Stockport Flats - Hudson River Reserve, NY

Cultural History

Native Americans inhabited the Hudson River Estuary corridor, some more than 5,000 years ago. Several archaeological sites have been scientifically excavated and documented across the river from Stockport, but none on the site itself. Because Nutten Hook is a bedrock promontory, this site may well have had archaeological significance. In the early 19th century the area's primary industries were transportation (rail and ship) and agriculture (crops and milling.) Brick manufacturing and ice houses were important industries of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The upper Hudson was the center of the ice industry during the last half of the 19th century. Nutten Hook was the site of the R&W Ice Company (c. 1885), which was one of the largest independently-owned ice houses on the Hudson River, now on the National Register of Historic Places. With portions of the foundations and the powerhouse chimney remaining, this site is the most intact ad interpretable ruin associated with the ice industry on the Hudson River.