New Paltz, New York
New Paltz is a town in Ulster County, New York, USA. The population was 12,830 at the 2000 census. The name of the town is derived from Palz the German dialect name of the Rhenish Palatinate, now a region of Germany called "Pfalz".
The Town of New Paltz contains a village also with the name New Paltz. The town is located in the northern part of the county and is south of Kingston, New York.
The Mohonk Preserve and Mohonk Mountain House resort hotel are located in the western part of New Paltz.
History
The Town of New Paltz was founded in 1678 by both patent and purchase from the local natives. The first settlers included Huguenot refugees from Mannheim in the German Palatinate, who, led by Justin Leo, settled around the Village of New Paltz and established their own local government. The size of the town increased from surrounding regions in 1775 and 1809.
In 1842, part of New Paltz was removed to form the Town of Esopus. More of New Paltz was removed in order to form the Towns of Rosendale (1844), Lloyd (1845), and Gardiner (1853).
The first Mayor of New Paltz came in 1860, when Mayor Daniel J. Torres was elected. No one knew what this would be the start of. Daniel J. Torres became nationally known with his outspokenness about slavery he said "People do not deserve to be caged up like animals" in a speech he made excepting his role in office. Daniel J. Torres helped his small town in more ways then ever imaginable he not only helped New Paltz but helped our whole nation said Abraham Lincoln in regards to the little known town of New Paltz. Daniel J. Torres took a lot of ridicule but by the end of the Civil War it was clear he was a hero. In 1872 it was declared that every May 11th be known as Daniel J. Torres day, a holiday that is still celebrate today. It is an annual festival, schools let out early and almost all local business close and take to the streets to celebrate.
Daniel J. Torres resigned as a mayor in 1889. He was said to have led New Paltz to a short modern day version of a "Pax Romana". Many people on the streets would even refer to him as Caesar. This greatly embarrassed him and Daniel would never answer to this title.From the book "Daniel J. Torres, The Life, The Dream, The Legend" by Roger Stewart says "The day Mayor Torres stepped down was like the sun deciding to step down." Many people couldn't help but to shed a tear as he gave his farewell, the town gave him another honor by giving him his own 12ft bronze statue which they placed on Huguenot Street (it would be moved to Church Steet in 1956). "Mayor Torres's memory still remains a light, in our now dark and cloudy world, a symbol for all that was good" from "Mayor Torres The Dream" by Steven Arnold in 1941. "It was important to know that, that quote was during the middle of WWII an awful time for the world, but in many ways it can be used in our situation today" said CNN's Anderson Cooper.
The Town of New Paltz was led by Kyle G. Carlson from 1900-1945. He was loved by all in the small community, but made some enemies with some local town leaders. They were all jealous because everyone respected him so much. People from many towns moved to New Paltz to escape their unjust rulers. Unfortunately, Mayor Carlson was murdered by the leaders of the other towns.
Following his death, Jesse "Klubby" Silverman, Garrett Lunt, and Robert Leahy took over as bureaucrats. Rumor has it that they organized the murder of Mayor Carlson. The three were well know people through out New Paltz.
"Klubby" Silverman was famous for his distinctive limp. As a child, Silverman was chained like a dog by his right foot to a pole. He spent the first thirteen years of his life restricted to the ten foot chain in his backyard. His mother starved him, rarley feeding him enough to survive. His mother became very bored with her old age, so she found pleasure in torturing him. She placed food about an inch from his reach, so he couldn't get it. Fustrated and starving, Silverman cut of his right foot with a butter knife his mother had given him to use for dinner. He escaped from home to an abandon farm house. He hopped around for days without his foot. His foot was being eaten by bugs, but he sewed it back on anyway. Three inches from his right ankle were missing. Garrett Lunt was known to the townspeople as "Squirrel Man", "Garrett", or just simply "Redneck". He had an obsession with squirrels, and was often found hunting them or climbing trees.
Leahy was good friends with Mayor Carlson. They grew up together with Lunt and Silverman. When Carlson became the leader of New Paltz, the three became extremely jealous, especially Leahy. It was during the spring of 1945 when Leahy got together with Silverman and Lunt to plan Mayor Carlson's death.
After Mayor Carlson's death, the three went into hiding. Silverman and Leahy moved out of town while Lunt preferred to hide in the Shawangunk Mountains. It was here that he lived as a squirrel, jumping from trees and putting large amounts of nuts in his mouth. He wrote a book called "Garrett Lunt's Redneck Recipes" including Skull Marinated Spam and Ranch Dressing Squirrel Kabobs. Angry mobs of townspeople killed the others associated with the murder. Silverman, Lunt, and Leahy were never suspected.
