"The Shawangunk Mountains -- The Gunks -- are renowned for stunning landscapes on and off the ridge in a region that has remained a favorite destination for visitors since the middle of the nineteenth century. While the mountain elevations are not high -- nowhere exceeding 2,240 feet -- they present rugged topography with glistening grey-white escarpments, jumbled boulders at the base of cliffs, deep crevices, as well as precipitation-fed "sky lakes."...

"When the Borden family arrived in the nineteenthcentury, educational opportunities in Ulster County were limited; classes rarelyextended beyond the eighth grade. This changed when the philanthropic Bordensestablished their Borden Condensed Milk Companyand gave Wallkill the means to construct one of the area’s first high schools. In1938, Central School District No. 1—incorporating the towns of Shawangunk,Plattekill, Gardiner, Marlborough, Newburgh...