High Falls

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Forests, a creek, a waterfall – High Falls abounds with the chance to encounter wildlife.

The forests are home to several species of birds. Along the trails, you may hear the tapping of Red-bellied or Pileated Woodpeckers searching for a meal in the trees. Both of these birds have bright red heads, but the Pileated Woodpecker has a fluffy crest of feathers, while the Red-bellied appears to be wearing a smooth cap. Also present at this site are Scarlet Tanagers, Belted Kingfishers, Owls, Blackburnian Warblers, Hermit Thrushes, and Golden-crowned Kinglets, among others.

The Agawamuck Creek provides a home for species of fish like Trout, Bass, and Perch, as well as amphibians like Spotted Salamanders and Pickerel Frogs.

One species of great interest is the American Eel. Eels have an interesting life cycle – they are born in the Sargasso Sea and migrate to freshwater as young “glass eels” that are nearly transparent. They mature in freshwater streams like Agawamuck until it’s time to migrate back to the Sea, spawn, and begin the cycle all over again.

Eels are an important food source for the Mohicans, and their language includes two words for them – “weesaamakw” or ‘yellow fish’ during their younger stage, and “maham” or “mahamuw” when they reach their mature forms and begin traveling back downstream.

During the summer, eels were generally caught on warm nights fishing with spears and torches. During the autumn spawning migration when they swim downstream, the Mohicans caught them in large basket-like traps that look like a long tube with funnels at both ends. They likely dumped them in a pit in the ground filled with ash, which removed the eel slime before skinning. Eel skins were often dried with smoke and saved to make ribbons, while the meat was smoked and stored for winter. These practices continue to this day, though the Agawamuck Creek no longer runs thick with eels.

Visiting High Falls in the spring is a great time to encounter spring ephemeral (short-lived) flowers. These plants emerge from the soil before trees’ leaves grow and fill in the canopy overhead, disappearing before the heat of summer arrives.

Some of these plants include Wild Ginger, Wood Nettle, Bloodroot, Spikenard, Blue Cohosh, False Solomon’s Seal, and White Baneberry. All of these plants are used for medicine by the Mohicans. Another plant at High Falls, the shrub Leatherwood, is relatively rare. It grows in moist, rich soil, and was called Moosewood by both the Dutch and Indigenous peoples living in the area – likely because it’s one of a moose’s favorite foods.

Waterfalls have spiritual significance for Northeastern native peoples. Places like deep caves and rocky promontories where one landscape meets another are viewed as entrances to the underworld or portals to the sky world. Several places at High Falls had specific names in the Mohican language. Agawamuck Creek may derive from “Akawaamik,” meaning “Sheltered Flats,” a possible name for the area that is present-day Melenville. The number of waterfalls, and High Falls – the biggest waterfall of all, gave this entire region the name “Paatkook,” or “Where the Water Shakes Itself Off.”

By the first half of the 18th century, the Livingston family claimed much of the area as their Livingston Manor. The tract of land they claimed was large, twenty miles wide from the Hudson River to the Massachusetts border on the east. They, and other Dutch patroons, relied on the labor of indentured people and enslaved Africans to manage these large tracts of land. Ships from the West India Company used the Hudson River as a way to transport enslaved peoples. Once manumitted, those original Black families continued to live, work, and create a vibrant community that survives to this day.

The Livingston land claim was hotly contested by the nearby Mohican descendants of the original sellers. They rightfully believed that the boundaries had been grossly exaggerated. The Mohican people were subject to genocide, coerced into assimilation, and forcibly removed from their homelands to what is now known as Wisconsin. They continue to retain their unbroken status as a Sovereign Native Nation. Despite removal, they continue to hold relationships with their homelands and settler communities.

In the early 19th Century, hydropower from the falls was the chief source of energy for industry, and the village of Philmont, then called Factory Hill, was economically reliant on the factories that lined the Agawamuck Creek. In 1845, George Phillip built a dam above the falls to power his mill, and the remaining reservoir was named Summit Lake. Access to hydropower via the falls led to the growth of a bustling village. In 1847 High Rock Mill was built for manufacturing woolen goods. The mill used the dam as a source of power, and by the mid-to-late 1800s, 17 mills collected power from the falls, fed by Summit Lake. In 1892 Factory Hill was renamed Philmont after the owner of Phillip’s mill.

In 2003 CLC purchased High Falls. Though it does not include the actual waterfall, it does include the best view of the falls. The property opened to the public officially in 2006.