saugerties nanny goat hill awaits destruction
Dear Congressman Hinchey
I have learned that there are plans afoot to develop the Nanny Goat Hill site in Saugerties and that you are among the named developers.
I think that there are things that you should know about Nanny Goat Hill and I would like to write you about them.
By way of introduction, I am a professor of geology at Hartwick College and a writer of geology columns for Kaatskill Life Magazine, and five regional newspapers, including the Woodstock Times and the Hudson Catskill newspaper chain. In short I communicate a great deal with our local community.
I understand that it may be that Nanny Goat Hill will be blasted away in order to make room for a parking garage. I hope this will not happen.
Nanny goat hill is a remarkable ice age feature called by the name of “ramp and pluck.” It was formed during the Ice Age when a sizable glacier advanced from the east. The glacier scoured its way up the east side of the Nanny Goat Hill and created the gentle slope that is seen there.
As the ice overrode the hill, it adhered to the bedrock there, yanked or plucked much of it loose, and created the steep cliff face seen on that side.
Please see the attached photo of Nanny Goat Hill that shows the ramp side on the right and the plucked side on the left.
This really is a remarkable ice age feature and I know of no others like it in our vicinity. I feel that it should be protected and appreciated.
Like so many others, I watched and enjoyed Ken Burns’ series on the national parks. We all learned much from it, but the single most important message was about learning to save, not destroy the natural wonders all around us.
At the very least I hope you will show this message to your architects and see what they can do.
Thank you for listening.
Robert Titus, PhD
Department of Geology
Hartwick College
Oneonta NY 13820
OSI – Open Space Institute
One Comment
I would hope that Saugerties would come out of the ice age and build something so that the town can survive. I used to play on Nanny Goat hill and climb into the caves on the side of it. And a man who lived across from there mowed the grass and cut the weeds.I am sure it was not kept up since he passed away. No one would give it a second thought if geologist that does’nt live in that town and pay all those taxes had’nt come snopping around. Give some hope to Saugerties.If someone wants to invest money and pay taxes,let him. I would love to come back and see some improvement. One of the last things my mom said before she died in the hospital was she was worried about her taxes. That is a bitter memory for me towards all those people that fought everyone who wanted to expand the village and make it a place were your children could go to college and stay in the area and work. And that would make it affordable for people to live. My parents worked all there lives,raised five children and had my grandmother live with us too. My mom had the money for the taxes, that wasn’t the issue.Her and Dad wanted to leave us something and so she tried to live on only her ss check so that the money that her and dad had worked so hard to save would be there for us. Please help Saugerties grow. Bring it back to the days of IBM and Rotron and Russel’ls mill. Don’t let a rock that only a few of us even knows about keep something good happening for Saugerties. Sincerely, Julie Caruso Price