The low lands of the Delaware Valley as seen in Callicoon.
UDSB Upper Section
“Kooikoonkill,” is Dutch for
“Turkey Creek.”
Railroads, Resiliency and Turkeys
Located in the Town of Delaware, Callicoon was first visited by Dutch hunters from the Hudson Valley. Permanent settlers arrived in the 1760s.
The area became a prime source for lumber which was rafted down the Delaware River to the populated coastal centers of the East. In the 1840s the Erie Railroad laid tracks along the banks of the Delaware River to link the Great Lakes with the Eastern Seaboard. In honor of the centrally located railroad station, the townspeople named it Callicoon Depot, later changing the name to Callicoon.
The correct pronounciation of the town´s name is “cuh-SHEK-ton,” leading many to mistakenly believe the name is of French origin; the name is in fact derived from “Chushetunk,” a local Native American word meaning “low land” alluding to the town’s location in the Upper Delaware Valley.
Dairy and Vegetables in the Low Land
The Byway´s Delaware River and the beautiful Lake Huntington inspire life in the town of Cochecton. A mian industry here is dairy and the fertile lands also produce an abundance of vegetables. Time was when sole leather was the main production of the area after the building of the railroad.
The Town of Cochecton is home to the oldest surviving railroad station in New York State. In 1992, a group of local citizens banded together to save, relocate and carefully restore the 1890s-era Erie Railroad Depot, board-by-board. It now serves as a local museum of railroad artifacts. The Cochecton Station property is also the proposed construction site for the future Upper Delaware Scenic Byway Visitors Center.
