on its way to the furnace (Figure 5). Part of the bridge deck, where the train crossed Bash Bish Brook, is located on the streambed just east of the furnace area (Figure 6). Several tall stone retaining walls supported the bridge along the southern shore of this area as well.

I encourage all of you to explore your local archives at the Columbia County Historical Society, the Roeliff Jansen Historical Society, and the Hillsdale Public Library to see many more maps and historic pictures of the trains and tracks that ran through this region. If you wish to explore the remains of the tracks in the park please be careful, as some areas can be very steep and slippery. Taconic State Park staff may be able to provide you with a copy of the 1888 Atlas map to help you retrace where the tracks once ran inside the park. The legacy of railroads at Taconic State Park is an important aspect of our regional heritage that we can experience even today through the remains that surround us while visiting the Park.

Editor's Note:  Frederick Sutherland is a doctoral candidate in Industrial Archaelogy and Heritage Management at Michigan Technological University, the pre-eminent institution for the study of that topic.  Fred is a member of our History Adbisory Board and the author of  "From Forest, to Company Town, and Back Again: Survey and History of the Copake Iron Works."