As a person who lives in, visits, or simply enjoys Essex, you will want to be included on the list of donors whose generosity created the Essex Quarry Nature Park.
Champlain Area Trails is asking you to make a donation to permanently protect this fabulous 35-acre property, located on Main Street, just ½ mile south of the ferry. You will invest in a great community project and support developing interpretive trails that explain the property’s unique natural, geological, and historical features; plus amazing fossils!
Your donation will create a lasting legacy at Essex Quarry for you and your family. Here’s how: Those individuals and families who donate $1,000 and above will be honored on a permanent plaque placed at the trailhead with a special highlight for those who give $5,000 and above. Donors at other levels will be noted at the registration kiosk. Thus, all donors will be forever engrained in Essex history.
You will ensure public access to Essex Quarry for families and friends to hike, ski, and learn about nature and Essex history. As a nature park, it will bring visitors to Essex and nearby communities where they will patronize local businesses and help the local economy. To learn more about the Essex Quarry project and see pretty pictures, click here.
To make your gift or for more information, please click here, send a check to CATS, PO Box 193, Westport, NY 12993, or call our office at 518-962-2287.
For those interested in naming opportunities, Essex Quarry provides a number of options including trails, benches, and even the name of park; please contact our office for details.
As a final note, picture this: As people get off the ferry from Vermont, they see a sign directing them to “Essex Quarry Nature Park.” They walk or drive for a half-mile up Main Street through the town’s business district and by historic homes to hike on the Essex Quarry trails where they have fun, meet a few local residents getting some exercise on their in-town trail, and learn about natural communities and geology, are amazed by fascinating fossils, and find out how people quarried stones, shaped them, and moved them to locations near and far. Leaving the quarry, they go back through town, stop in stores, get food and drinks in local eateries, maybe spend the night in nearby lodging, and explore more of the Valley the next day.
Your donation will make this picture real.
Can you give the history on this quarry? You realize that there were 2 and that the earliest one; which is not this one supplied the stone for many of the early Essex structures. Regardless of what some locals may think. History is about Facts!
OK, just read the history you have written for this place and you are wrong! It was the other quarry that is said to be on the Point.. once known as Hoffnagles point where stone was quarried in the late 1700s on. And I believe it was their quarry that supplied stone for the Brooklyn Bridge and State house. There is even a painting I believe posted to this Essex on Lake Champlain site titled “View Of Essex” which is actually a painting showing the Hoffnagle Farm and quarry operation on the point, Southern end of the Mouth of the Bouquet River. It was a much larger operation! I do have photos of them removing blocks that were sent to NYCity.
Thanks for your interest, Daniel. We are still learning more and more about the history of this amazing place and, as you are certainly correct about history being about facts, we turn to primary resource material to learn what we can. In this case, the September 3, 1871 edition of the Essex County Republican indicates that Mr. Solomon who had the Willsboro quarry on Ligonier Point fell behind on his contract for the Brooklyn Bridge and fulfilled it with stone from the Essex Quarry. In 1874, the Essex Quarry hired 200 men to fulfill their contracts, which must have been a tremendous economic boost to the area. We look forward to learning more about the history and welcome documented information on the history of the site; please feel free to contact us at (518) 962-2287 or at info@champlainareatrails.com.
Odd, I just came across your response. You are correct in that Solomon got the contract for the Bridge and he was unable to meet the demand therefore he turned to others. This is a very unique narrow rock vien of which Melchior recognized prior to anyone else. He removed stone from his point and built what is the earliest home on the entire lake Champlain. He owned the entire region from the mouth of the Boquet river as it wound westward and south until it intersected with a line drawn horizontally to Split Rock.. thus he owned from Split Rock to the Boquet River for over 10 yrs prior to Noble. Hoffnagle positioned himself mid way between Essex and Willsboro on a high bluff overseeing the intended development of both Villages. His initial move was to build a stone wharf at Essex village to deliver the stone into Essex by Barge from the point. He laid out lots within the village and sold a few off to Ross & Noble among a few others. The fact that there was no Essex Quarry supplying stone into the town is that in 1832 it is well documented that John Hoffnagle supplied the stone for Both the Essex and Willsboro churches. If there was a quarry operation in town he would not have transported it all that distance and supply it for free! .. I don’t catch that Noble stepped in and gave anything for free. That Noble home was not some Italianate construct in 1810.. it was a little stone box.
…guess I forgot my point… Granted buy the time the Brooklyn Bridge was built they did operate a quarry in Essex… but what is also true is that by that time State Senator John Hoffnagle passed legislation in state to remove Noble & Ross from using Slave Labor which they built their empire off of. That Essex quarry alone could not suit the demand therefore Hoffnagle also supplied stone. The ” View of Essex” which depicts their quarry, is dated 1846. when they supplied stone for the NY State House. Also, through Hoffnagle’s prior ownership of Wood Creek they held interest in transport through the Canal System… soon after the slave labor was taken away Eggleston boat building went belly up… Eggleston focused on round bottomed boats.. where as transport out the Boquet river, which Hoffnagle controlled were somewhat flat running barges. James Hoffnagle is listed as the first to build new class enlarged sailing barges.