We continue our explorations at the Willows, that late 18th century farmhouse south of Athens. Last week, we examined several dry stream channels that are found there. This week let’s continue our walk down the Red Trail and approach the shore of the Hudson River. When we were there and approached the river, we couldn’t help but notice that the slope seemed to steepen toward the river. That’s the sort of thing that would be so easy to miss, but we have been in the business a long time and we took note of it. There was a story here – actually two of them. We pondered that slope and soon were taking a journey into its ice age past.
We found ourselves right there on April 17th, 9,975 BC. We expected to be looking east across the waters of Glacial Lake Albany. But no, the lake had recently drained away. We turned west and looked toward the distant uphill lands. There was still a lot of ice up there, but it was melting and melting rapidly. This was a fast-action global warming and an equally fast deglaciation. Massive amounts of meltwater were pouring into a swollen Hudson River and flowing downstream right in front of us. There should have been a thunderous roar to all of this, but it was strangely silent. We thought we sensed an aura of electricity coming from within the powerful torrent. The water was a very dark gray color, and we looked north and south. We saw the strong, agitated flows cutting into the earthen bank before us. The sediments of Lake Albany were being eroded away. Now we knew the origins of that steepness we had seen. Now we saw a striking image of the geological history of that slope.
Then, suddenly and so very quickly, we traveled forward through time. It was the early summer of 1852, and Henry Ary was walking along the very same path that we had taken. Ary was a resident of the City of Hudson. Encouraged by the renowned artist Thomas Cole, he had become a recognized landscape painter, and, on this day, he was looking for an image, a scenic view that would make a fine painting. Our modern trek had taken us into a forest but in 1852 all the land here had been cleared. Henry did not descend as far as we did. He veered off to the north a very short distance and stood at the top of that slope. His view there was unobstructed by trees, and he sketched it. Take a look at our second illustration. That painting was the product of Henry Ary’s visit. We are not artists, but we can stand where he once stood and see what he saw. As geologists, however, we had viewed what he could not. We wish that he too could have seen our ice age scene – and painted it.
Contact the authors at randjtitus@prodigy.net. Join their facebook page “The Catskill Geologist.” Read their blogs at “thecatskillgeologist.com.”
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