Discover the secrets of Sullivan County

By Dan Hust
SULLIVAN COUNTY — April 4, 2008 — Ever wonder why Route 17B has a stairway climbing an uninhabited rock cut?
Ever ponder what’s inside the dome of the Sullivan County Courthouse or the clocktower of the Sullivan West Elementary School?
Ever realize there’s an authentic Scottish castle just north of Roscoe or a Romanesque chapel in Callicoon?
Ever hear of the famous faces that frequented the former Reber’s Restaurant in Barryville?
Ever imagine what’s inside that stone edifice next to the Neversink Dam?
Ever seek out the 300-year-old grave in Wurtsboro?
Ever just want to know where the geographic center of Sullivan County is?
Well, we have.
Nosiness – or the more respectable “curiosity” – is half our business, after all.
Sharing what we find with you is the other half, and it is in that spirit we embark upon an exciting new series we’ve called “Secrets of Sullivan County.”
Every other week, we’ll reveal the above mysteries plus many, many more – our list is already up to 75 entries spanning the entire county.
Thanks to government officials, business owners, historians and readers like you, we plan to let you in on what is in your own backyard – places, people and tales you may never have heard about or haven’t thought of in many years.
And especially secrets you couldn’t otherwise discover.
Sullivan County’s full of them, like the half-dozen houses in a row that are all on the National Register of Historic Places, or the mansions that a sewing machine empire built, or the stone grotto to the Virgin Mary deep in an isolated forest.
We’ll take you there, utilizing a vast network of people who know, own or oversee these places and have been gracious enough to share their time with us.
Certainly, we’ve built up a tremendous amount of experience ourselves in 117 years of covering the county, but we’ve also worked hard to create goodwill with others, partners who share our sense of community.
We all live here, after all, and we have every right to be proud of – and fascinated with – the place we call home.
So come along with us on a journey of exploration, of discovery, of magic. Find out how much you don’t really know about your own neighborhood – and share with us stories we don’t know, as well.
With 1,000 square miles to explore, there are plenty of secrets to tell.