Esopus Creek
Esopus Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River that drains the east-central Catskill Mountains in the U.S. state of New York. From its source at Winnisook Lake on the slopes of Slide Mountain, the Catskills' highest peak, it flows across Ulster County to the Hudson at Saugerties. Many tributaries extend its watershed into neighboring Greene County and a small portion of Delaware County. Midway along its length, it is impounded at Olive Bridge to create Ashokan Reservoir, the first of several built in the Catskills as part of New York City's water supply system. Its own flow is supplemented above the reservoir by the Shandaken Tunnel, which carries water from the city's Schoharie Reservoir into the creek.
The creek, originally known by the Native Americans in the area as Atkarkaton or Atkankarten and by Dutch settlers as the "Esopus Kill", takes its name from the Esopus tribe of the Lenape, who were living around the lower Esopus when the Dutch first explored and settled the Hudson Valley in the early 17th century. The creek's wide valley made it an ideal trading route for the Esopus and other Lenape who harvested the beaver pelts the European traders desired. Later, under the English, it became the beginning point for contentious land claims in the mountains. After independence, the Esopus corridor became the main route into the Catskills, first by road then later by the Ulster and Delaware Railroad, for forest-product industries like logging, tanning and charcoal making. Those industries declined in the late 19th century, shortly before the creation of the Forest Preserve and the Catskill Park made the region more attractive for resorts and recreation, particularly trout fishing. The renewed Esopus also attracted the attention of fast-growing New York City, which was able to acquire land and build the reservoir and tunnel after overcoming local political opposition.
The reservoir divides the creek into an upper stretch, mostly a wild mountain stream, and a lower stretch closer to the Hudson that gradually becomes more estuarine. Above the reservoir, its water quality is closely monitored, not only for its role in the city's water supply but to preserve its local economic importance as a recreational resource. As the upper Esopus is one of the most productive trout streams in the Northeast, fly fishermen come in great numbers to take trout from its relatively accessible banks. Canoeists and kayakers have been drawn to its whitewater, which has also spawned a busy local tubing industry in the summer months. The lower Esopus is mainly an aesthetic and ecological resource, although the estuary at Saugerties is a popular bass fishery.
The Esopus's role in the state and regional economy has led to a concentrated effort to protect and manage it, particularly on the upper stretch. The interests of the various stakeholders have not always converged, particularly where it concerns the city's management of its water needs. Turbidity created by discharges from the Shandaken Tunnel after a 1996 flood led to a successful lawsuit against the city and a state regulation; downstream of the reservoir the city has been criticized for contributing to flooding problems by releasing too much water during heavy rainstorms since Hurricane Irene in 2011. Boaters and anglers have also clashed, and invasive species are beginning to enter the upper creek as well.
Etymology
Historians agree that the first Dutch settlers named the stream for the Lenape band that inhabited its banks. The Lenape themselves may have called it Atkarkarton or Atkankarten, meaning "smooth land" in their language, probably in reference to a meadow alongside the river near Kingston. Lenape use of that name is recorded in 1657; it later became the name of a hamlet in the area.From the mid-17th century Esopus, sometimes Sopers, was in common use. It was believed to have been derived from seepus, meaning river, in the Delaware languages. The name was not always applied to today's Esopus. Alphonso T. Clearwater's 1907 history of Ulster County recounts that in 1677 the local Native tribes deeded to the English the land between the Esopus, which he identifies as Saugerties Creek, and the Rondout, which he calls the "Groot Esopus". In some other accounts, the es prefix is read as a diminutive, making the name mean "little river".
Another interpretation is that Esopus means "high banks", referring to the stream's history of heavy floods.
