Public Access to Nutten Hook Shoreline Threatened

The Ferry Road crossing

Residents of Ferry Road in Nutten Hook are outraged by New York State's plan to close the Ferry Road Amtrak crossing and demolish five homes, including two on the National Historic Register. The closing will also block public access to one of the most unspoiled sections of shoreline on the Hudson River.


On May 13, 2010, the Hudson, NY  Register-Star reported:

Residents of Ferry Road heard directly from the state agencies that control their fate on Thursday morning. As in the past, they came away with more questions than answers. While holding court in Stuyvesant Town Hall, Administrative Law Judge Peter Loomis of the state Department of Transportation swore in three witnesses from his agency, along with one official from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Other officials and interested parties were also allowed to enter unsworn statements into his record.


The hearing re-opened a 1996 legal decision which declared the gated rail crossing at Ferry Road unsafe, and ordered it closed. An updated ruling in 2006 added that the crossing would remain open until a connector road was built to Ice House Road, a short distance to the north. Without a connector, three occupied homes on Ferry Road would be unreachable by emergency vehicles, and subject to purchase under eminent domain by the state.

This beautiful section of the Hudson River, once the scene of thriving industries, has long been of interest to us, and previous postings at Upstate Earth have focused on the ruins of the R&W Scott Icehouse and the Cary Brickyard . In the late 19th and early 20th century barges carried bricks and ice south to New York City, while a ferry plied back and forth to Coxsackie on the opposite shore.

Originally called Nutten Hoek, or "nut-tree point,"  by the 17th century Dutch, the bedrock promontory now known as Newton Hook may contain undiscovered artifacts of the Paleo-Indians whose presence has been documented at Tivoli Bay and other spots along this part of the Hudson estuary. The entire point is an undeveloped Department of Environmental Conservation site and included within the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve.


As soon as we read of the state's sudden rush to close off the area, we went down to the river to take a look for ourselves. Our first stop was at Icehouse Road, where another open rail crossing will, according to the state, be improved with new safety features. From here we saw the wetlands across which a road was promised in 1996. Now, however, the state's Department of Environmental Conservation has changed its position. The wetlands, according to DEC's Betsy Blair, contain federally and state protected wetlands and any road, even a single lane along the dry land at the base of the Nutten Hook peak, is no longer acceptable.

View  from IceHouse Rd. of  Nutten Hook and wetlands

We walked south on 9-J for half a mile to the Ferry Road crossing, where an Amtrak passenger train was racing by. Crossing the tracks, we soon encountered a local resident who provided us with many details about the current struggle. Among the most interesting was that buying and destroying the houses on Ferry Road would cost more than $900,000 while building a half-mile long single lane road connecting Icehouse and Ferry Roads would cost, at most, a third as much.

Amtrak train at Ferry Road crossing

Activists' signs on Ferry Road

Now a private residence, the 1881 Lynch Hotel

is on the National Historic Register

We moved on to the point to enjoy once more this shoreline so popular with local fishermen, hikers, and picnickers. This is just about the only spot in the county where people can find easy access to the Hudson, which is almost everywhere else blocked by the railroad line. The boat access at nearby Stockport Creek has no access to the shoreline  and  high speed trains make it unsafe for children. And the one state park in the area which offers river access, Schodack Island State Park, is set to be closed on May 16 due to the state's budget shortfall.

View of Coxsackie waterfront from site of the old ferryboat pier

Ocean-going freighter bound for the Port of Albany

Hudson River beach at Ferry Point

Still puzzling over why state agencies would join forces to close off this shoreline, we followed the trail leading from Ferry Rd to Ice House Rd.  This level route along the eastern edge of Nutten Hook hill is on dry ground and it seems clear that a single lane road could be constructed on this route at minimal expense and without any significant damage to the wetlands.

This trail between Ferry and Icehouse Roads could be 

converted to a single lane road

View of Catskill Mountains from the peak of Newton Hook

Ruins of the R& W Scott Icehouse, built in 1885

What can be done to preserve access to Nutten Hook?

