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Self-guided tour
Historic Hikes
Explore the rich history of Columbia County while experiencing all the outdoor enjoyment our historic properties have to offer. So put on your walking shoes, pack a snack and step back in time.
The 11 Stops
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Austerlitz Historical Society
Austerlitz
11550 State Route 22, Austerlitz, NY 12017
A collection of historic homes and buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries. There are period rooms, exhibits, an art gallery, shop and spectacular grounds to explore!
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Clermont State Historic Site
Clermont
1 Clermont Ave, Germantown, NY 12526
Seven generations of Livingstons lived at Clermont, a riverside mansion with a rich and varied history. Visitors can experience house tours, gardens, views of the Hudson River, 5-miles of trails and a visitor center.
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Columbia County Historical Society
Kinderhook
2589 NY-9H, Kinderhook, NY 12106
The Van Alen House is a restored house museum representing 18th-century rural Dutch farm life in the Hudson River Valley. The Dutch Farming Heritage Trail links this property with the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site.
Located on the same property you'll see the Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse, a 19th-century white wood framed building that served as a local single-room public school into the 1940's.
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Copake Iron Works
Copake
33 Valley View Rd, Copake Falls, NY 12517
One of the most intact examples of 19th-century industrial iron-making in the northeast, and home to many buildings and structures including the centerpiece Copake Falls Blast Furnace. Included is a three-mile trail circumnavigating the Copake Iron Works Historic District which has extensive interpretive signs for independent exploration, along with a new self-guided audio walking tour.
Self Guided Audio Tour
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Martin Van Buren National Historic Site
Kinderhook
1013 Old Post Rd, Kinderhook, NY 12106
The home and farm of the founder of the Democratic Party and the eighth president of the United States. The site has its own Wayside Loop Trail, across the road from the mansion which is a 3/4-mile loop with interpretive markers. The Dutch Heritage Trail connects the grounds to the historic Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse C 1820/Luykas Van Alen House C. 1737
Wayside Loop Trail map (MVB grounds)
Martin Van Buren Nature Area trail map (Across Route 9H)
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Olana State Historic Site
Greenport
5720 New York 9G, Hudson, NY 12534
Olana is the greatest masterpiece of Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900), the preeminent American artist of the mid-19th century and the most important artist's home, studio and designed landscape in the United States. The grounds include trails, scenic views, picnic areas and a historic carriage road system. The Hudson River Skywalk is accessible from the site which is a historic and scenic walkway at the place where American landscape painting began. You will cross the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, offering sweeping views of the Hudson River Valleyand Catskill Mountains.
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Person of Color Cemetery
Kinderhook
Kinderhook Village Playground, Rothermel Ave, Kinderhook, NY 12106
In 1815, Kinderhook landowner John Rogers stipulated that a portion of his property be " intended as a cemetery for the people of color." Although only 15 headstones remain, it is estimated that hundreds of individuals may have been interred here. This site is located just off the Albany-Hudson Electric Trail, which is part of the Empire State Trail system.
Albany-Hudson Electric Trail online map
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Roeliff Jansen Historical Society
Copake
8 Miles Rd, Copake Falls, NY 12517
Formerly, the Museum was the Old Copake Falls Church built in 1892, as a place of worship for workers from the Copake Iron Works. The property is a three minute walk to The Harlem Valley Rail Trail, the former tracks of the Harlem Valley Railroad.
Harlem Valley Rail Trail - Copake Falls section
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Samuel Tilden Gravesite
New Lebanon
382 Cemetery Rd, New Lebanon, NY 12125
1876 presidential candidate who won by 250,000 popular votes but lost the election by one electoral vote. Tilden was also NYS's 25th governor.
Cemetery of the Evergreens
Samuel J. Tilden
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Shaker Museum/Mount Lebanon
New Lebanon
202 Shaker Rd, New Lebanon, NY 12125
America's most significant Shaker historic site. Visitors may take a self-guided tour of the museum grounds anytime year-round. The website offers a tour brochure that you can download which includes the North Pastures Trail.
Self Guided Walking Tour description and map
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The Ruins at Sassafras
New Lebanon
194 Darrow Road, New Lebanon, NY 12125
In the upper Hudson Valley between the Berkshire and Taconic Mountains is a secret place where you can wander, imagine, and find inspiration to write a book or paint a masterpiece.