Leave the old palisades sticking up here like bill boards, nothing left.” (Actually, you will see a mountain that, sadly, looks EXACTLY like that just south of High Tor when you head back to 9W.) Evil agents of a trap rock company keep trying to buy the land out from under him for a pittance to “chew the back right off this mountain, the way they did across the clove there. He made this watercolor, likely whilst sitting atop High Tor, and then completed the larger painting in the comfort of his studio.Īnd then in 1936, Maxwell Anderson, a playwright of some renown at the time, wrote a three-act play called “High Tor” in which he describes the trials and tribulations of Van Van Dorn, the poor scion of a Dutch family who had owned the peak since the 1600s. )Īrtistically, High Tor has been quite inspiring: The New York Historical Society has this John William Hill painting from 1866 - he is considered one of the “American Pre-Raphaelites,” devotees of England’s famed critic John Ruskin. (Fun fact: Weill wrote the score to Maxwell Anderson’s “Knickerbocker Holiday.” More on Anderson anon. Supposedly Kurt Weill, the composer, was a volunteer air raid warden. Later, during WWII, according to Wikipedia, High Tor was used as an air raid lookout point. (Here’s a link to another blog post about that time.) Here’s a cool one: Looks like this says “Crocheron 1862” (Photo by the author)Īlso, note the wavy, scratchy lines all over the rock? Pretty sure that’s evidence of the Laurentide ice sheet that covered this whole area up until about 20,000 years ago. In fact, if you look around carefully, you’ll see some very old graffiti carved into the rocks. High Tor has a long history - as the highest point on the Palisades, it likely was an important site for the Lenape (possibly the Rumachenanck?) tribe.ĭuring the American Revolution, High Tor was apparently used as a place to send signals up, down and across the river. But this may well be the most spectacular hike of the two I’ve recently blogged - the first mile of the hike is a bit of a scramble, but the view from the top is not to be equaled: New York City from the top of High Tor Lake DeForest in the foreground (Photo by the author) This will be my last post from the Rockland side of the Hudson, at least for a while.
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