Denning's Point Musing 5 Winter on the Point over the years

Denning’s Point Musings 5
Historic Winters on Denning’s Point (continued)

With the Denning’s Point trails closed for the winter to protect the American Bald Eagle foraging, perching and roosting habitat, I have been pondering what changes people living on the Point would have experienced during this season over the past 6,000 years. The present winter-time closing takes the high road of environmental conservation … but what about the other years? Let’s pass a few of our own blustery weeks, continuing what we began with Denning’s Point Musings 4, considering winter as experienced on Denning’s Point over the years, one era at a time.

The Point saw its first year-round residents during the early Colonial period. During the late 1600s and early 1700s Native Americans were still coming and going, but this time period also saw the addition of the early European trailblazers who made their living by hunting and trapping. With the mouth of the Fishkill Creek immediately adjacent, the Point was an ideal summer and winter location for trappers. Stories survive of at least one specific trapper, Peter Dubois, who Madam Brett found on her newly acquired land in 1709. During these years winter recreational use of the Point’s beaches was first mentioned… specifically as easy access for ice skating! Ice skating dates back well over a thousand years; one source claims it goes back to 3,000 BC. Certainly many European colonists, especially the Dutch, brought ice skates with them to the new land. This form of recreation remained a winter constant on Denning’s Point and its surrounding frozen waters until ice-breaking ships were employed to keep the channel clear.

During the Revolutionary War period, use of Denning’s Point changed little during the winter season, with the river humming with activities that affected the people on the Point. The weather was colder in the 1700 and 1800s than it is today and the river froze earlier with a smoother surface. We verified the difference in winter temperatures using the careful records that were kept by the ice yachtsmen; temperature was particularly critical for this sport. Because the river is tidal, a zone of broken ice was (and is) found close to shore. However, a combination of careful navigation and Yankee ingenuity in the form of planks placed across the broken ice to reach the smoother ice near the center of the river enabled people, horses and sleighs on and off the ice without too many casualties. According to records, horse-drawn sleighs cautiously transported people, troops and supplies over the frozen river during this period. Denning’s Point was one of the known landings. Commerce flourished on the frozen river for there was a direct “road” over which goods could easily be transported.

Ice skating anyone? You’d need both to hope the ice-breaking ships take their own break and to find someplace other than the Point from which to glide out onto the Hudson River. We modern-day people stay off the Point for the winter, and look forward to returning in the spring. In the meantime, over the course of the next few blogs, let’s move through (relatively) more recent eras remembering winters on Denning’s Point.

Jim Heron, author of Denning’s Point - A Hudson River History and Project Historian of Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries.