Sugar Loaf: mountain of mystery, hamlet of history

When most New Yorkers think of Sugar loaf, they think of crafts shops nestled on a tiny Main Street. A rapidly dwindling number of old-timers know a much more colorful history, part of which may have inspired legends recounted in “Pecos Bill” and other iconic 20th century tales — from Natty Knapp’s to-the-death bear fight, to the spectral “Dragoon” of Wickham Lake; the manifold tragedies of “Calamity Corners”; the famous hoop snake; the Mountain Witch of Sugar Loaf Mountain; the wolf moon; the mountain people of McGinnisburg, the ghost caves uncovered by miners around Sugar Loaf Mountain; the Ice Age shelters, and many more legends, along with some interesting historical facts.

Join Westerveld for a fun, family-friendly discussion of the figures and events of this remarkable hamlet on Friday, January 12 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Sugar Loaf Performing Arts Center ($10 suggested donation for adults), presented by the Sugar Loaf Historical Society.

Suggested, not mandatory, donations of $10 will support the Sugar Loaf Historical Society’s mission of research and education through funding new historical markers for the storied hamlet.

Jay Westerveld, whose ancestors settled Sugar Loaf, is an internationally recognized ecologist and educator. Westerveld has been researching natural and cultural history for over 40 years, throughout America, Europe, Asia and the South Pacific. Locally, he co-founded the Glenmere Conservation Coalition and the Sugar Loaf Historical Society in 2007, The New York Natural History council in 2010, and the WAWAYANDA Watershed Alliance in 2011. He is a visiting lecturer with Columbia University, the United States Military Academy at West Point, the NY Entomological Society, the American Museum of Natural History, Northeast Partners in Amphibian Conservation, Northeast Natural History Association, the National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, and others. In 2008, the NYS Assembly recognized him for his research with the endangered “bog turtle” in NY.

No hoops snakes were harmed in the publication of this event.