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Bruce, Wallace, 1844-1914

"The Hudson Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention"

An old and reliable inhabitant stated that he
remembered the rude statue well, and often thought that it ought to be
saved for a relic, as the stream was washing away the roots; but it
was finally carried down by a freshet, and probably found its way to
some fire-place in the Esopus Valley. "So man passes away, as with a
flood." There is another tale, one of love but less romantic, wherein
he was killed by his rival and placed upright in a hollow tree.
Perhaps neither tradition is true, and quite possibly the Big Indian
name grew out of some misunderstanding between the Indians and white
settlers over a hundred years ago. As the train leaves the station it
begins a grade of 150 feet per mile to--
=Pine Hill=, a station perched on the slope of Belle Ayr Mountain.
This is the watershed between the Esopus and the Delaware, and 226
feet above us, around the arcs of a double horseshoe, is the railway
summit, 1,886 feet above the tide.
=Grand Hotel Station.=--The New Grand, the second largest hotel in the
Catskills, with a frontage of 700 feet, stands on a commanding terrace
less than half a mile from the station.


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