Historic Huguenot Street Awarded Grant From the Nyquist Foundation to Present Four Seasonal Nature Walks
NEW PALTZ, NY (January 10, 2019) – With a generous gift from the Thomas and Corinne Nyquist Foundation, Historic Huguenot Street will host four seasonal nature walks at the Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary and the Mohonk Preserve led by ethno ecologist and founder of Wild Hudson Valley Justin Wexler, who specializes in folklore and land use among the native people of the Hudson Valley.
Local native peoples once made annual, seasonal trips to the habitats where the land had the most to share. For example, in the Hudson Valley indigenous calendar, springtime was spent along the tributary streams of the Hudson River to catch spawning fish. Summer was spent in floodplain villages adjacent to the maize crops. Autumn was a time when people collected nuts and set brush fires to hunt game in the hills. And early winter was a time for a special extended stay in nearby mountain valleys for trapping. These are only a few of the many ways in which the Esopus people and their neighbors lived off of the land.
Everywhere at Home: How Local Native People Once Lived With the Land comprises four walks throughout 2019. These walks identify local flora and fauna and explain their material uses in native culture while also explaining the species and the surrounding ecosystems through Munsee language and folklore. “The Midwinter Hunt: Bears, Stars, and Snow” will take place February 9; “The Springtime Fishing Camps: Shad, Birds, and Flowers” May 11; “Summers of Growth: Fruits, Greens, and Sun” August 10; and the final walk, “The Autumn Harvest: Maize, Nuts, and Venison,” will take place November 9 at the Mohonk Preserve, where visitors can see the reconstructed longhouse on site.
Visitors of the first three walks will meet at the wigwam in front of the DuBois Fort Visitor Center. Tours last 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes and tickets cost $20 a person (or purchase a ticket for all four nature walks and receive a $12 reimbursement at the conclusion of the program in November). Discounts are available for HHS members, seniors, students, active military members, veterans, and children under 13. Visitors can register for a tour and purchase tickets online.
About the Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary
The Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary exists to ensure that current and future generations in New Paltz and the wider community of the Lower Hudson Valley have a place where they can enjoy nature in a “forever wild” setting. Located on Huguenot Street in the town and village of New Paltz, the 56 acres of property comprising the Sanctuary has relatively open areas dominated by grasses and herbaceous plants. These provide rich and varied habitat opportunities for a wide range of plants and animals. The Sanctuary includes an “oxbow,” a complex of ponds and wetlands remaining from a tightly-curved meander cut off when the Wallkill River straightened its course hundreds of years ago.
About the Thomas and Corinne Nyquist Foundation
The Thomas and Corinne Nyquist Foundation is a family foundation. It was formed to provide financial support for local initiatives and programs of nonprofit organizations and groups in New Paltz, NY, and in Roosevelt County, Montana, with emphasis on the communities of Bainville, Culbertson and Froid.
About Historic Huguenot Street
A National Historic Landmark District, Historic Huguenot Street is a 501(c)3 non-profit that encompasses 30 buildings across 10 acres comprising the heart of the original 1678 New Paltz settlement, including seven stone houses dating to the early eighteenth century. Historic Huguenot Street was founded in 1894 as the Huguenot Patriotic, Historical, and Monumental Society to preserve the nationally acclaimed collection of stone houses. Since then, Historic Huguenot Street has grown into an innovative museum, chartered as an educational corporation by the University of the State of New York Department of Education that is dedicated to protecting our historic buildings, preserving an important collection of artifacts and manuscripts, and promoting the stories of the Huguenot Street families from the seventeenth century to today.
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Frances Vigna
Marketing & Communications Coordinator
frances@huguenotstreet.org
(845) 255-1660 Ext. 102