Costing no more than a blanket, a piece of cloth, a shirt, a loaf of bread and some coarse fiber, the land now known as Saugerties, was purchased in the spring of 1677 from the Esopus Indian, Kaelcop. This scenic plot is about 64 square miles lying west of the Hudson River at the foot of the Catskill Mountains.

Before 1712, the town's main business draw was toll-road ownership and the Hudson River landing. Two early Dutch settlers, John Woods and John Persen, changed all that by developing some of the area's first mills—a craze that quickly caught on to accommodate the timber being cleared by new settlers.

The wealthy among these settlers constructed homes built of stone. John Persen built the Mynderse House in 1685, along with an early riverfront gristmill and sawmill from which a ferry launched. Hiskia DuBois built the Kiersted House on Main Street in 1727, and in 1732 the Palantine and Dutch settlers built the Dutch Reformed Church, still standing today.

Perhaps its citizens' love of stone led to the town's production of bluestone, quarried in nearby Quarryville and Toodlum (now called Veteran). This made a significant contribution to the Industrial Revolution, which eventually led Henry Barclay to establish a paper mill and the Ulster Iron Works. Mr. Barclay's vision didn't stop there. His plan, which enlisted the help of partner Robert L. Livingston, was to develop water-powered businesses along the Esopus Creek. Barclay's concept was realized in the mid-1800s, when his dam won the merit of powering the largest collection of water-fueled machinery in the world for that time. In 1882, Barclay hired John Simmons of Deepfield, Staffordshire, England to run his new iron works. It was Mr. Simmons who developed the double-puddling, hoop-making and cold-rolling processes smack dab in Saugerties proper.

As the century's end neared, the population of the town had grown to 4,000. It barely increased over the next few decades, despite the Irish, German and Italian immigrants who came to the area to work in its mills. By the time electricity made its way to the area, boarding houses for tourists had arrived too. The opening of the Orpheum Theater quickly followed and Vaudeville acts, movies, roller skating and basketball entertained the visitors of the period. By the 1930s, cinema had replaced most of those pastimes.

During the 1950s the popularity of Saugerties grew, along with the expanding interest in the Catskills, as a resort location for exasperated city folk. Its proximity to Woodstock made it an affordable respite for wayward hippies and artists in the 1960s. (In 1967 Bob Dylan's The Basement Tapes was recorded with The Band in a house in west Saugerties.) Then music and mayhem revisited the area, thanks to Woodstock '94, held at Saugerties' own Winston Farm. After the hoopla and mud fights, the town caught its breath. Much to the delight of its residents, the media attention had little effect on the area's population, which has yet to boom beyond recognition. Consequently, Saugerties retains much of its provincial charm and undeveloped countryside.

Giant farms and wooded acres are as common as the wildlife visible among its grass and branches. And locals, many of whom are transplanted New Yorkers, thrive on the slow-paced lifestyle and neighborly attitudes. Nonetheless, Saugerties continues to grow, with new shops and restaurants opening all the time. As one native put it, "Saugerties is to Woodstock what the East Village is to the West Village." The result is a community on the upswing, where small-town values are upheld, and a desire to evolve makes it a wonderful place to live and visit. For more information about the town of Saugerties and the general Catskills and Hudson Valley areas, please visit the following websites: www.esopuscreekconservancy.org, www.saugerties.ny.us, www.hudsonvalleyvoyager.com and www.ulstertourism.info.