Blauvelt State Park is a undeveloped
state park located in the
Town of Orangetown in
Rockland County
Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of t ...
,
New York, near the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
Palisades. The park's land occupies the site of the former Camp Bluefields, a rifle range used to train members of the
New York National Guard prior to
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The park is located south of
Nyack.
History
Prior to becoming Blauvelt State Park, the property was known as Camp Bluefields, a large
rifle range
A shooting range, firing range, gun range or shooting ground is a specialized facility, venue or field designed specifically for firearm usage qualifications, training, practice or competitions. Some shooting ranges are operated by military ...
used primarily to train members of the
New York National Guard.
The rifle range occupied of land and was touted in 1910 as being the largest in the country.
The range's location was criticized almost immediately, and complaints of stray bullets being encountered in nearby residential areas were registered even before the range's official completion.
The rifle range operated from soon after the state's initial purchase of the land in 1909 until its administration was transferred to the
Palisades Interstate Park Commission
The Palisades Interstate Park Commission (PIPC) was formed in 1900 by Governors Theodore Roosevelt of New York and Foster Voorhees of New Jersey in response to the quarrying operations along the Palisades Cliffs of New Jersey. The Palisades, a Na ...
in 1913.
In the years that followed, Camp Bluefields was used as a
YWCA
The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries.
The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...
summer camp for
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
working women,
[ an ROTC training camp, a ]Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
summer camp, and as a destination for participants in the Fresh Air Fund. In 1930, the camp resumed military use by the U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
, who used the property for training programs that year. In 1942, soldiers from Camp Shanks
Camp Shanks was a United States Army installation in the Orangetown, New York area. Named after Major General David C. Shanks, it was situated near the juncture of the Erie Railroad and the Hudson River. The camp was the largest U.S. Army embarka ...
used the property as a training grounds, and it was used as an air raid post during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.[
The adjacent Clausland Mountain County Park is the former home of a ]Nike missile
The United States Army's Nike Ajax was the world's first operational guided surface-to-air missile (SAM), entering service in 1954. Nike Ajax was designed to attack conventional bomber aircraft flying at high subsonic speeds and altitudes abov ...
launch site. During the Cold War the site was part of a ring of Nike surface-to-air missiles surrounding New York City, intended to defend the city from Soviet bombers.
Park description
Blauvelt State Park is a largely undeveloped park with no facilities other than hiking trails and limited parking.[ The park links with several other town and county parks, including Clausland Mountain County Park, Buttermilk Falls County Park, Tackamack Park and Schuyler/Bradley Town Park, creating a largely seamless park range on the ]Hudson Palisades
The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson River Palisades, are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in Northeastern New Jersey and Southeastern New York in the United States. The cliffs s ...
.
The park offers several outlooks over the Hudson River and the Tappan Zee
The Tappan Zee (; also Tappan Sea or Tappaan Zee) is a natural widening of the Hudson River, about across at its widest, in southeastern New York. It stretches about along the boundary between Rockland and Westchester counties, downstream fr ...
. The Long Path
The Long Path is a long-distance hiking trail beginning in New York City, at the West 175th Street subway station near the George Washington Bridge and ending at Altamont, New York, in the Albany area. While not yet a continuous trail, relyin ...
, a hiking trail linking Fort Lee, New Jersey to the Adirondacks of New York, travels through the park.
See also
* List of New York state parks
References
Further reading
*
External links
New York State Parks: Blauvelt State Park
Blauvelt State Park Trail Map
New York-New Jersey Trail Council: Blauvelt State Park Trail Details and Info
Hudson River Valley Heritage Digital Collections: Photos of Camp Bluefields
{{authority control
Palisades Interstate Park system
Parks in Rockland County, New York
State parks of New York (state)
Protected areas established in 1913
1913 establishments in New York (state)