Nestled in a valley in Bear Mountain, Upstate New York, there was once a bustling hamlet called Doodletown. Nowadays, the town lays in ruin, deserted and demolished. This doesn't mean that there's nothing to explore. The haunting remains of habitation tell the story of small-town American life, back in an age before modern technology and its discontents.Note: Doodletown is best observed as part of a hike. The area is accessible by several trails. To get there from Route 9w, follow the Cornell Mine Trail to the 1777 East Trail, which leads directly to the ghost hamlet.
History Of Doodletown
The first known inhabitants of the area were the Munsee Indian tribe. After driving out the natives, the Dutch used the land for industrial purposes, extracting wood from the forest and iron from the rich subterrane. Perhaps as a sign of things to come, they named the town after the Dutch word Dooddel, which translates to "dead valley".
In the 1890s, Thomas Edison bought a defunct iron mine in Doodletown to test out a method of refining iron ore. His method failed, and the mine was soon abandoned once again.
In the following decades, the town grew to humble prominence as the United States prepared for war. The first thing a country does when it anticipates going to war is stockpile iron and steel, and this impulse gave the town a renewed purpose. By the 1920s, Doodletown was home to around 70 families, most of whom worked in the mining and logging industries.
As far as small-towns go, the cultural epicenter of Doodletown was the Mountville Presbyterian Church, which had the dual purpose of acting as a church and a school.
Eventually, the economy dwindled and many of the residents moved away. The Navy purchased the nearby island of Iona for use as an ammunition depot.
The government decided to develop Bear Mountain into a park and employed eminent domain to seize the remaining homes from residents who didn't want to leave. Unfortunately, the residents were forcibly evacuated and their houses were demolished. The town was returned to nature. The church stayed standing long after the houses did, but due to rampant vandalism, it too was demolished.
Today, it is primarily birds and snakes who call Doodletown home. Doodletown and nearby Iona Island are designated New York State Important Bird Areas and attract bird watchers all over the country.
As several warning signs across the town indicate, there is a high concentration of snakes in the canopy and ruins of Doodletowns. Several species including rattlesnakes, copperheads, black snakes, and garters lurk in the trees and under stairwells, feeding off small vermin and birds, and giving new meaning to the name "dead valley."
There's nothing like a good ghost town to wake up the explorer in all of us, and Doodletown is full of things to uncover. Many of the main structures of the town are marked by plaques to commemorate their value. The family homes, sidewalks, bridges, and stairwells that once served several generations of residents lay in ruins, colonized by creeping vines and reclaimed by insects, snakes, and birds nests.
Like in many abandoned settlements, it's always possible to find something hidden away under rubble or debris. In fact, most of the debris from the demolished houses and structures in Doodletown was buried in the area. The rains may very well unearth the occasional pearl, silver spoon, broach, or old jewelry box. For us humans, found valuables carry a lot more sentimental value than store-bought items.
The multiple abandoned mines are probably the most exciting and interesting feature of Doodletown to explore. Usually, iron ore mines are not too deep, though there are exceptions, depending on the scale of extraction. All the mines in Doodletown probably won't require any ladders or elevators to get to, but that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous.
Apart from twisted, rusty metal, flooding, and crumbling entrances (and exits), various insects and animals call these underground caverns home. Spiders tend to turn mine shafts into food traps with extensive webbing that may prove tedious to escape from, and cold-blooded serpents use hidden, shaded enclaves to build nests.
Explorers might be unpleasantly surprised to feel a slimy lick or hear a sudden rattle in the dark underground. Avoid a real-life nightmare by carrying flashlights, wearing thick, covered clothing, and ensuring that the entrances and exits to the mine are not at risk of collapsing.
Another rather morbidly fascinating feature of Doodletown is its graveyard. It's always intriguing to see the aged graves of former residents and imagine their lives at a time when the town was no longer a shadow of what it used to be. It might come as a slight shock that several graves in the Doodletown cemetery are fresh. Many older folks who were born in Doodletown moved to nearby communities like Iona, and prefer to be laid to rest in their place of birth.