The residents of Ferry Road have created a website, Save Ferry Road, which explains the whole situation in detail and provides a list of officials in the state Department of Transportation and the state Department of Environmental Conservation who have joined forces to destroy this small community and block public access to the river.

The site also provides contact numbers for  the local representatives for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congressman Scott Murphy, both of whom have written letters of support for saving Ferry Road. 


I am in the process of contacting these people and will post updates as to their response. I urge you to do the same.

Update June 10, 2010

DEC's Gene Kelly has written back saying that "the development of a connector road from Ice House Road to Ferry Road across the Reserve would impact the sensitive wetlands, archeological artifacts, and important wildlife habitat found at this site," without mentioning any post-1996 study substantiating the claims. He adds that: "assuming the state's fiscal climate improves, the Department anticipates building  a parking area and handicapped accessible trail to the Hudson River at the end of Ice House Road."

Congressman Murphy's assistant Rob Scholz said that the Nutten Hook issue was one for state representatives. None of the other officials whom I contacted have responded.

Update May 29, 2011 Newton Hook Rail Crossing Gets a Reprieve

The Albany Times Union carried a report today that "a  DOT administrative law judge ordered that the crossing remain open and be improved with federal stimulus funding while DOT studies long-term safety improvements. DOT has to file its report by June 30, 2012."



Report from Schodack Island State Park

Schodack Island State Park is one of 91 state parks and historic sites being closed May 16 as part of Governor Patterson's budget cuts, thus cutting off one more public access to the Hudson in our area. Fred Lebrun has excellent analysis of the politics behind this decision in  Padlocked Parks Lock Out Sense in the Albany Times Union.

The park already shows signs of neglect as the shutdown process gets underway. I biked along the extensive trail system, surprised to see no other bikers or hikers. Then I realized why. The trails are blocked in many places by fallen trees that would ordinarily be quickly  removed by park employees.

 Trails are blocked by fallen trees

 Idled State Park Police boats

The park was once three islands, before being combined into one by dredging, and is believed to be the place where Henry Hudson was welcomed by the Mohican people. Archeologists have done little work at this site, but it is known that the aboriginal people maintained corn fields in the rich alluvial soil of the island. Artifacts from this forgotten culture have been dated back to 5000 years ago, and there is doubtless much that we could have learned from them about living in harmony with the natural world.

Replica of Henry Hudson's Half Moon at Albany

Although they welcomed Hudson and his crew with a friendliness that was in sharp contrast to the more warlike peoples encountered near the river's mouth, their fate was not a happy one. Decimated by European diseases, the Mohicans lost several wars to the Mohawks, who adopted firearms and dominated the violent struggle for the furs in such demand by the European market.

 The 18th century Mohican Chief  Etow made
his home on this island or the nearby shore.

Update on Schodack Island

Schodack Island State Park was briefly closed, along with many other state parks, and then reopened to the public after additional funds were voted in Albany.

Update on Newton Hook

After many years of attempting to close the Ferry Road Crossing, State Department of Transportation finally gave up in september, 2012.

The Cary Brickyard at Newton Hook

On both sides of Route 9-J just south of Newton Hook are the remains of what was once a prosperous brickyard employing up to 150 men and supplying building materials to the growing cities of New York and Boston. The site, which covers perhaps a hundred acres in total, is littered with thousands of bricks bearing the Cary name. This brick is in the roots of a fallen tree.



The brickyard and its docks were on the west side of the Amtrak rails and the pits that supplied the clay were on the hillside to the east of 9-J. In winter this tall brick stack can be seen amid the leafless trees. In summer the region is very overgrown and shows no signs of any recent human visitors. It is sure to be full of ticks.



A few walls from the old brick sheds surround the stack in what was once the center of the plant.

According to Peter Stott's comprehensive history, Looking for Work, Industrial Archeology in Columbia County, New York, William Cary built this yard in 1902-1903 as "the most technologically advanced of any of the Hudson River valley brickyards" of its time. Cary patented a portable "clay house" which allowed his crew to dig clay through the winter months. According to Stott, Cary boasted a skilled work force superior to the seasonal laborers employed in other yards. He also pioneered the use of steam to remove moisture from the bricks.



