Hudson Highlands, New York
Bear Mountain & Harriman State Parks
Bear Mountain and Harriman feel like wilderness close to New York City, but their public landscape was deliberately built. This guide connects Mary Harriman's 1910 park gift, Revolutionary ground, rustic architecture, Trailside, the first constructed Appalachian Trail section, Perkins Tower, Bear Mountain Bridge, Iona Island, Doodletown, pioneering group camps and engineered recreation lakes to show how conservation and public works created a regional escape.
Stories in Bear Mountain & Harriman State Parks
- Bear Mountain Inn: The Wilderness Was Designed for Visitors
- Hessian Lake: A Recreation Lake on a Revolutionary Battlefield
- Trailside: A Zoo Designed to Teach You to Leave the Zoo
- The Appalachian Trail Began Here as Actual Trail
- Perkins Memorial Tower: A View Built by the Conservation Movement
- Bear Mountain Bridge: The Park Became So Popular It Needed a Bridge
- Iona Island: From Industry to Tidal Habitat
- Doodletown: The Village the Park Eventually Removed
- Harriman Group Camps: The Park Was Built for City Children
- Lake Tiorati: Even the Lakes Were Engineered
- Lake Welch: The 1942 Lake and the Age of Mass Recreation