New York Almanack

Early Season Paddling Tragedies Are A Cold Reminder

Editorial Staff — Thu, 21 May 2026 20:00:27 +0000

Water currents can be strong at any time of year, but early season boaters, paddlers, anglers and swimmers are at a greater risk in spring when waters are still cold – cold enough to cause cold water shock, hypothermia and death in minutes.

Three recent stories highlight the dangers of recreating on and around cold and fast waters in Spring:

The Neversink

On an early recent Friday afternoon, 63-year-old from New Jersey got stuck between two rocks while wading and fishing in the Neversink River Unique Area in the Catskills, in Sullivan County, which features a spectacular gorge and several waterfalls.

Rare and Fragile Floating Bogs and Fens

Editorial Staff — Thu, 21 May 2026 18:55:56 +0000

New York State is home to several rare and fragile floating bogs and fens. These unique ecosystems feature mats of sphagnum moss and vegetation that actually float over water.

Because they are located in the northernmost range of some species, and the southernmost range of others, they have unique varieties of plants and animals, many of which are threatened by Climate Change.

New York’s peatland and bog lakes provide habitats for rare plants, like carnivorous sundews, and birds as diverse as Veeries, Blackburnian Warblers, Yellow-billed Cuckoos, and Scarlet Tanagers draw many birders.

Rangers Respond: Missing Child, Brush Fires, Overnight High Peaks Rescue, Ill, Injured and Lost Hikers

Editorial Staff — Thu, 21 May 2026 17:15:36 +0000

Hot dry weather and lack of rain remains a wildfire concern around state. Since May 4th, New York State Forest Rangers fought two brush fires. In Saratoga County a wildfire began with ashes dumped outside, and a two-acre fire of unknown origin in Warrensburg damaged a structure.

Rangers also provided overnight assistance of two lost hikers in the remote Cold Brook Pass in the Adirondack High Peaks, and aided in locating another near Indian Pass Brook.

Take The 2026 Adirondack Forest Preserve Hiker Survey

Peter Bauer — Thu, 21 May 2026 15:00:37 +0000

A new online survey is up and running that seeks information about the experiences of hikers on the trails of the Forest Preserve in the Adirondack Park. The 2026 Adirondack Forest Preserve Hiker Survey will run from May through October.

The survey is designed to gather information about who is using the Forest Preserve in 2026, their expectations and purpose of their hike, their goals, the information hikers relied upon to choose and prepare for their hike, their travel to reach their hike, their hiking and parking experiences, and their thoughts about the trail and parking conditions and overall management of the Forest Preserve.

Artist Mark Priest Features Struggles of Slavery & the Underground Railroad

Editorial Staff — Thu, 21 May 2026 14:00:53 +0000

Artist Mark Priest’s work centers on the intersection of narrative painting, historical inquiry, and figurative representation.

Over the past two decades, Priest has conducted extensive research into the Underground Railroad, slavery, and the lives of Black American freedom seekers, including Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Charles Nalle, and William Still.

His vivid paintings, drawings, and multimedia installations, which reconstruct pivotal moments in the pursuit of liberty and the struggle against oppression.

Priest’s emphasis on rigorous historical accuracy and emotional resonance sets his work apart.

New York Almanack Needs Your Support Now

Editorial Staff — Thu, 21 May 2026 13:00:39 +0000

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We need your help! Please DONATE to our annual fundraising campaign starting today to keep New York Almanack publishing.

History, natural history, the environment, performing arts and outdoor recreation – all centered on the New York Almanack‘s unique sense of the world around us.

The Man Buffalo Forgot: Harry Altman’s Lost Entertainment Empire

Guest Contributor — Wed, 20 May 2026 19:00:55 +0000

History is often kindest to people who leave something permanent behind — a building, a business, a name etched onto a marquee. Their legacy remains visible. But those who built careers around live entertainment worked in a far more fleeting medium. The worlds they created existed in sound, light, energy, and memory, disappearing almost as quickly as they arrived.

Harry Altman (1890-1966) was one of those people: a once-prominent Buffalo nightclub owner and entertainment promoter whose name has largely faded from New York’s cultural memory, despite decades spent shaping the nightlife of Western New York.

Landscape & Social Change in Poughkeepsie

Editorial Staff — Wed, 20 May 2026 18:00:32 +0000

SUNY Press has re-published Main Street to Mainframes: Landscape and Social Change in Poughkeepsie by Harvey K. Flad and Clyde C. Griffen in a Second Edition. A social and urban history of the city on the Hudson River in Dutchess County, NY, tracing its transformation from a 19th-century market town to a 21st-century urban region.

The book examines economic shifts, immigration, race, housing, and revitalization efforts through a blend of social history and spatial analysis, using Poughkeepsie as a case study for broader trends in American small-city development.

Arnold Rothstein’s Saratoga Club & The 1919 World Series Scandal

Guest Contributor — Wed, 20 May 2026 16:10:36 +0000

Arnold Rothstein was of the most famous of America’s 20th century criminal masterminds, and for more than 20 years, the New York City native spent his summers in Saratoga Springs, gambling on the horses by day – and just plain gambling by night.

He first started coming to Saratoga on a regular basis in 1904, when he was 22 years old, and he largely gave up on Saratoga after 1925 – by then, he was able to make so much money bootlegging liquor that he no longer spent much time gambling at the Saratoga Race Course.

William Kennedy’s Albany Trilogy: An Interview with Paul Grondahl

Editorial Staff — Wed, 20 May 2026 13:55:32 +0000

The work of novelist William Kennedy marks the union of encyclopedic knowledge, built over ninety-eight years spent soaking up the city of Albany, and a profound empathy for human experience in all its forms, from the underworld of gangsters, gamblers, and hustlers to the heights of power and politics.

In the recently published Library of America edition of The Albany Trilogy, three of Kennedy’s greatest works set in New York’s capital take readers through vastly different but interrelated lives.