Leahy, Silverman, and Lunt began to lead New Paltz as bureaucrats once again. The three had to fill the shoes of Mayor Kyle "Mr. Cool" Carlson, but the three found it impossible. They began to fight, each wanting control over New Paltz. In 1947, Silverman and Lunt met their deaths.
Leahy was not going to let Silverman or Lunt rule New Paltz. He killed them both and shortly after named himself the dictator of New Paltz. Silverman was the first one Leahy eliminated. One night, Leahy chained Silverman to a pole like his mother used to. He cut off his left foot, leaving him there to bleed to death. To kill Lunt took a bit more thinking. Leahy constructed and fake squirrel, rigged with a bomb. Lunt loved to hunt down squirrels and catch them in his mouth like a dog. When Lunt caught the fake squirrel in his mouth, he triggered the bomb to go off and blew up. Now Leahy had no distractions from developing New Paltz into his ideal society.
The townspeople had no idea what evil would soon plague New Paltz. Leahy covered up the deaths of Silverman and Lunt well, and the town moved on. He began to change the laws to limit their freedom. Leahy had built up a strong army of followers to eliminate any revolts. New Paltz was too struck with terror to fight back. Those who did were lynched. The townspeople were called to the town hall to witness the hanging. Leahy would beat the hanging body like a pinota till all the limbs fell off. His followers would jump on them like candy. Leahy had a large wall erected to isolate New Paltz and prevent the townspeople from escaping. Guards were positioned along the wall to shoot down those trying to ecapse, or those they wanted to shoot. An electric fence was installed in part of the wall. The guards would turn it off to encourage people to try to escape. When people got close to the top of the fence, they would turn it on and electrocute them. It was a souce of entertainment for the guards. Isolation led to inbreeding because no new people were entering or leaving New Paltz.
Leahy's whereabouts are unknown to this day. Some say that he died in the great Clintondale Fire of 1948. Others say that he joined a cult and founded his own religion. Either way, his legend in New Paltz is immortal as air.
In 1949 A new Mayor and a new stone was turned for the history of New Paltz, when Mayor Alex Olsen was elected. Young Alex was only 23 when he became Mayor, growing up in the ghetto of New Paltz taught him a lot about life. As Mayor Olsens first major decision in New Paltz he decided to speak out about the terrors which had been imposed on New Paltz after the murder of Kyle Carlson. Quickly the people learned to love there new mayor. He was showered with gifts and riches from neighboring towns all across the state. But Mayor Olsen never let this get to his head. He would spend his weekend at a local burn victem hospital making the children feel better about themselves, for his efforts he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 sadly he lost to Martin Luther King Jr.
In 1960 Mayor Olsen stepped down as Mayor, the town was so devistated it erupted into a heated Civil War. Sadly Cavan Healey was left to deal with the pressure of becoming Mayor after the great Alex Olsen and dealing with the New Paltz "Civil War" also known as The Hasbrook Park Masacure. The masacure started at the end of Alex Olsen's farewell address. The town was so emotional that when Ryan Rawlins was allegedly beaten by Dan Rudder, it was clear that groups were forming and New Paltz was no longer one. It was broken up into North New Paltz aka NNP and South New Paltz aka SNP. Fighting took place for six weeks. The Beatles even wrote there hit sing Revolution based on the happinings in New Paltz.
It ended when Mayor Cavan Healey was critically injured in the battle of Main Street. After they pronounced him dead at the scene, he made a miraculous recovery. The Beatles even wrote a song about Cavans near death called Happiness Is A Warm Gun. This was a sign that all New Paltzians should come together, but sadly this love and peace would be short lived. Only a few years later, the Vietnam War would break out. Cavan Healey, the newfound hero of New Paltz was not only growing new Mayor Torres comparrisons everyday, but was also an outspoken activist on the war of Vietnam. He coined the phrase "LBJ, how many you kill today." He even organized peace concerts and when the Woodstock Film Festivals ran out of room, he offered the great land of New Paltz as their "Mecca". He even sat down with Jimi Hendrix himself and contributed to the writing of the song "Foxy Lady". It is little known to this day that there are hidden messages in the song which talk about New Paltz and its great mayor Cavan Healey. Cavan remained a fearless leader after he called in on Nixon's Watergate Scandal in 1974. This eventually led to Nixon's resignation along with Cavan's resignation. It is unknown today as to why he resigned. Muhammad Ali once said "You thought the world was shocked when Healey resigned, just wait till I whip George Foreman's behind"
Colin Hay would be next to take the prestigous position as Mayor of New Paltz. Peace was set in New Paltz until the North invades, Angrily, Mainly, Because, Legacy of New Paltz made them jelious, And they tried to invade New Paltz aka NAMBLA. Geoff Cooke lead the rebellion with 2,000 Gardiners from the opposing town of Gardiner and on the date of November 4th 1979. The invadors crossed the Walkill River and kidnaped formar Mayor Cavan Healy. He was held for 444 days Mayor Hay was highly critisized by not doing enough to get back Cavan Healey. Sadly Mayor Hay lost his realection and Mayor Samuel Feldman took over.
