After the logging industry was found to be unsustainable industry switched to Mining Garnet, another valuable resource of North Creek. Barnet Mines would mine garnet and give jobs for generations, as it is still open today.
Logging camps spring up, becoming the first buildings of the Hamlet of North Creek. The logging industry would cause many more people to come to the area.
The Colorado Gold Rush, also known as the “Pikes Peak Gold Rush”, brought thousands of people into Colorado, including present-day Douglas County in 1859. This is what initially led to the decline of Native Americans in the area and the pollution of the natural environment. To extract gold, miners would use dangerous chemicals that would often leak into streams. By the 1860s, animals already started to show abnormalities as a result of these chemicals. Mining also resulted in acid mine drainage, which essentially exposed buried rock to oxygen. This process resulted in metals being dissolved and drained into local water sources, a process that continues to affect Coloradans.
Hypoxia, low dissolved oxygen in waters, had been spreading across the Long Island Sound as a result of increased nutrient pollution from anthropogenic sources. These hypoxic blooms would kill fish and force other species to migrate out of affected waters. This lead to a lull in the already declining fishing industry and would lead to the formation of several Environmentalist action groups. Things have improved somewhat but as you can tell by the image, today there is still a sizable hypoxia problem.
In 1797, the first shipyards were built in Port Jefferson. These would pump out a small amount of high quality ships until the Civil War. After the Civil War there was a huge boom in the shipbuilding industry and the Port Jefferson shipyards would churn out around 370 vessels by 1890.
This painting shows the relatively common dynamic of servant women teaching young, relatively well off, white boys how to fish for Eels. At this time there was a slight boom in Eel fishing, which was a result of the initial rise in market. The Three-Village area was pretty much a sleepy area and no real industry would develop until after the Civil War.
Even though Michael Hickey, a local resident of Hoosick Falls, discovered high levels in PFOA in the water in 2014, it wasn't officially announced until 2016 that the water was deemed unsafe by public officials. This marked the beginning of a long battle between the town and Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, the company responsible for releasing the chemicals.
Thoreau walks from Sandwich to Provincetown, detailing the natural splendor he sees along the way. This includes homes, beaches, farms, townspeople, and other elements of nature.
The Mayflower docks in Provincetown harbor, where the Mayflower Compact is signed. After exploring the area and encountering the Native Americans living there they decide to sail on to Plymouth.
Initially under the control of the Matinecock Native American Tribe, Northport was eventually acquired by the Dutch in 1656 through purchase. The Dutch first came to Northport in 1650, where they reported fertile soil and good land. The Dutch would immediately transform the land from a sustenance based existence to an economic based existence, trading with the Native Americans and working to acquire capital.
Initially a farming town, in the 1830's Northport became a shipbuilding area. As the vessels at this time were wooden, a lot of environment was cleared out in order to use resources on ships at the time, similar to the over usage of natural resources in other locations.
The Northport Power Station was built by the Long Island Lighting Company, and would later be used by National Grid USA. This power plant would go on to pollute the atmosphere with 5.2 million metric tons of CO2 every year, and is exempt from the Clean Air Act due to it being grandfathered in.
In 2001, after 9/11, mayor Rudolph Giuliani closed the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island. While this seemed like a great idea at the time it actually lead to some issues that were not solved until mayor Bloomberg, in 2006, signed legislation to create a new method of disposing solid waste. Aditionally, in 2020, Fresh Kills is now becoming a park.
One Bryant Park Bank of America, was the first building in New York City to achieve this mark. This is the highest rank of certification for any building.
The smog in New York City was horrible up until the creation of the EPA and groups such as the "Scenic Hudson", that cracked down environmental issues throughout the city and along the river. The smog was even causing an increase in illness and eventually death.
After acquiring Horsneck as a State Reservation, the Massachusetts State Government built Route 88 in order to create better access to the town and the beaches. This contributed to Westport becoming a full-blown beach town, rather than the fishing town that it was initially, as tourists and vacationers began to arrive in droves after it was built.
After the destruction of the 1938 and 1954 hurricanes, there was no one left living on the beachfront, leading to the state acquiring the beach in 1956 as a protected state reservation, which was a better alternative than the town attempting to rebuild the area once again. This also led to the implementation of policies meant to protect the beach ecosystems, such as restricted access to sand dunes where rare beach birds make their nests.
One of the costliest events in Westport history, there was immense damage done to infrastructure and 22 lives were lost. Almost every home and business on the Horseneck Beach front and in the Westport Harbor were completely leveled. Photo: East Beach on 1938 vs how it looks today.
One of the costliest events in Westport history, there was immense damage done to infrastructure and 22 lives were lost. Almost every home and business on the Horseneck Beach front and in the Westport Harbor were completely leveled. Photo: East Beach on 1938 vs how it looks today.
After the early settlement was broken up by French and Indians in 1754, the district was officially formed in 1772. The early settlement formed around the rivers and streams, such as the Walloomsac.
In 2007, the State along with the Town of Malta approved and starting the construction of an exit 11 bypass that allows commuters to and from the new Global Founderies Chip Factory to not impede and cause congestion, safety concerns and pollution from high traffic for employees commuting and having to cut through the village to access route 9. The project cost $22 Million dollars and keeps high traffic out of the village to maintain its victorian "gingerbread" home nostalgia as well as protect the residents from increased traffic and safety concerns for those with small children.
The Round Lake train station was built by the Delaware and Hudson Railroad and by the end of ten years , they had thirteen passenger trains stopping in Round Lake daily. The station was decommissioned and taken down in 1958. The original ticket booth was kept and moved several times over the years, but permanently resides on Haven Ave.
The Round Lake Hose Company also known as the The Round Lake Fire Department ( today) was founded as the M.B. Sherman Hose company with having volunteers of " good moral character" and needed to live within a mile of the community ( obviously to be able to come quickly in response to a fire). The first firehouse was situated on Troy Avenue near the intersection of Burlington Avenue, which today it sits on Round Lake Road only 1/10 of a mile from Interstate 87 Bypass.
Round Lake in its very early creation was just summer camp homes and were not used year round as they are today. It was established as a National Historical Site in 1975.