Town of Hunter Tidbits: Platte Cove and Elka Park

This article is about the two neighboring hamlets, Platte Clove and Elka Park. I was fortunate to have lived at the Forest Inn in Elka Park, spending time exploring the outdoors.

This tidbit is from a 1914 news article. It gives a perfect description of the area. “While perhaps not so well known as the larger villages closer to the railroad, there is not a part of the Catskills more beautiful than the region lying between Elka Park on the west and West Saugerties on the east, embracing the canyon known as the Platterkill Clove, or, as it is known today, the Grand Canyon, the most beautiful of the canyons in the Catskills.”

An earlier 1906 tidbit told how two automobile parties had a destination of Platte Clove. One car owned by Perry and Guy Loomis took their car from Kingston to Platte Clove. In the heavy rain, they went to Phoenicia and through the Stony Clove, to Tannersville, and finally Platte Clove. The trip was a long and dangerous one, but successful.

It explained, “Still more dangerous is the ascent through the Kaaterskill or Palenville Clove. Few automobiles have made that ascent since motoring became popular.”

The other car owned by David and Louis Kaplin, and chauffeur, started from Catskill, also in the rain. They planned to go through the Palenville Clove and into Platte Clove. Their machine was large, and the mountain was steep and muddy. The car frequently slipped backward, and they thought of giving up. They struggled but finally arrived at the top of the mountain, soaking wet but happy. From Haines Falls, it was an easy trip to Platte Clove.

Another Platte Clove tidbit from a 1951 paper: Notice is given that a Liquor License has been issued to John J. Byrne Jr, d/b as Byrne’s Tavern. The address was written as Platte Clove, Elka Park, New York. For many years Jackie Byrne’s was the place to eat.

That same 1951 paper explained that the famous Plattekill Mountain road with its numerous turns and treacherous grades, figured prominently in newspapers twenty-six years ago when Cannon Ball Baker, chief test pilot for the Rickenbacker motor car company, was a guest of a Kingston garage proprietor. On that occasion, he offered to demonstrate his ability with his car in and up and down test.

“From the bottom of the Platte Clove Mountain Road to the top, the distance is 2.2 miles. The elevation is 1,900 feet, making an average grade of 15.4 %. In this distance there were at the time 19 turns and 96 water brakes. Baker’s record was carefully checked. His average speed up the grade for the 2.2 miles was 33.6 miles an hour. On the trip down the grade, his time was 3 minutes 39 1/5 seconds, an average of 39.1 miles per hour.

The narrow, winding Platte Clove road at that time was regarded locally as the most dangerous road in the mountains. Rising from West Saugerties, the road skirts the deep Platte Clove ravine, winding up along the mountainside, where in places, there is a sheer drop of hundreds of feet to the ravine below. Driving up the mountain, Baker demonstrated the acceleration of his Rickenbacker Six by approaching a couple turns at 80 miles per hour, the newspapers said, and then he demonstrated the four-wheel brakes of his car by rapidly reducing speed. His time down the mountain was even better.

There is reason to believe that his record of 3:39 1-5 minutes for the trip down still stands.” (Hopefully never to be challenged!)

A 1920 tidbit: The New York City Board of Water Supply has begun the work of putting an incinerator on the Platte Clove Road. It will be put on the parcel of land leased by the Tannersville Village Board for a garbage disposal plant. It is a one-year lease with the option to buy. (Later information wasn’t found)

Any comments, or concerns please contact: Hunterhistorian@gmail.com, or call 518-589-4130.