This is my first cache hide in the area after moving up from
Pennsylvania. There are many great areas around here just begging
for geocaches! So this was my first pick.
Cache is a well hidden Ammo Box with the usual cache goodies and
a camera (feel free to take your pic!). Please let me know what you
think and keep an eye out for more of my caches!
Be careful in the "not winter" months, lots of Timber
Rattlesnakes have been spotted here by other cachers! Just leave
them alone, and they will leave you alone.
The current Overlook Mountain House was the third hotel on the
site. Designer and builder Lewis B. Wagonen of Kingston, NY,
constructed the first in 1871. The Mountain House accommodated 300
guests, and was destroyed by fire in 1875. It was rebuilt in 1878
by the Kiersted Brothers of Saugerties, and soon there was
competition with other first class hotels, including the Hotel
Kaaterskill, Laurel House, and the Grand Hotel. Overlook was used
irregularly between 1887 and 1917, when Morris Newgold purchased
the hotel. The second incarnation of the Overlook Mountain House
was destroyed by fire in 1923. Architect Frank P. Amato was hired
to redesign and rebuild the hotel. It was quickly rebuilt in
concrete, but never completed. Also constructed were a chapel, a
power station, stables, and an underground ice and water facility.
The Lodge or "1928 house" was still incomplete, however, by 1939.
Newgold suffered financial difficulty, and it was hard to transport
guests to the site (of all the famous Catskill Mountain hotels,
Overlook had the highest elevation and did not have direct access
to a rail line). Around this time, New York State acquired much of
Overlook Mountain. The hotel was boarded up in 1940, and apparently
damaged by fire in 1941. However, architectural details and a
roof-top tower survived intact until brought down by a final blaze
in the mid 1960s.
Through natural decay and with the help of the State of New
York, the old resorts physically disappeared. The most infamous
case was the destruction of the Catskill Mountain House. After it
closed in 1942, the hotel was sold to a developer who gutted the
house for what could be saved of fixtures and plumbing, the house
disappeared section by section. In 1963, the State of New York
burned what was left of the house. In its place, the State erected
a plaque to let visitors know about that ultimate act of vandalism
The Overlook House suffered a similar fate. The hotel went through
the usual series of theft, vandalism and exposure to the elements.
All of the other structures are now in ruins too. At least Overlook
survives in some way. Concerns have been raised about the Mountain
House, with solutions ranging from putting up fencing around it, to
tearing it down. The "do-nothing" approach prevails for now.
Ultimately, preserving the ruin is far better than demolishing it
like the Catskill Mountain House.
Trails:
The Overlook Mountain House Cache can be reached from two
different directions. The most popular route begins at the
trailhead of the red-blazed Overlook Spur Trail along Meads
Mountain Road, about 2 miles outside of the village of
Woodstock.
The cache may also be reached from the north by beginning in
Platte Clove where The Catskill Center has a 206-acre preserve. At
the preserve, you will find a trail designated by light blue
markers which leads south (about 1 mile) until it intersects with
the Devil's Path at the Devil's Kitchen Lean-to. From this point,
the blue-blazed Overlook Trail leads 3.6 miles past Echo Lake and
up to the Overlook Spur Trail.
Good Luck and Cache Safe!
Congrats to dirtfan for FTF on 21 December
06!