Winter on the Hudson River

This piece draws from Benson John Lossing's 1866 classic The Hudson, from the Wilderness to the Sea, documenting a strikingly different winter landscape along the Hudson River compared to modern times.

Lossing describes arriving at Peek's Kill Bay on a cold moonlit evening, where "the river presented a smooth surface of strong ice" and young skaters glided across the frozen expanse. The following morning brought crowds of all ages enjoying winter sports—skating, ice-boating, and sledding—on the solidified waterway.

The ice-boats particularly captured Lossing's imagination: triangular wooden platforms mounted on three sled-runners with skate-iron bottoms, equipped with sails and rigging similar to conventional sailboats. Passengers sat flat on the platform and could travel at impressive speeds.

Beyond recreation, winter fishing flourished along the frozen river. Fishermen cut fissures in the ice and deployed nets to catch striped bass, white perch, and sturgeon. These winter fisheries extended approximately twenty-five miles, from the Donder Berg to Piermont.

Lossing emphasizes how winter transformed the Hudson from a dividing summer waterway into "a medium for pleasant intercourse" between separated counties, with "skaters, ice-boats, and sleighs" traversing its surface safely during those "short and dreary days of winter."