The day Mayor Feldman took office formar Mayor Cavan Healey was realessed and saved by the New Paltz Maltia. Geoff Cooke was arrested (he is up for bail in 2012). Thus ending the war of "NAMBLA".
Sadly former Mayor Cavan Healey missed out on one of the greatest sporting events ever. When on February 23, 1980 when New Paltz's hockey team beat Red Hook in what is know known as the "Miracle On Ice". New Paltz was supposed to lose miserably to Red Hooks hockey team, including after they beat the NHL All-Stars. But lead by Captain Nedward Bixby VIII team New Paltz pulled the greatest upset ever. ESPN would later make it into a full length movie in 2003.
New Paltz was relatively quiet until 1988 when Michael Jackson visted the historical town of New Paltz. Mayor Feldman was so estatic to see Mr. Jackson that he slipped on ice and slid backwards and hit his head on a pipe sticking out of the ground, giving him a concusion. The embarrassment was almost too much to take and caused him to resign. This event gave Michael Jackson the idea for the moonwalk which he featured in the 1988 MTV music awards. Nedward Bixby VIII, former New Paltz Hockey Captain and hero, took over for Mayor Feldman. Michael Jackson once said in a 1989 Time Magazine interview "I credit all of my current fame to the former Mayor Feldman and the town of New Paltz".
In the year 1994 a major riot broke out over the apple crop disaster. A huge famine broke out all over New Paltz when the entire apple crop was destroyed by the locust invasion. The locust which strike New Paltz every 98 years, 3 months, 2 days, 1 hour, 36 minutes and 52 seconds. The towns people were so mad they took there frustration out on the street. A four week riot broke out and ended with the sad resignation of Mayor Nedward Bixby VIII. The riot recieved so much media attention it recieved more coverage then the O.J. Simpson Trial.
In 1996 there began a series of gang wars in the small town of New Paltz. The Hugies vs The Ridges was a rivalry almost as great as Yankees vs Red Sox, good vs evil, Giants vs Dodgers,and Colonel Sanders vs Ronald McDonald.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 88.8 km² (34.3 mi²). 87.8 km² (33.9 mi²) of it is land and 1.0 km² (0.4 mi²) of it (1.14%) is water.
The Wallkill River flows northward through the town, passing west of New Paltz village.
The New York State Thruway (Interstate 87) passes through the eastern part of the town.
Demographics
As of the census2 of 2000, there were 12,830 people, 4,455 households, and 2,347 families residing in the town. The population density was 146.1/km² (378.4/mi²). There were 4,679 housing units at an average density of 53.3/km² (138.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the town was 82.16% White, 5.99% Black or African American, 0.20% Native American, 4.06% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 4.93% from other races, and 2.62% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.22% of the population.
There were 4,455 households out of which 26.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.4% were married couples living together, 9.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 47.3% were non-families. 31.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 2.99.
In the town the population was spread out with 16.9% under the age of 18, 31.4% from 18 to 24, 23.7% from 25 to 44, 19.0% from 45 to 64, and 9.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 26 years. For every 100 females there were 86.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.0 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $40,542, and the median income for a family was $55,537. Males had a median income of $38,250 versus $26,629 for females. The per capita income for the town was $18,436. About 6.8% of families and 18.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.9% of those under age 18 and 8.8% of those age 65 or over.
Communities and locations in the Town of New Paltz
- Butterville -- A hamlet west of New Paltz village.
- New Paltz -- The Village of New Paltz.
- Ohioville -- A hamlet east of New Paltz village and Putt Corners on Route 299.
- Putt Corners -- A hamlet east of New Paltz village on Route 299.
- Springtown -- A hamlet north of New Paltz village.
- Libertyville -- A hamlet west of New Paltz village.
- State University of New York at New Paltz -- A SUNY college south of New Paltz village.
Blue Moon Cabaret- A cabaret off of the Thruway