Rip's Retreat
Bob Gildersleeve
The 1950s was a decade of dramatic transition for the area around Pine
Orchard, the site of the Catskill Mountain House. New York State
had owned and operated North Lake Campsite since the 1930s. The State
was looking to expand. The Catskill Mountain House, once one of the
finest resort hotels in the country, had declined and in November of 1950
was seriously damaged by a hurricane. It was the beginning of the destruction
of the magnificent old hotel that had so influenced the history of the
Northern Catskills. The story of Milo Claude Moseman's desperate
and ultimately failed attempt to save the structure has been told elsewhere.
One chapter of that story, the sale of a portion of the escarpment
to the north of the hotel deserves special
consideration. Rip's Retreat, an early tourist stop not unlike
the earliest phases of Storytown near Glens Falls, was built here in 1951.
That same year Moseman announced his plans to restore the Mountain House.
Rip's Retreat failed and was acquired by New York State in 1961.
Moseman's attempts to save the Mountain House also failed, Pine Orchard
was acquired by the state and the ruined shell of the old structure was
burned in 1963. Pine Orchard and the former grounds of Rip's Retreat are
now part of North-South Lake Public Campground and have reverted to a more
natural state. Few would now favor a commercial amusement park at
the edge of the escarpment, but for the years that it operated, Rip's Retreat
provided entertainment and employment for local youngsters and adults.
Inspired by the generous gift from Arlene Hoose of her husband
Ron’s extensive collection of Rip Van Winkle memorabilia, the Historical
Society gathered several people together at our new Welcome Center to discuss
this bit of local history. Ron was known to the Mountain Top and to
bidders on the online auction Ebay as “Old Rip.” His portrayal of
Rip Van Winkle (photo to the left) for Mountain Top events perhaps had it
origin when young Ron portrayed a gnome at Rip’s Retreat. Some intriguing
pieces of his collection hark back to that early short-lived tourist stop.
Our interest sparked by Arlene’s gift, we went through the MTHS archives
and found other images of the early theme park. Many of the images and
other items can be seen on the Society's web site: http://www.mths.org.
There you will find links that will allow you to view several postcards
from Rip's Retreat, some of MTHS director Larry Tompkins' collection of
the christening activities for the train ride, and family photos of Ken
and Ann Whitaker's visit to Rip's There is also a two-page advertising flyer
from the attraction.
View several postcards from
Rip's Retreat.
View Larry Tompkin's
collection of the christening activities for the train ride.
View family photos
of Ken and Ann Whitaker's visit to Rip's
View the original advertising flyer Page 1 Page
2
Each of the participants at the November 2, 2005 discussion had some
connection with the park. Ann France’s father Sandy George had been
general manager and one summer Ann herself worked puppets at the puppet
theater. Doris O’Brien’s father Hiram “Hype” Hoyt (that's Hype sitting
on the porch in the photo below) was one of two men to portray Rip and Ed
Thorpe’s aunt and cousin worked at the park. Justine Hommel was at
the meeting to help bring all of the pieces of our conversation together
while Dede Thorpe and I worked to record the whole session for the society’s
oral history project.
Harold Hargreave, a salesman from Saugerties, conceived the idea of
the attraction and was president of "Land of Rip Van Winkle" the corporation
that owned the Retreat. Hargreave's idea was to open an amusement park based
around the story of Rip Van Winkle and place it at the site considered to
be near where Rip fell into his 20-year sleep. Stock was sold (see a stock certificate) and Mountain Top developers
I. and O. Slutzky constructed the buildings at a cost (according to Doris
O’Brien’s conversation with Orville Slutzky) of $250,000. In 1951,
the park opened. Visitors were treated to a mix of entertainment,
education, and marketing. The Retreat was located on property just
north of Pine Orchard near the summit station of the former Otis Elevating
Railway. It extended north past what is now the picnic area near
the North Lake beach. The grounds also included part of the ledge
under the escarpment. The lower area was could be reached by descending
a third of a mile down Mountain Turnpike, the old stagecoach road from Palenville
to the Mountain House. That section of the road was re-christened
the Rip Van Winkle Trail. Visitors to the Retreat could take a hayride
down to the lower section and eventually enjoy a ride on the small train
that was located there. The lower section was dubbed "Fairyland in
the Sky" and featured an Indian Chief, a schoolhouse, and cutout scenes of
fairytale characters. The buildings on the upper level were designed
to represent the type of Dutch style village that Rip called home. They
were in an authentic Dutch style, with floors made of sections of hemlock
tree trunks set in concrete. There was a pottery shop with a turning
wheel and kiln, a glass blower's shop, and a candle shop. Shows were
held around the village green. A 1/3 scale model of Hendrick Hudson’s
ship the Half Moon stood near the gate. And children were able to slide through
the “world’s largest” wooden shoe.
The parking lot that served the swimmers at North Lake was against
the fence of the park. In an attempt to increase sales, the Restaurant
run by Haines Falls resident Earl Schoonmaker, had a counter that opened
to the North Lake parking lot as well as one that opened to the Retreat.
