Cornfields and silos, near Stone Ridge, New York. September 2017
The Esopus Creek provides one of the largest and most fertile growing areas in Ulster County. Starting here, just outside Stone Ridge, on Hurley Mountain Road, the cornfields stretch for miles right into Kingston. This area was originally farmed by the indigenous Esopus Tribe who fought a series of conflicts against settlers from the Netherlands from September 1659 to September 1663, known as the Esopus Wars. At the conclusion of the conflict, the unfortunate tribe “sold” large tracts of land to French Huguenot settlers and were resettled in Wisconsin.