Course
The Esopus is usually discussed as an upper and lower stream divided by the reservoir. The upper portion, where most recreational use takes place, has the characteristics of a mountain stream — shallow, rocky and swift, with most of the stream's trout taken by anglers there. The upper portion is itself divided into a "small" and "big" stream by the outlet of the Shandaken Tunnel. Below the reservoir's spillway the stream begins again, becoming flatter, deeper and slower to its short estuary.Small upper Esopus
Winnisook Lake to Big Indian
The Esopus flows out of artificially created Winnisook Lake, at above sea level the highest lake in the Catskills, on the northwest slopes of Slide Mountain, the Catskills' highest peak in the town of Shandaken, within 300 feet of the West Branch of the Neversink River on the other side of the divide between the Hudson and Delaware watersheds, amid expansive forest. At the source it is crossed by a small wooden footbridge, followed by Oliverea Road, which it immediately begins to parallel through the forest.The stream's headwaters descend from there northward into Big Indian Hollow, dropping per mile with an average slope of 13 percent, through its first three miles, a narrow and rocky mountains stream through this section. Along it there are three waterfalls—Otter Falls, and Parker and Blossom Falls below. At first trending westward, away from the road, a half-mile below Winnisook Lake it returns to the road's side and receives its unnamed first tributary from the east, draining another of Slide's hollows.
Bending to the west northwest, the Esopus forms part of the boundary of the Big Indian Wilderness Area to its south as it receives Giant Ledge Stream from the north, draining the peak of that name and Panther Mountain, the former meteor crater whose walls determine the creek's upper course. Another half-mile further west, the Esopus receives its first left tributary, Hanging Birds Nest Brook, which drains the north face of Spruce and Hemlock mountains to the south.
From there the Esopus flows due northwest for its next mile, as the valley floor of Big Indian Hollow opens up and some cleared land begins to abut the stream. After the Maben Hollow Brook confluence, it turns west and braids into several smaller channels for, reuniting just before crossing under Eagle Mountain Road. It receives, another eastern tributary, the Elk Bushkill, which drains Fir and Big Indian mountains to the southeast, just south of the Burnham Hollow Road bridge. The Esopus then bends back in a northward direction. Short braided sections return during the next mile, along with gravel bars along the banks.
Bending past more braided sections and bars, the Esopus reaches the small former hamlet of Oliverea 0.6 mi further north. Here McKenley Hollow Road crosses, in a section with retaining walls on either side of the channel. Another to the north, the similarly named tributary, carrying water from the steep slopes of Haynes and Balsam mountains to the west, joins the Esopus from the west as the stream's main stem turns northwest, further away from the road, then curving northeast with more bars and braiding marking a wider channel.
Big Indian to the Portal
After of this gently curving course, Hatchery Hollow Brook flows in from the east. With the valley floor widening, the Esopus flows more northward. It receives its last Big Indian Hollow tributary, Lost Clove Creek, from the west where it drains Balsam and Bellayre mountains, just below the Lost Clove Road bridge. At the mouth of the hollow, in the small hamlet of Big Indian, from its source, the Esopus turns east and crosses under New York State Route 28, which it closely parallels all the way to Ashokan Reservoir, at in elevation. At the bridge, it receives Birch Creek, which drains from the small former village of Pine Hill to the west, opposite a large gravel bar, and then bends northward. The former channel of the Esopus cuts this corner, rejoining the main stem at the site of the two streams' former confluence a thousand feet downstream.Through this section it widens through a valley floor with more frequent cleared areas amid forested mountains, meandering gently along the circular route around Panther Mountain, paralleled by Creek Side Drive on its north. Another thousand feet downstream, Fire House Road crosses, after which the Esopus turns sharply to the north, then northeast at a large gravel bar, for its next mile. At the Millbrook Hollow Brook confluence, it bends eastward, with another northern tributary, Seneca Hollow Brook emptying into the stream a half-mile further along.
The Esopus receives Bushnellsville Creek from the north after a mile, then crosses to the south side of Route 28 at the small former hamlet of Shandaken to the east. Its next half-mile serves as part of the northern boundary of the Slide Mountain Wilderness Area. At Allaben, from Big Indian, it receives Fox Hollow Brook from the south, just east of the Fox Hollow Road bridge, and Peck Hollow Brook from the north 500 feet to the east, opposite another gravel bar. At this point the Esopus drops below in elevation.
The creek begins to bend southward, past Shandaken's town hall, over its next mile to where the Shandaken Tunnel brings water from Schoharie Reservoir into the Esopus from the north, increasing its flow. This point on the stream is known as the Shandaken Portal or just the Portal.