Sullivan County Highpoint Trip Report
Croyden Peak
Date: May 3, 2007
Author: Mike Schwartz
Sullivan County's highpoint lies inside the Blue Mountain Hunting Preserve,
a very exclusive private club. Many of us have been granted access to climb
Croyden Peak. The preserve itself was founded about 1890 by Austin Corbin,
and the area was and is still known to some as Corbin Park. I found a piece about
Mr. Corbin in the Monmouth County NJ, Jewish News,
which sheds some interesting light about Mr. Corbin. Here is an excerpt:
"A New York street named for an anti-Semite will be rededicated,
although not renamed.
The New York Times reported that Corbin Place in Brooklyn had been named for
Austin Corbin, a 19th century developer who was a leader of the American Society
for the Suppression of Jews, an anti-immigrant group. Corbin also ran the Long
Island Railroad and ejected the Montaukett Indian tribe from the Hamptons in a
contested land deal.1
A January column in the New York Daily News brought the matter to the attention
of local lawmakers, who set about changing the street's name. But residents,
including members of the Jewish community, did not want to change their
addresses, the Times reported.
In late March, the group hit upon the solution of rededicating the street in
honor of Margaret Corbin, a Revolutionary War heroine who helped defend Fort
Washington against the British in 1776. The City Council is expected to approve
the rededication."
At least Mr. Corbin was an equal opportunity bigot.
Interestingly, part of the site of Fort Washington is at Bennett Park in
Manhattan, the New York County (i.e., Manhattan) highpoint.
1I read elsewhere that the Indians are still trying to get their land back.