“a seaport far from the sea”

In his fantastical tale, Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving told of how the ghosts of Captain Henry Hudson and his crew appeared once every twenty years in the Catskill mountains, across the river from here. According to the story, the Captain could then "...keep a guardian eye on the river and the great city called by his name."
What is known from actual history is that in 1609, Henry Hudson, an English explorer sailing under the flag of the Dutch East India Company, passed this point of land while searching for a northwest sea route to Asia. He could not have imagined that this great river would someday bear his name, or that in 1785, a group of American whalers and merchantmen from Nantucket and other Atlantic ports would sail to this very place to establish for themselves a new and more secure port, 120 miles from the sea. They would name their new home the City of Hudson, in honor of that fellow mariner whose seminal voyage of discovery had redrawn the world's trade routes forevermore. Hudson became one of the new nation's fastest growing cities, quickly rivaling New York City as a bustling seaport, but it would miss being named the permanent capital of New York by just one vote.
This park was dedicated during the City of Hudson Namesake Celebration, July, 2009 as part of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain



Quadricentennial Commemoration
Henry Hudson Riverfront Park signage is a gift of A. Colarusso & Son, Inc.

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