Haunted Woods; CYCLOPS! LbNA #45841
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Add Location| Owner: | Adoptable |
|---|---|
| Plant date: | Mar 7, 2009 |
| Location: | |
| City: | Brewster |
| County: | Putnam |
| State: | New York |
| Boxes: | 1 |
| Planted by: | Karen & K9s  |
|---|---|
| Found by: | Geopiglet |
| Last found: | Oct 9, 2011 |
| Status: | FFFFFFF |
| Last edited: | Mar 7, 2009 |
Haunted Woods: CYCLOPS!
5th box in the Haunted Woods Series
About 2 miles round trip
No ink pad in this box.
Directions to Clough Preserve can be found at "Haunted Woods: VAMPIRE BOX".
These directions start from "Haunted Woods: 8TH WONDER".
The Cyclops is a giant one eyed beast that protects these woods from careless humans who litter and don't respect the beauty of these woods. He lives on the mountain that you see across from the swamp, but won't hesitate to come down if he suspects someone is abusing his home.
TO FIND THE BOX:
Continue on the path near the swamp and soon you will come out on a gravel bed next to a train track. Turn right and continue along the tracks. You will be walking with the swamp on your right and a lake on your left. This lake is the Ice Pond. If you're here early in the morning or at dusk, you may see the beavers out and about. They swim through a large pipe from the swamp into the lake. This is my son's favorite fishing spot.
History of the Ice Pond:
Bedded in limestone marble, bordered to the west by steep and rocky hills of tough granite scraped bare in spots by the Wisconsin ice sheet, and to the east by amphibolite, lies a small lake known today as the Ice Pond. About 0.6 miles long and 0.2 miles wide, this natural pond is located in the southwestern corner of the Town of Patterson. A large stream flows northwest into the pond from the region around Brewster High School near Farm to Market Road, and many smaller spring fed streams feed into the pond from the surrounding hills. Muddy Brook drains the Ice Pond northward through a portion of The Great Swamp, eventually joining the East Branch of the Croton river near the Hamlet of Patterson.
From artifacts found at the Muddy Brook rock shelter, Cornwall Hill Estates and the Kessman Property, it's clear that prehistoric people were camping on these knolls, living under the overhangs of the surrounding hills and utilizing the food resources found in abundance in the wetlands. The earliest artifacts were projectile points which date back about 8,000 years. Fragments of Indian pottery were found at all the sites mentioned above and along the ridges that formed travel routes above the tangled wetlands. The Woodland Period began here about 1000-2000 years ago and marked the beginning of the use of the bow and arrow, pottery and the organized cultivation of corn, beans and squash. The Native Americans of this area were called the "River Indians" by Henry Hudson; we call them the Algonkian speaking people. The local groups probably consisted of 20 to 30 family members loosely known by the name of the area and joined in a larger assemblage or confederacy. The local Native Americans were members of the Wappinger Confederacy whose territory ranged from Northern Westchester County to Fishkill Creek. Their last sachem, or chief, was Daniel Ninham, who fought an extraordinary legal battle with the King of England and the Colonial Courts to try to retain his tribe's lands in Putnam and Dutchess Counties. With the Revolutionary War and the unsuccessful court ruling, the Confederacy ceased to be a presence in Putnam County. Its members joined other Indian groups and moved west.
Many of the European settlers in this region came from Cape Cod, Connecticut and even Long Island. One historian mentions Crosby, Mabie, Merritt, and Dykeman families living around the Ice Pond from the late 1700's. William Blake's History of Putnam County, N.Y., written in 1849, mentions that the Pond's "west bank forms the west line of the Harlem Railroad." Built in 1848-49, this is the older of the two rail lines that border the pond. In the early 1850's, the New York and New England Railroad (known today as the Maybrook freight line of the old New Haven Railroad) built a raised rail bed along the east side of Ice Pond. In 1912. engineers were told not to fire up their engines so that cinders would not fall on the forming ice.
