Fairfield County High Point Trip Report

Date: January 27, 2002
Author: Dan Case

I followed roughly the same route as in my previous trip report, with the exception of getting off I-84 at NY 312 rather than NY 311. This doesn't seem to make much of a difference unless you really want to get on NY 22 faster. I also failed to make the proper turn onto Mizzen Top Road (Dutchess County 66) and almost went into CT the wrong way.

Nothing has changed at the Dannenbergs' property on the NY side of the state line other than some more "No Hunting/No Trespassing" signs posted by the owners of the CT property. I parked at the fork in the driveways and was easily able to walk out to the crest to the area I had identified as the HP on my previous visit. I still think it's on the state line (but see below).

To find this marker that Mike Schwartz and others have reported, and which some feel is the true HP, I struck out into the woods roughly trying to follow the state line. The stone wall and tape markings disappeared pretty quickly. Fortunately, the recent warm weather here meant the patches of snow remaining were not a problem (I did this in sneakers). After the requisite hundred yards or so, and no sign of the monument (granted, a small gray stone column is a little hard to spot under the current circumstances), I turned back because I was positive I had reached high ground as the ground to the north was definitely dipping.

On the way back down, though, I crossed the path others had mentioned, which I had previously discarded as not worth my time as it went in the wrong direction. Looking down it, I caught sight of the marker. It's not quite as high as the markers used elsewhere along the NY/CT state line (every road crossing, just about), but it's definitely of the same type and it's right next to the path, so my directions to future HPers here would be: bushwhack from the driveway to the path then walk downhill. I guess it has to be on the state line. I simply can't argue that point but I'm not entirely sure it's the highest spot in Fairfield County. If my earlier-visited point is indeed on the state line, it's higher. The question, though, is: Is it?

According to the description of the border in the New York State Law, it runs just slightly east of due north in this area ("thence south 3° 31' 33" west 21,140 feet to a monument (No. 55) at the northerly end of a rocky hill about a mile south of the northeast corner of the town of Pawling, New York, in latitude 41° 36' 10.894" and longitude 73° 31' 24.972"; thence south 41° 24' 52" west 10,785 feet to a monument (No. 59) in a field east of a right angle in the road from Quaker Hill to Sherman in latitude 41° 34' 24.659" and longitude 73° 31' 35.893"; thence south 73° 52' 52" west 10,520 feet to a monument (No. 64) on a ledge falling southwest to a brook in the southwestern part of the town of Sherman in latitude 41° 32' 40.963" and longitude 73° 31' 45.257" ") so the trend seems about right.

Also, I seem to recall when I looked at the tax maps in Poughkeepsie to find out who owned the property, that the map showed that some of the property on the CT side (a wedge of less than an acre) overlapped into NY so it's possible that the property line may, indeed, not be the state line. (If this is so, then a corner of the neighbor's driveway is in NY, as well as some of their yard.)

Of course, there's also a couple of little spots near the monument that may be inches higher, and I did the best Lobdellizing I could, but I now feel I've satisfied every definition for the Fairfield HP.