History
Travel back through time over 300 years and see West Nyack through the eyes of its first Dutch settlers.
Imagine a wilderness almost primeval, where the only roads are narrow paths worn through the woods by the feet of deer and Indians. It is a fertile wilderness; it will become rich farm and pasture land. A river flows southward, fed by streams which can be tapped to power the mills of civilization. There are natural springs spouting water, cold and salutary. A great dense swamp through which the river winds can be cultivated for pasture. The air smells sweet and dry. In the Fall, the leaves turning to brilliant copper and scarlet, are amazing to people accustomed to the less intense colors of their homeland.
The Dutch colonists sought out plains and the banks of streams for their homesites. They purchased lots in Patents (large tracts of land granted by the Crown) owned by land speculators who had no intention of living on their vast holdings. Instead, the owners divided the Patents into moieties which were in turn laid out in lots. A part of what was known as the Kakiat Patent was eventually to become West Nyack.
excerpt from Portrait of West Nyack by S-E-A-R-C-H Foundation, West Nyack, N.Y. 10994 1973
excerpt from Portrait of West Nyack by S-E-A-R-C-H Foundation, West Nyack, N.Y. 10994 1973
