Aerial photographs taken by Morris Rosenblum in 1955; just as IBM was about to open and its suburbanization of Saugerties was about to double the population; show a neighborhood around the mills incomprehensible to what the last quarter of the twentieth century derogatorily referred to as “the gut”. Actually, the land of the mills was always called “the gat” which is Dutch for valley, cut or ravine. The farmers; even the Natives Americans with their plantations; all favored the level land. The mills' new use of the nature's assets was down in the valley that was never fully accepted by the general population.

When Henry Barclay bought the farm of Tjerck Schoonmaker there was a farm house and a large barn near the top of the hill where 9W runs down to the bridge. These structures hugged edge of the bank there not for the fine view out over the river and mountains but just to not take up any of the precious level land that provided for the farming livelihood. The land Henry Barclay was interested in was of no good for anything but sheep. Even the stone was too hard to quarry for building a decent stone house.

This whole side of the Esopus from its basin down past Glasco was held on to by the Natives longer then anywhere else along the river. They called it Tendeyachmeck which translated to Flatbush, an indicator of the deep clay that only the hardiest of scrub rooted in. The first Europeans to settle in Saugerties hugged the “gat” for their homestead because that didn't interfere with the Natives who also had no use for it. From what is reported of the meeting between these Natives from their village in the vicinity of Glasco and Henry Hudson in late September of 1609 they were eating fairly well from the planting grounds of this flat bush, looking impressively healthy to these first European visitors.

That first settler, John Wood, set up a mill at the Esopus bend and cut wood. This was before 1687, the year George Meales and Richard Hayes claimed the land for a patent. They sold the part of that patent John had settled on to him making his presence here the first to be recorded. He is plainly here before this deed because of all his improvements that this record itemizes. The Natives had their Tendeyachmeck lands taken away in the Andros Treaty ten years earlier then this deed and John and his wife Hannah may well have been here as early as that. The Natives from this area stayed on, however, and are recorded as coming downriver to trade at Kingston as late as the mid 1700s making early farmers and the Natives living side by side here for a longer time then elsewhere else in the region.

John Persen had a mill in the first quarter of the sixteenth century where Martin Cantine, in the first years of the twentieth century, placed his hydro electric generator under the north shore side of the Barclay dam. The “old lead mill” pictured in ruins in the 1875 “Pearl” was just downstream from this spot but had not been in use since the 1840's. When Henry Barclay created the mill pond it effectively flooded out the mill sites of the second falls upstream. A map made by John Kiersted, before Barclay's dam, in 1825, shows only two mills, both on the north side of the Esopus and both grist mills.

Saugerties was originally a community to support farming. The stories of but a dozen households in the village area before the arrival of Henry Barclay are deceptive. The first assessment roll for the town on which Henry Barclay appears is for 1827. There are 412 property owners with 104 structures for a total valuation of $300,000. When the minutes of the first decade of the Village of Ulster trustees was transcribed many of the names of officials and residents in the 1830's were those that appeared on this 1827 record. From this it may be assumed that Henry Barclay's industrialization reinforced a population that was here far before his arrival and had its own economic development agenda.

The belief that there were overwhelming changes imposed by Henry Barclay that are felt up to today is unfounded. This idea is projected upon an ancient event by those wishing to anchor common sentiments where they will bear no responsibility. The facts show that Saugerties had a plan based on its natural situation as a hub of transportation and retained that plan and a self sufficiency related to it throughout the entire early industrial development. That, and the resources of the countryside, is what it clung to for its identity. The agrarian population continued reaping the benefits of that identity well into the pre-WWII years' resort, boarding house and seasonal colony era. What is thought of as an ancient time when life was less imposing, before the intrusion of industry, is in reality the Saugerties that had never changed from well before the time of Henry Barclay to the time of the Thruway.

Saugerties, and every other community its size, has always had those that anticipate better times or long for a return to the better times they feel they were born too late to have enjoyed. Saugerties had this popular notion when Henry Barclay arrived and everything achieved because of his legacy; all the innovative ideas his example began attracting here over nearly two centuries; has nothing to do with what affected the broader population's base identity. Their attitude is only unique to Saugerties in that Saugerties, as a place, has an above standard history of development successes and Saugerties, as a population, has a sub-standard history of history appreciation.

It may be time to change this. The land of Saugerties has a history of attracting thinkers and recently their thoughts have focused on history. At this moment in time history is what water power was nearly two centuries ago: to the common population land is the prime asset but to the innovators that asset is history. As history here makes clear, Saugerties is not a place but a presence. It is not a presence of buildings as much as it is one of a singular sculpture. It is an Opus 40 where every form its earth takes tells an historical tale.

An ideal figure to follow when it comes to recognizing these urges to resolve historical questions recently re-surfaced through the legacy Morris Rosenblum left. Morris asked every question and had the intelligence, education and experience required to seek enjoyment in finding answers. There is much in the range of topics in Saugerties history to challenge even the most attentive mind and Morris carried a perspective to this that few could fathom before or probably now, after him.

As a young lawyer in New York at the heights of the depression Morris dealt with the complexities of industries as they struggled with bankruptcy. In that light he knew Saugerties' long industrial history well before setting up a practice here in 1935. So when he brought a love for aerial photography back from his time in military intelligence in the war a great curiosity about this view of the land initiated his extensive collection of period surveys and land transfer documents. He was still trying to completely understand all this well into his 90's when he died in 2004.

Augmenting Morris were others also of this complexion, who also bridged the old Saugerties with what came with the new population after the war. Jean Wrolsen in her newspaper column writings and Harvey Fite in his quarryman's museum at Opus 40 are two of the most influential. Together with Morris Rosenblum these three form the pantheon of those whose interests represent what crosses the mind of every thinking person with any level of real interest in Saugerties today. The way they related their personal and professional interests to the historical context surrounding them; Fite in his sculpture, Wrolsen in her poetry and Rosenblum in his land law; is of particular importance to history's relationship to the economy today.

They, and surly others like them, with their experience in academics, the law and intelligence activities, would be expected to be inspired by the research, detective work and pure romance the understanding of history requires. Today there is an environment to satisfy that passion that half a century ago could only have been dreamed possible by them. Today uncovering historical contexts no longer needs the specialized environments of their backgrounds but is available in nearly every popular Internet media resource. Morris' interest would be exhausted by Virtual Earth. Jean's curiosity about the facts behind intimate tales would have her lost forever in the online period newspapers. Harvey's insatiable curiosity about the elevation of work of hands to skill would be intrigued forever in the variety of interpretive presentations found in every form on the Internet.

Despite all of these resources, nothing can compete with the intellectual experience of the collections left from these early years. They stand out as our common ground for a conversation on reaching a consensus on a single history.

Where there is a broad yearning for this consensus, history becomes an identity. And when everyone has equal access to that this elevates a heritage destination to a pilgrimage site. When that level of historic identity is known and shared it becomes part of the economy.