The old days in the deep Catskills are not gone yet, but they may well be on their way out. A lot may be gained from that transition, but much will also be lost. What lessons might we learn from a willingness to invest in the survival of these communities? What benefit can we gain from revitalizing them while we still can rather than abandoning them?
With a current population of just under 3000, the Town of Shandaken in the northwest corner of Ulster County is almost 120 square miles in size. That’s 27 souls per square mile. Shandaken’s population reaches its peak in 1900, when it had 4000 residents. Its low point was in 1940, when total population was 1875.
Many local seniors remember the Shandaken of yore: local grocery stores, square dances and fiddle music, taverns, one-room schoolhouses, lodges and boarding houses, railroad schedules and gas stations.
Here’s one description of the social relationships in these close-knit mountain communities by Mary Lou Stapleton, who describes her mother’s thoughts about moving from her Shandaken hamlet community when she got married to the Big Indian hamlet three and a half miles up the road.
“It took me a while to get everyone in the community attached to a name, but when I did, it was like one big household, where everyone knew everyone else, their trade and even their children’s ages,” she wrote. “There were picnics and gatherings in the soft dusk of evening, and maybe someone would bring out their accordion for a bit of music. I look back on those days and thank God I had the opportunity to enjoy the togetherness and the warmth.”
When the bell rings
Most of the town’s population resides in eleven small hamlets – Phoenicia is the largest — scattered along or near the Route 28 corridor, which runs pretty much parallel to the old railbed of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad (the old “Ups and Downs”) from Mount Tremper to the east to Belleayre on the Delaware County line in the northwest.
Volunteer fire departments have been a mainstay of New York State rural community life for two centuries. When the fire bell rings, neighbors drop what they’re doing and try to put the fire out. There are still about 65 fire companies in Ulster County and close to 100 firehouses.
There was a ceremony at 8 Railroad Avenue in the Shandaken hamlet of Big Indian last Thursday. The Big Indian-Oliverea Fire Company in Shandaken was celebrating a $500,000 grant awarded through the first funding round of New York’s Volunteer Fire Infrastructure & Response Equipment (V-FIRE) grant program. In its first year, the $25-million program made 88 grants. Governor Kathy Hochul expects the program to continue.
On hand was state senator Michelle Hinchey, who had developed the program “to bring real investment into local fire departments, especially those like Big Indian, that serve rural and upstate areas with limited funding avenues for essential safety and modernization upgrades.”
Hinchey had been able to persuade her legislative colleagues to support investments that local firehouse budgets could never afford
These funds will enable this local fire company to place a new metal building equal in size to the present 1950s structure next to it on a concrete foundation built from funds obtained by the fire company through then-state senator Jim Seward a number of years ago.
“Without senator Hinchey’s dedication, support, and development of grant programs like this, volunteer firehouses like ours could not afford to grow and improve our stations and equipment,” said Big Indian-Oliverea Fire Company chief Derek Stapleton. “These vital improvements, such as our new building that is being built, lead to better service and protection for our community, an outcome we all benefit from.”
Shandaken still has firehouses — some with very few firefighters — in Mount Tremper, Phoenicia, Allaben and Pine Hill. The Big Indian-Oliverea firehouse is the highest in membership, with 16 members of a median age over 65. The firehouse enrolls an average of one new volunteer per year.
The new four-bay facility will host Engine 1710 (a Freightliner), Tanker 1711 (a GMC Brigadier), Engine 1712 (a 2016 Ford F-550, 4×400), and Rescue 713 (a 2005 Chevrolet C5500 obtained from the New York Fire Patrol). There’ll also be room at the firehouse for a retired Chevrolet/ American LaFrance pumper.
The group picture
Fire chief Derek Stapleton introduced his father, the second of three generations of his family to serve, at the firehouse event. A fourth generation has expressed interest. Intergenerational continuity is the strength of their service, he said.
Visitors and locals, about 50 in all, sat in folding chairs arranged in rows and listened to short talks. Repeatedly praised, Hinchey told the audience “how incredibly exciting to her it was to see Big Indian awarded as one of the first recipients of this new program.”
Most of the firefighters were in full uniform, including striped pants and hats with insignias. Lining the walls of the room were cabinets containing patches of all kinds and piles of equipment with packs of plastic water bottles lying next to them. A banner announced the presence of the Ladies Auxiliary, praised during the meeting for their unceasing support.
Grantswriter Dan Ahouse, long a Hinchey family stalwart, was lauded several times for organizing and writing the application that brought in the half-million-dollar payoff.
It was time for the group picture. The uniformed firefighters were on the left, the other celebrants on the right. All but the one police officer standing at the edge of Firehouse Lane were gathered in two rows for the commemorative photograph.
“Hey, George, why don’t you come join us?” yelled out one participant. Officer George Neher drew a laugh with his response: “I’m securing the scene,” he said.
Click.
The ladies auxiliary had now completed the celebratory spread. It was time for all the attendees to dig in.
Join the family! 
