Treasure of Watchdog Mountain: The Story of a Mountain in the Catskills

This is the story of the struggles and survival of one mountain – and how it has been affected by those who live on and around it. Although it focuses on New York State’s Hudson Valley, the tale is applicable to many parts of the country where mountains were seen as opportunities for exploitation, where wilderness gave way to settlements. Written for children, it is also a book enjoyed by adults because of its poetic language and penetrating ideas. The fictionalized version of what happened to one mountain (fashioned after Overlook, the Catskill peak most often painted), it spans the time from its geological birth to today. It covers the first encounters between Indian and European, the beaver trade, the growth of such American industries as glassmaking, tanning, quarrying, deforestations, the emergence of the Hudson River "School," the attempts to clean up the mountain’s streams, new challenges and what plants and animals now live there. Throughout, the profile of a "watchdog" as part of the mountain is a visual statement -- as if the mountain itself offered nature and man protection from total devastation. The story about the beaver is especially touching as we learn how Indian children made pets of young beaver who played in their villages. In the chapter that begins with the question "Who can own a tree?" we learn why "Ben Sims hated trees" -- and why so many men tore them down. But trees teach Ben a moral lesson that changes him. In chapters on the fire and the flood (there were many fires and floods in these mountains) the reader can trace the path of a fire, follow the sparks and the wind that carries a blaze and watch with their imaginations as animals had their fur singed and scurried to and fro or buried themselves; or, follow the motions of a flood down eroded mountainsides and learn how certain trees offered leaf and needle carpet cover to hold the water, how otherwise it tumbles in unfettered response to the pull of the Earth's gravity. Again and again, the the author paints his beautiful word pictures of the "mountain's living coat."