Bash Bish Gorge And Falls

Bash Bish Gorge And Falls. . , Bash Bish Creek cascades down more than 1300 feet from a spring-fed source in Mt. Washington, Massachusetts, through a picturesque gorge to meet the Roeliff Jansen Kill at the base of the Taconic Ridge. Bash Bish Falls, where the creek waters dramatically drop 200 feet into a boulder-lined pool, was first visited and admired by adventurous 18th-century travelers. By the 1850s, it had become a well-known tourist destination, popularized in published travel accounts, periodicals, and by prominent landscape painter John Frederick Kensett, who painted and exhibited five views of the falls., As Bash Bish Fall’s reputation as the most picturesque waterfall in Western Massachusetts grew, its obvious commercial potential did not go unnoticed. The legend that the falls was named after a beautiful Indian maiden who was sent over the falls to her death as punishment for suspected adultery gave added romantic appeal. A rustic tavern catering to visitors was built near the base of the falls possibly as early as the 1850s., By 1865, with rail passenger service from New York City already well established at nearby Copake Iron Works station, and the Civil War over, there was renewed interest in the area. It was then that Jean Roemer, a former Belgian cavalry officer and French professor at City College in New York, began acquiring land in the area. By 1867, he ha put together eight parcels including Bash Bish Falls. Roemer conveyed his lands in 1874 to his friend, Josephine Douglas, wife of prominent New York City lawyer, Alfred Douglas. Shortly thereafter, on the site of this parking area, only a few hundred yards east of the active charcoal blast furnace of Copake Iron Works, Douglas built an elaborate, Swiss-style country estate with multiple outbuildings and elaborately landscaped grounds., Alfred Douglas died here in 1876, but Josephine Douglas remained, building an inn overlooking the falls in 1879. Despite its dramatic siting on the side of Cedar Mountain with views looking across the gorge to the falls, the inn failed as a business venture. The inn was torn down about 1897., By 1899, all the Douglas property was owned by John Haldane Flagler, a prominent manufacturer of iron pipe. Retaining the land around the falls for himself, Flagler sold off estate buildings and 300 acres in 1903 to Margaret and Eugene Vacheron who converted them into a posh country inn. Carefully maintaining the original Swiss-style architecture, they substantially enlarged the Douglas residence and also built an eight-room Swiss chalet guesthouse. Despite its obvious attractions, the inn didn’t prosper. In 1914, Louis Moquin, a well-known French chef from New York City, acquired the property through foreclosure. Moquin catered to the rich and famous until 1918, when his Bash Bish Inn burned to the ground., The land and remaining buildings were then purchased by Philip Schick, a New York City lawyer, who combined the Inn’s numerous outbuildings with some newly constructed facilities to create a commercial automobile campground. , The commercial exploitation of the famous falls had long been a concern of conservationists and finally, in 1923, Copake Falls residents, Francis R. Masters and his wife Ella R.K. Masters, purchased the falls and 400 acres of land from John H. Flagler and re-sold it to the State of Massachusetts. In 1925, they donated to the State of New York the first of many parcels acquired for the newly created Taconic State Park. With public ownership of the Bash Bish Brook gorge, the spectacular waterfalls, and the surrounding mountainsides accomplished by 1930, the saga of private exploitation of this extraordinary natural resource ended. Today, evidence of the area’s commercial past is almost invisible in the largely reclaimed natural environment., To learn more about the history of the park and the local iron industry, visit the historic Copake Iron Works shown on the adjacent map., Historic photographs courtesy of Roeliff Jansen Historical Society, the Hillsdale Public Library, and the Taconic State Park Commission., (photo captions, clockwise from top left):, Undated late 19th–century photograph of Bash Bish Falls., Bash Bish Falls, 1853 by John Frederick Kensett. View of the lower pool and old footbridge. Courtesy of the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, This undated photograph taken from the top of the falls shows the Bash Bish Inn built on the steep hillside of Cedar Mountain, From The Ladies Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature, and Religion, Volume 14, 812, December, 1854, Alfred C. Douglas residence sited along Bash Bish Brook with Cedar Mountain in the background to the north (undated photograph), Alfred C. Douglas residence sited along Bash Bish Brook with Cedar Mountain in the background to the north (undated photograph), Josephine Douglas’s Bash Bish Inn (undated photograph), Ella R.K. Masters (1863-1943) Francis R. Masters (1861-1929), Camping area to Taconic State Park, Copake Falls, NY (c. 1930 photograph), 1926 photograph of rustic three-unit cabin built by Philip Schick for his automobile campground on the former Douglas estate, Automobile Blue Book, Vol. 2, 1918., One of the Swiss-style lodges added to the Douglas estate when it was converted to the Bash Bish Lodge (c. 1903 photograph)