According to our interviewees, Earl was a “neatnick” demanding, for
example, that all salt and pepper shakers be emptied at the end or the
day and refilled in the morning before business started again. No
doubt they were cleaned and dried for the next day’s service. Local
youngsters Ron Hoose, Mike Flahive, and Jimmy Ferguson roamed the grounds
dressed as gnomes as did young girls (including Ann France) dressed in
Dutch costume.
Ann also operated the hand puppets for the Rip Van Winkle puppet show
which seems to have drawn heavily from the dialog of a 1946 children’s record
of Rip Van Winkle:
“Do you think that’s Thunder? Well any old-timer in the Catskill
Mountains can tell you that’s the sound of Hendrick Hudson and his crew
at a game of 9-pins!”
Those lines, remembered by Ann, were also quoted by Bob Hoy of Game
Farm Road in Kiskatom, who had, with Claude Moseman’s permission, built
a cabin near Alligator Rock in the mid fifties. Bob tells us that
he and his friend were awakened on Saturday and Sunday mornings to a sound
like thunder and then those words booming over a loudspeaker. The
words and thunder clap appear to have come from a 1946 children’s record
of “Rip Van Winkle” performed by famed actor Walter Huston. In fact,
Warren "Chardie" Hay, one of the engineers on the train ride, tells us that
the Huston record was played as the puppeteers acted out the show in response
to the dialog.
The hay ride was alternately a horse drawn wagon driven by Jerald Kirk
(Our interviewees tell us “No one will know who you mean if you don't
call him "Jerkey" Kirk.”) and an Ox drawn wagon operated by Calvin Valk.
The wagon descended the "Rip Van Winkle Trail" to the train ride.
Young visitors were able to get a treat from the lollipop tree,
ride the train, and enter an old school house that had been brought up
the mountain from one of the towns in the valley.
Despite our nostalgic look at Rip’s Retreat, an objective look at a
commercial venture at the edge of one of the most critical historic areas
in the Catskills must raise our concerns. Similar amusement parks
in the state have grown into theme parks with mechanized rides and a glitz
that seems out-of-place in the area that was a home to the Hudson River
School and important to American Environmental sensibilities. Few would
now lament the demise of the park. The story of that demise was told
to us by Edward G. West in a 1979 interview with Jim Starr, then a director
of the Mountain Top Historical Society. Mr. West had been superintendent
of the bureau of land acquisition for New York State’s Department of Environmental
Conservation at a very critical time.
At the end of the depression and then the Second World War, there was
a growing need for recreational facilities. The Campsites at North
Lake had been in operation since the 1930s. Claude Moseman, who owned
the Mountain House, had sold the property to the north of Pine Orchard to
Rip’s Retreat possibly in an attempt to fund his desire to restore the Mountain
House.
According to Mr. West, Rip’s Retreat was “a thorn in the flesh” of
DEC. The Campsites at North Lake needed to grow for both expansion
and protection. In the taped interview, Mr. West said “the state
didn’t like that right against the campsite.” The problem, according
to Mr. West’s interview was “solved by a mortgage foreclosure action.
It was to be sold on the steps of the courthouse in Catskill to the highest
bidder. But, of course, the state cannot enter into competitive bidding.
I [West] was superintendent of the bureau of land acquisition at the time.
And I had an appraisal made of the property that reflected a fair market
value of $35,000. At our request, we had Walter Boardman who
was executive director of the Nature Conservancy in Washington at the time—we
had him come up to bid it in for us. Which he did for the sum of $25,000,
and he turned it over to the State. And that’s how we got the Rip’s
Retreat out of our way.”
Norman Van Vandenburgh, in a piece on the history of the Catskill
Park found on the Internet, relates a similar account with a few more
details thrown in:
“The next piece [of land in the North-South Lake Campsite area] was
not obtained until 1961 when 10 acres just east of North Lake was taken
from The Nature Conservancy through the process of condemnation for $25,100.
The story behind this acquisition is an interesting one. The ten acres had
been parted off from the Catskill Mountain House property in 1953 for the
development of a tourist attraction known as Rip's Retreat, where old Rip
Van Winkle would wander around with his dog and gnomes would treat visitors
to glass blowing and wooden shoe-making demonstrations. In the ensuing years
however, interest in Rip had waned and business was suffering. The owner
failed to make mortgage payments on the property and the Federal Small Business
Administration put the property up for auction. The [New York State Conservation]
Department was prevented by law from purchasing the property by bid
at auction, so at the last minute a representative of The Nature Conservancy
from Washington D.C. was engaged to attend the auction undercover and try
to acquire the land. TNC was successful in purchasing the property for $25,000,
and the extra $100 paid to the Conservancy when they subsequently took the
property from them was to cover the bidder's plane ticket.”
Our exploration of Rip’s Retreat is not over. Some of the readers
of this article will have additional memories, photos, and souvenirs.
Some readers may find errors or missing details in this account. Please
let us know. We would like to add images, and materials on Rip’s
Retreat to our archives. Thanks to a grant from the Windham Chapter
of the Catskill Mountain Foundation, we have new equipment that allows
us to make high quality computer scans of photos to help preserve them
for the future. Please call the society or email at info@mths.org.
We need to preserve and share the history of our area.