Ice Harvesting at the Ice Pond
During the days of ice production, ice was cut in blocks and drifted under the Harlem tracks on the west shore through a cement lined channel. It was stockpiled in a huge ice house near the tracks before loading the ice onto railroad cars for the trip to New York City. Laborers used specialized ice saws and axes to cut large blocks from the frozen surface and pulled them along by horse through open water channels to the shore. The huge ice houses were built up around the ice blocks as they were stacked higher and higher. The ice was packed in insulating layers of sawdust or hay before being loaded into insulated cars for their trip south.
The workers were housed in a long frame building on the side hill to the north of the present fishing lodge. The building contained a kitchen, and at one end a make-shift jail to house rowdy workers after they celebrated payday! All that remains of the ice house is the impressive foundation that was still standing in the 1950's. The dormitory building is marked by piles of charred wood, broken pieces of pottery, rusted tinware, bedsprings, and a flight of steps leading up from the tracks. When the Ice Pond Corporation acquired the property, the members built a fishing lodge next to the Harlem tracks on the west side of the pond.
SO, BACK TO THE LETTERBOX:
It's a little rough walking on the gravel, but you don't have far to go. Just beyond where the swamp dissipates, on your right, you will see a bunch of large low rocks. These rocks are about 25 paces before a metal sign that faces away from you. If you were to walk up to the sign, it would read "ABL".
*This is where things get a little hairy. I would not call this an extreme letterbox by any standard, but the short climb before you is quite steep, and depending on conditions, can be quite hazardous. Do not attempt this if it is icey, or wet. Please use your best judgement, as the leaves and rocks on this hill can be very slippery, or loose under foot. Small children should wait with an adult below. That being said, I am not in my prime anymore and had no problem climbing this hill, but I thought I needed to warn you.
Sooo...climb these rocks. Just above is a good sitting boulder with a tree next to it. Up a little to the right is an evergreen, and behind that, but a little futher up are large boulders, with a large fallen tree sitting on top of them. The first boulder on your left is where you need to go. The box is wedged under it, on the right, covered by broken tree limbs and debris. Please wedge the box back in place, but be careful not to tear the bag. If you don't wedge it exactly where you found it, it can fall under the boulder and be lost forever. So, please don't let go of the box unless you know it is wedged securely. Cover with limbs and debris. Be very careful climbing back down.
*You may also want to check out the Stone Chamber letterbox and Local Wildlife Turkey & Great Horned Owl. They are right down the road from here.
If you can, please log your find on Atlasquest.com. Thanks!
5th box in the Haunted Woods Series
About 2 miles round trip
No ink pad in this box.
Directions to Clough Preserve can be found at "Haunted Woods: VAMPIRE BOX".
These directions start from "Haunted Woods: 8TH WONDER".
The Cyclops is a giant one eyed beast that protects these woods from careless humans who litter and don't respect the beauty of these woods. He lives on the mountain that you see across from the swamp, but won't hesitate to come down if he suspects someone is abusing his home.
TO FIND THE BOX:
Continue on the path near the swamp and soon you will come out on a gravel bed next to a train track. Turn right and continue along the tracks. You will be walking with the swamp on your right and a lake on your left. This lake is the Ice Pond. If you're here early in the morning or at dusk, you may see the beavers out and about. They swim through a large pipe from the swamp into the lake. This is my son's favorite fishing spot.
History of the Ice Pond:
Bedded in limestone marble, bordered to the west by steep and rocky hills of tough granite scraped bare in spots by the Wisconsin ice sheet, and to the east by amphibolite, lies a small lake known today as the Ice Pond. About 0.6 miles long and 0.2 miles wide, this natural pond is located in the southwestern corner of the Town of Patterson. A large stream flows northwest into the pond from the region around Brewster High School near Farm to Market Road, and many smaller spring fed streams feed into the pond from the surrounding hills. Muddy Brook drains the Ice Pond northward through a portion of The Great Swamp, eventually joining the East Branch of the Croton river near the Hamlet of Patterson.