Bricks were fired, however, in old style clamp kilns made by piling bricks in a long wall often as high as 30 feet, leaving arched openings in bottom where a coal or wood fire was built then sealed. After several days, the whole stack was dismantled. This is one such overgrown clamp kiln.



The raw materials for this thriving industry were located on site. As Robert Yasnisac and Tom Rinaldi say in their book, Hudson Valley Ruins, the fine blue clay is a product of the last ice age and “perfect for making brick when mixed with beach sand found at the river's edge.” Cary built a trestle to carry the clay from the hillside across the railroad into the brickyard. Above are concrete supports for the trestle, which are plainly visible on the east side of 9-J.




The hillsides have been deeply mined for clay, as in the above view. This area is very difficult to explore during summers, due to the extensive growth of brambles. The only trails are those made by deer.



The ruins of three buildings are located on this side of the road, with foundations built of Cary bricks. Perhaps they were offices or housing for workers.


The narrow gauge railway for transporting carts full of clay operated by gravity, according to Peter Stott, and it required only a single horse to draw the empty carts back to the pits. Above is a piece of narrow gauge rail.




One of the most impressive engineering feats at the site is a 2500 foot canal across the marshes between the brickyard and the Hudson. A long berm of burnt and damaged bricks covered with earth forms the north side of the canal. The DPBW imprint on the bricks indicate their manufacture at the Denning Point Brick Works in Beacon. Cary probably bought these simply as fill from the other brickyard.


The canal is still filled with water, although the entrance is silted in, and partly blocked by bricks. Perhaps a final order of bricks was dumped here just as the company went out of business forever. Another curious feature of the canal is that its final five hundred feet is blocked by a berm, converting that section into an enclosed pool. The purpose of this section is unclear. Perhaps Cary decided he did not need as long a canal as he originally constructed, and blocked off the excess portion. Surprisingly, it is still full of water.


There is very little remaining of the loading area on the canal, where millions of bricks were once shipped south. Above is a gear caught in the roots of an old tree, probably part of machinery for loading the barges.



Blocked from access by the railroad and the tangled woods that have grown up in the old brickyard, the Hudson River beach here is quite isolated and beautiful. The above is a view down the Hudson from the edge of the old canal.

In contrast to our modern economy based largely on the consumption of imports, the Cary yard was part of an era when local materials and energy resources were the basis for building the great cities of the Northeast. Cary's firm operated successfully for many years shipping bricks, made entirely from native raw materials, by water to New York and by rail to Boston. Gradually, the widespread use of concrete led to a decline in demand for brick. And this spelled the end for the Cary yard sometime in the 1930s.

 Blue clay is still plentiful near the old brickyard. 

This sample was gathered by a local pottery maker.

The R.&W. Scott Icehouse at Newton Hook

Prior to the invention of refrigeration, households and vendors depended on naturally formed ice as the only means to keep meat, fish and milk cold and unspoiled. This made ice a valuable commodity that could be harvested in winter and sold year round. To meet growing demand, an ice industry grew up on the Hudson River in the 19th century, concentrated in a fairly narrow section of the river above the tidal salt line and below the shallows that cut off navigation for larger ships and barges.

For the millions of people in the crowded cities, an “ice box,” which was essentially the same as a modern picnic cooler, served the same purpose as refrigerators. From our perspective there is a charming quaintness about such bygone technologies and Thom and Gail Hogan Lucia have done a nice job presenting the history and lore associated with the ice man and his horse-drawn wagon.

Of course, there is also a terrible irony in the fact that our refrigerators, freezers and air conditioning depend on electricity generated largely by the fossil fuels that are warming the climate toward a point that may be irreversible. Even in the coldest winter months the Hudson no longer produces the eight to ten inch thick ice that was so valuable a century ago.


