Blauvelt State Park

State park in Rockland County, New York

41°04′48″N 73°56′15″W / 41.0799°N 73.9376°W / 41.0799; -73.9376Area644 acres (2.61 km²)^[2]Operated by

Visitors36,579 (in 2020)^[3]OpenAll yearWebsiteBlauvelt State Park

Blauvelt State Park is a 644-acre (2.61 km²) undeveloped state park located in the Town of Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, near the Hudson River 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. 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 used primarily to train members of the New York National Guard.^[4] The rifle range occupied 335 acres (1.36 km²) of land and was touted in 1910 as being the largest in the country.^[5] 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.^[6] 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 in 1913.^[7]

In the years that followed, Camp Bluefields was used as a YWCA summer camp for New York City working women,^[4] an ROTC training camp, a Columbia University 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, who used the property for training programs that year. In 1942, soldiers from Camp Shanks used the property as a training grounds, and it was used as an air raid post during World War II.^[7]

The adjacent Clausland Mountain County Park is the former home of a Nike missile 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.^[1] 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 park offers several outlooks over the Hudson River and the Tappan Zee. The Long Path, a hiking trail linking Fort Lee, New Jersey to the Adirondacks of New York, travels through the park.^[8]

Ruins of Camp Bluefield's long-abandoned rifle range, including tunnels that connected down-range targets to the firing line, are also visible within the park.^[9]

References

^ ^a ^b "Blauvelt Point State Park". NYS Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
^ "Section O: Environmental Conservation and Recreation, Table O-9". 2014 New York State Statistical Yearbook (PDF). The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. 2014. p. 674. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 16, 2015. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
^ "State Park Annual Attendance Figures by Facility: Beginning 2003". Data.ny.gov. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
^ ^a ^b Gottlock, Barbara H.; Gottlock, Wesley (2007). New York's Palisades Interstate Park. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing. pp. 30–34. ISBN 978-0738554983. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
^ "The Blauvelt Rifle Range". Forest and Stream. No. 75. December 17, 1910. pp. 995–996. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
^ "Say New Rifle Range is a Menace to Life - Rockland County Folk Fear Stray Bullets and Want Work on It Stopped" (PDF). The New York Times. October 16, 1911. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
^ ^a ^b "Blauvelt State Park and Tackamack Town Park". Rockland Audubon Society. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
^ "Blauvelt State Park". New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. Retrieved July 12, 2015.
^ Steinberg, David A. (2015). "The Army Tunnels". Hiking the Road to Ruins: Daytrips and Camping Adventures to Iron Mines, Old Military Sites, and Things Abandoned in the New York City Area... and Beyond. Rutgers University Press. pp. 27–32. ISBN 9780813565866. Retrieved July 13, 2015.

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

Protected areas of New York

Federal

National Historic Sites and Historical Parks	Eleanor Roosevelt Harriet Tubman Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt Martin Van Buren Sagamore Hill Saint Paul's Church Saratoga Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Women's Rights Kate Mullany House affiliated Thomas Cole affiliated
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National Forests	Finger Lakes
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State parks
Allen H. Treman Allegany Amherst Amsterdam Beach Battle Island Bayard Cutting Arboretum Bayswater Point Bear Mountain Beaver Island Beechwood Belmont Lake Bethpage Betty & Wilbur Davis Big Six Mile Creek Blauvelt Bonavista Bowman Lake Braddock Bay Brentwood Bristol Beach Brookhaven Buckhorn Island Buffalo Harbor Burnham Point Buttermilk Falls Caleb Smith Camp Hero Canandaigua Lake Canoe-Picnic Point Captree Catharine Valley Trail Caumsett Cayuga Lake Cedar Island Cedar Point Chenango Valley Cherry Plain Chimney Bluffs Chittenango Falls Clarence Fahnestock Clark Reservation Clay Pit Ponds Cold Spring Harbor Coles Creek Conesus Lake Connetquot River Crab Island Croil Island Cumberland Bay Darien Lakes De Veaux Woods Deans Cove Delta Lake Devil's Hole Dewolf Point Donald J. Trump Earl W. Brydges Artpark Eel Weir Empire – Fulton Ferry Evangola Fair Haven Beach Fillmore Glen Fort Niagara Four Mile Creek Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Franny Reese Frenchman Island Galop Island Gantry Plaza Genesee Valley Greenway Gilbert Lake Gilgo Glimmerglass Golden Hill Goosepond Mountain Grafton Lakes Grass Point Green Lakes Hallock Hamlin Beach Harriet Hollister Spencer Harriman Hart's Brook Haverstraw Beach Heckscher Helen L. McNitt Hempstead Lake High Tor Highland Lakes Higley Flow Hither Hills Honeoye Hook Mountain Hudson Highlands Hudson River Hudson River Islands Hunts Pond Iona Island Irondequoit Bay Jacques Cartier James Baird John Boyd Thacher Jones Beach Joseph Davis Keewaydin Keuka Lake Knox Farm Kring Point Lake Erie Lake Lauderdale Lake Superior Lake Taghkanic Lakeside Beach Letchworth Lock 32 Lodi Point Long Point – Finger Lakes Long Point – Thousand Islands Long Point on Lake Chautauqua Macomb Reservation Margaret Lewis Norrie Mark Twain Marsha P. Johnson Mary Island Max V. Shaul Mexico Point Midway Mine Kill Minnewaska Mohawk River Montauk Downs Montauk Point Moreau Lake Napeague Newtown Battlefield Niagara Falls Nissequogue River Nyack Beach Oak Orchard Ogden Mills & Ruth Livingston Mills Old Croton Aqueduct Old Erie Canal Oquaga Creek Orient Beach Peebles Island Pinnacle Pixley Falls Point Au Roche Reservoir Riverbank Robert G. Wehle Robert H. Treman Robert Moses – Long Island Robert Moses – Thousand Islands Robert V. Riddell Roberto Clemente Rock Island Lighthouse Rockefeller Rockland Lake Sampson Sandy Island Beach Saratoga Lake Saratoga Spa Schodack Island Schunemunk Mountain Selkirk Shores Seneca Lake Shadmoor Shirley Chisholm Silver Lake Sonnenberg Gardens Southwick Beach St. Lawrence State Park at the Fair Sterling Forest Steuben Memorial Stony Brook Storm King Strawberry Island Sunken Meadow Taconic Tallman Mountain Taughannock Falls Thompson's Lake Trail View Two Rivers Valley Stream Verona Beach Walkway over the Hudson Waterson Point Watkins Glen Wellesley Island Westcott Beach Whetstone Gulf Whirlpool Wildwood Wilson-Tuscarora Wonder Lake Woodlawn Beach