From artifacts found at the Muddy Brook rock shelter, Cornwall Hill Estates and the Kessman Property, it's clear that prehistoric people were camping on these knolls, living under the overhangs of the surrounding hills and utilizing the food resources found in abundance in the wetlands. The earliest artifacts were projectile points which date back about 8,000 years. Fragments of Indian pottery were found at all the sites mentioned above and along the ridges that formed travel routes above the tangled wetlands. The Woodland Period began here about 1000-2000 years ago and marked the beginning of the use of the bow and arrow, pottery and the organized cultivation of corn, beans and squash. The Native Americans of this area were called the "River Indians" by Henry Hudson; we call them the Algonkian speaking people. The local groups probably consisted of 20 to 30 family members loosely known by the name of the area and joined in a larger assemblage or confederacy. The local Native Americans were members of the Wappinger Confederacy whose territory ranged from Northern Westchester County to Fishkill Creek. Their last sachem, or chief, was Daniel Ninham, who fought an extraordinary legal battle with the King of England and the Colonial Courts to try to retain his tribe's lands in Putnam and Dutchess Counties. With the Revolutionary War and the unsuccessful court ruling, the Confederacy ceased to be a presence in Putnam County. Its members joined other Indian groups and moved west.
Many of the European settlers in this region came from Cape Cod, Connecticut and even Long Island. One historian mentions Crosby, Mabie, Merritt, and Dykeman families living around the Ice Pond from the late 1700's. William Blake's History of Putnam County, N.Y., written in 1849, mentions that the Pond's "west bank forms the west line of the Harlem Railroad." Built in 1848-49, this is the older of the two rail lines that border the pond. In the early 1850's, the New York and New England Railroad (known today as the Maybrook freight line of the old New Haven Railroad) built a raised rail bed along the east side of Ice Pond. In 1912. engineers were told not to fire up their engines so that cinders would not fall on the forming ice.
Ice Harvesting at the Ice Pond
During the days of ice production, ice was cut in blocks and drifted under the Harlem tracks on the west shore through a cement lined channel. It was stockpiled in a huge ice house near the tracks before loading the ice onto railroad cars for the trip to New York City. Laborers used specialized ice saws and axes to cut large blocks from the frozen surface and pulled them along by horse through open water channels to the shore. The huge ice houses were built up around the ice blocks as they were stacked higher and higher. The ice was packed in insulating layers of sawdust or hay before being loaded into insulated cars for their trip south.
The workers were housed in a long frame building on the side hill to the north of the present fishing lodge. The building contained a kitchen, and at one end a make-shift jail to house rowdy workers after they celebrated payday! All that remains of the ice house is the impressive foundation that was still standing in the 1950's. The dormitory building is marked by piles of charred wood, broken pieces of pottery, rusted tinware, bedsprings, and a flight of steps leading up from the tracks. When the Ice Pond Corporation acquired the property, the members built a fishing lodge next to the Harlem tracks on the west side of the pond.
SO, BACK TO THE LETTERBOX:
It's a little rough walking on the gravel, but you don't have far to go. Just beyond where the swamp dissipates, on your right, you will see a bunch of large low rocks. These rocks are about 25 paces before a metal sign that faces away from you. If you were to walk up to the sign, it would read "ABL".
*This is where things get a little hairy. I would not call this an extreme letterbox by any standard, but the short climb before you is quite steep, and depending on conditions, can be quite hazardous. Do not attempt this if it is icey, or wet. Please use your best judgement, as the leaves and rocks on this hill can be very slippery, or loose under foot. Small children should wait with an adult below. That being said, I am not in my prime anymore and had no problem climbing this hill, but I thought I needed to warn you.
Sooo...climb these rocks. Just above is a good sitting boulder with a tree next to it. Up a little to the right is an evergreen, and behind that, but a little futher up are large boulders, with a large fallen tree sitting on top of them. The first boulder on your left is where you need to go. The box is wedged under it, on the right, covered by broken tree limbs and debris. Please wedge the box back in place, but be careful not to tear the bag. If you don't wedge it exactly where you found it, it can fall under the boulder and be lost forever. So, please don't let go of the box unless you know it is wedged securely. Cover with limbs and debris. Be very careful climbing back down.
*You may also want to check out the Stone Chamber letterbox and Local Wildlife Turkey & Great Horned Owl. They are right down the road from here.
If you can, please log your find on Atlasquest.com. Thanks!