Inspired by this irony, we visited the ruins of one of the great icehouses, built by the brothers R. & W Scott, at Newton Hook in 1885. Located about 120 miles above New York and 30 miles south of Albany, this promontory was called Nutten Hoek by the 17th century Dutch and is now a New York State Unique Area. Access is from state route 9-J a couple miles south of the hamlet of Stuyvesant. A dirt road leads across the Amtrak tracks and a home into a wooded area where the smoke stack of the ice house is soon visible through the trees.


The Scott brothers built a six story 300' by 400' windowless ice house here in 1885 and installed a coal-driven steam engine to power conveyor belts and an elevator. A large gang of men, who worked in farms, brickyards and other warm-weather businesses, was employed here in the winter months.


Using horse-drawn plows, the men cut blocks of ice from the river and hauled them to the conveyor belt which carried the ice to an elevator located in the center of the north end of the building. The concrete supports for the conveyor belt are visible amid the trees that have grown up within the space once occupied by the huge wooden ice house. In Spring and Summer the ice was loaded onto barges for transport south. There must have been a sizable dock here back then but we could no signs of the piling along the river.

The powerhouse was built of brick and its walls still stand, although the roof is gone and the interior is empty. The stack and the walls appear quite sturdy.



Two Department of Environmental Conservation signs offer a brief history of the site. Ice harvesting took place here for about forty years although by the early 1900s grave questions were being raised about the quality of the ice. In those years cities and towns along the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers emptied their sewers directly into the river. In 1907 the New York Times published a report from Dr. Daniel Jackson, a chemist for the NYC Department of Water Supply, blaming river ice for outbreaks of typhoid fever. Using samples from various points in the river, he found the presence of typhoid bacteria particularly strong in the region around Albany, just to the north of Scott's icehouse. The science of the time was clear: typhoid bacteria were present in the river and freezing did not kill the bacteria.

Spokesmen for the ice industry challenged Jackson's report and cited their own experts who claimed that long-term storage of ice killed the bacteria. Dr. Prudden of Columbia University claimed that"the danger of the use of impure ice, although widespread, is not very alarming so far as the liability of extensive outbreaks of typhoid fever are concerned because most of the ice which is furnished appears to be of fair quality."

Despite its proven dangers, the sale of ice continued, for there appeared to be no alternative. In this the controversies of 1907 closely resemble those of our own age in which spokesmen for the fossil fuel industry have fought for decades to disprove mounting evidence for climate change.

The technology, in fact, that would eventually doom the river ice industry had already been invented even before the Scotts launched their business. In 1876 the German scientist Carl von Linde developed a process for continuously liquefying gases which became the basis for all subsequent refrigeration, although he did not obtain a U.S. patent until 1903. As the process was refined in subsequent years, its commercial value became clear to major American corporations. In 1911 GE introduced a refrigerator developed by a French inventor and in 1918 GM bought out a small firm and renamed it Frigidaire. By the 1920s, GM and GE were competing with Kelvinator and Electrolux for the electric refrigerator market and the ice industry was obsolete.

Scott's icehouse closed in the 1920s. In 1934 the huge building was sold to Kraus Brothers for use as a mushroom farm, a business which evidently did not long survive. At some point after that the building burned down and the site was abandoned to the forest.

In many ways the Scotts used forms of technology that we would call renewable. Horse and human musclepower harvested the ice, and it was transported by water to the cities, a far more energy-efficient means for moving heavy cargo than the diesel-powered trucks of our era. No electricity was required to store large quantities of ice for a year or two since the quantity alone kept the temperature low enough to minimize melting. Power for transporting the ice to the building, however, was provided by coal, then and now a major source for the greenhouse gases that remain in the atmosphere for centuries. In that way the Scott brothers contributed to the warming climate that now keeps the river open even in the coldest months.

Looking for Work; Industrial Archeology in Columbia County, New York by Peter H. Stott is an invaluable guide to this and other sites of bygone industry, and I cannot recommend his book highly enough. It is published by Syracuse University Press and available at the Columbia County Historical Society in Kinderhook.