State parks

State historic sites
Bennington Battlefield Caumsett Clermont Clinton House Crown Point Darwin D. Martin House Fort Crailo Fort Montgomery Fort Ontario Ganondagan Grant Cottage Herkimer Home Hyde Hall John Brown Farm John Burroughs Memorial (Woodchuck Lodge) John Hay Homestead Johnson Hall Knox's Headquarters Lorenzo New Windsor Cantonment Olana Old Croton Aqueduct Old Erie Canal Old Fort Niagara Oriskany Battlefield Philipse Manor Hall Plantings Fields Arboretum Sackets Harbor Battlefield Schoharie Crossing Schuyler Mansion Senate House Sonnenberg Gardens & Mansion Staatsburgh Steuben Memorial Stony Point Battlefield Walt Whitman Birthplace Washington's Headquarters

State historic sites

Preserves and sanctuaries

Public preserves	Albany Pine Bush Forest Preserve Adirondack Park Saint Regis Canoe Area Santanoni Preserve wilderness areas Catskill Park Hudson River Estuary Long Island Pine Barrens Reinstein Woods Rome Sand Plains Tahawus Vischer Ferry Welwyn
The Nature Conservacy	Accabonac Harbor Andy Warhol Visual Arts Arthur W. Butler Memorial Atlantic Double Dunes Bear Swamp Calverton Ponds Chaumont Barrens Clintonville Pine Barrens Coon Mountain Deer Lick Denton El Dorado Beach Eugene and Agnes Meyer Everton Falls Freund Gadway Sandstone Pavement Barrens Hannacroix Ravine Henry Morgenthau Indian Brook Assemblage Ironsides Island Kenrose Limestone Rise Lisha Kill Long Island Center for Conservation Long Pond Lordsland Lower Poultney River and Saddles Marrion Yarrow Mashomack Mianus River Gorge Mildred E. Grierson Memorial Moccasin Kill Montauk Mountain Moss Lake Mount Holly Nellie Hill Neversink O.D. von Engeln Otter Creek Pawling Peconic Estuary Big Woods Pine Neck Roger Perry Memorial Ruth Wales Schunemunk Mountain Shadmoor Silver Lake Bog Spring Pond Bog Stewart Lewis A. Swyer Thompson Pond and Stissing Mountain Uplands Farm West Branch Whitbeck Memorial Grove
Other preserves	Angle Fly Baxter Bergen-Byron Swamp Black Rock Forest Brandreth Park Cornell Botanic Gardens Ferncliff Forest Great Camp Sagamore James Lime Hollow Louis Calder Center Louis C. Clark Sanctuary Mohonk Peabody Plotter Kill Sam's Point Svend O. Heiberg Memorial Forest Teatown Lake Reservation Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center Turkey Mountain Turner Brook Wallkill Valley Rail Trail Woodlawn Zurich Bog

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