The WPA Guide to Pennsylvania by Federal Writers' Project

Author:Federal Writers' Project
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781595342362
Publisher: Trinity University Press

Section a. NEW YORK LINE to SCRANTON, 78.8 m. US 6

US 6 crosses the DELAWARE RIVER, 0 m., 1 mile southwest of Port Jervis, N.Y. (see New York Guide). Greenery lines both banks of the river, here a negligible trickle dotted with boulders and tiny islands.

MATAMORAS, 0.5 m. (868 alt., 1,784 pop.), a shaded resort town, roosts on a tableland above the river; stone cliffs, skimpily bearded with scrub pine, rise on the right. Permanent residents, mainly railroad men employed in Port Jervis, live in detached, white clapboard houses. The OLD STONE FORT (private), P and First Sts., a story-and-a-half structure, was built about 1740 by Simon Westfael, one of the earliest Dutch settlers.

Between Matamoras and Milford, the straight three-lane highway is flanked (L) by the placid Delaware River, greenish and wide, except where it narrows between hills, and (R) by mountains that occasionally extend rocky elbows over the road. Large estates and hunting lodges are hidden in the hills.

MILFORD, 8.5 m. (503 alt., 886 pop.), a parklike village with light-colored houses, stores, souvenir shops, and restaurants, each with its patch of lawn, is surrounded by large estates. In summer its shade-dappled streets hold far more visitors than residents.

The granite TOM QUICK MONUMENT, Broad and Sarah Sts., commemorates the first settler, who arrived in 1733. In 1755 he was killed in sight of his son by previously friendly Indians. His mind warped by the incident, the son spent the remaining 40 years of his life killing Indians, young and old, men and women, keeping a careful tally that eventually totaled 99. When he felt death approaching, he begged friends to drag an Indian to his bedside so that he might bring his score to an even hundred.

In Milford is a junction with US 209 (see Tour 2).

At 9.1 m. is a junction with an unmarked, macadamized road.

Left on this to a parking space, 0.3 m., from which a footpath leads 0.5 m. through a tree-arched glen to SAWKILL FALLS. Here Sawkill Creek in a forest-crowned gorge drops 25 feet to a flat table of rock, then falls another 50 or 60 feet and vanishes into a chasm that is dark on the sunniest day.

The falls are in GRAY TOWERS (private), the estate of Gifford Pinchot, former governor of Pennsylvania (1923–7, 1931–5). The castlelike residence was built in 1886. Large conical-roofed towers, each 63 feet high and 20 feet in diameter, spring from three corners of the gray stone structure. The interior contains 23 fireplaces. The SCOTCH GARDEN, with its high stone wall, completes the planned effect of a Scottish castle.

Northwest of Milford, US 6 winds through the Poconos along a wall of pines, part of the extensive Delaware State Forest, and then traverses an area largely converted into a hunting preserve by wealthy New York City sportsmen, one of the few sections of the State where bear still roam. Occasionally a log hunting lodge is visible through the trees. The few farms are fenced with barbed-wire to keep out deer.

BUBBLING SPRING, 18.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.