Behold the old pulp mill at Winchell’s Falls on Esopus Creek, now part of the Ashokan Center.
Esopus Creek has been a source of food, water, transportation, power, and recreation for thousands of years. The Esopus was first dammed at Winchell’s Falls in the 1700s to power a saw mill for lumber, grist mills for grain, and a fulling mill to process textiles. In 1887, a century later, a new mill was constructed at Winchell’s Falls to produce wood pulp for making newsprint and later for the dynamite industry.
The pulp mill’s operation ended in 1912 when the Esopus was dammed further upstream to create the Ashokan Reservoir to supply clean water to New York City.
Though the buildings in this picture are long gone, their history is one of the many examples of the importance of water through the ages.
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Historic photos from NYHeritage Digital Collections: https://nyheritage.org/
