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=== Background History === | === Background History === | ||
The '''Catskill Turnpike''' was an important early route for Massachusetts and Connecticut emigrants headed for western New York and beyond. In 1801 the New York legislature commission turnpikes (toll roads), mail, and stagecoach service from the Hudson River to the Susquehanna River. Tolls were collected at gates every ten miles. Once stagecoach service began, inns soon followed.<ref name="Gall">Lyman H. Gallagher, "The Catskill Turnpike in Stage Coach and Tavern Days," ''Crooked Lake Review'' (Fall 2005) at http://www.crookedlakereview.com/articles/136_167/137fall2005/137palmer2.html (accessed 28 December 2011).</ref> | The '''Catskill Turnpike''' was an important early route for Massachusetts and Connecticut emigrants headed for western New York and beyond. From 1804 to 1824 about 300,000 mostly New Englanders settled in the counties along the turnpike and its extensions. In 1801 the New York legislature commission turnpikes (toll roads), mail, and stagecoach service from the Hudson River to the Susquehanna River. Tolls were collected at gates every ten miles. Once stagecoach service began, inns soon followed.<ref name="Gall">Lyman H. Gallagher, "The Catskill Turnpike in Stage Coach and Tavern Days," ''Crooked Lake Review'' (Fall 2005) at http://www.crookedlakereview.com/articles/136_167/137fall2005/137palmer2.html (accessed 28 December 2011).</ref> | ||
One road called the Ulster and Delaware Turnpike (or Jerico Road, or Esopus Road) went from Rhinebeck-Kingston to Bainbridge (formerly Jerico). Another called the Susquehanna Turnpike went from Catskill to Unadilla, a few miles from Bainbridge. Stock companies were formed to raise the money, build, and maintain the roads. In 1804 the legislature authorized an extension called the Catskill Turnpike from the end of the Ulster and Delaware Turnpike at Baibridge west to Bath.<ref name="Gall" /> | |||
Stagecoaches usually took four days and nights to drive from Ithaca to Catskill. This service continued year around even in the snow. Some years the traffic was so heavy two passenger coaches were hitched together followed by a baggage wagon. Before the railroads, cattle drovers also used the turnpike to take their herds to market usually in Dutchess County.<ref name="Gall" /> | |||
Competition from railroads and the Erie Canal was responsible for a decline in turnpike traffic and revenues after the 1830s. | |||
=== Route === | === Route === | ||