![The true story behind Bauer Park, the fishing pond at the town Grove in Lakeville/Salisbury](https://lakevillejournal.com/media-library/photo-submitted.jpg?id=48208664&width=980&quality=90)
Photo submitted
hidden histories
Hidden Histories is a new column that highlights little-known stories, lives and places that contribute to the richness of our community, revealing sometimes surprising aspects of our shared local heritage.
Everyone in the town of Lakeville/Salisbury knows what a gem our town Grove is, but unless you live within walking distance, you might not be acquainted with the beauty of the little park that flanks its entrance at Factory Pond, or as neighbors call it, the Fishing Pond.
Bauer Park is a green haven for heron and other wildlife, and passersby, young and old, who seek a quiet place to sit and talk or check their screens. Two cedar benches provide seating amidst all-season gardens planted and cared for by the Lakeville Conservancy. Larger gatherings, like the men’s group who meets there in good weather, require BYOC (bring your own chair.)
Bauer Park was a gift to our town in 1947 by Frederick Bauer who also donated the historic railroad station, the land surrounding it, the pond and the former railroad right of way which now serves as the access road to the Town Grove. The Lakeville station had been an important stop on the Connecticut Western Railroad route between Millerton, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn. It was key to the town’s emergence as a thriving summer resort community and provided the Holley Manufacturing Company with ready access to a national market for its pocket-knives and other wares. The station was opened in 1871 and was still operating when the Bauers moved to town. Freight service didn’t end there until 1938. Now, it’s part of both the Local Historic District and National Register of Historic Places.
Bauer not only gifted the land, pond and depot, he donated a sizable fund to maintain them in perpetuity. Funds from the Bauer Fund were used in the 1950s to fix up the old station so that it housed the Salisbury Welfare Association and Public Health Nursing office, institutions which served our town for years.
When Frederick Bauer died in 1951, the front page of The Lakeville Journal lamented the passing of a “A Noted Lakeville Citizen” known for “generosity of both time and money to many local causes as well as to countless individuals who had need of his help.” And yet, many who benefit from his good works today, have never heard of him.
Frederick Bauer was born in 1888 in Germany and came to this country with his family when he was four years old. They settled in a farming community in (of all places) Nebraska. From there, he went to Cornell University’s Agricultural School where he met his wife Ruth Rodman who was getting her masters in botany — an unusual achievement for women in those days. They married and moved to New York where Frederick became an investment banker. But farming was in his blood. In 1935, they bought Larchmeadow Farm in Lakeville to which they retired a year later and became full-time producers of local beef. Besides raising a prize-winning herd of Hereford cattle, both Bauers were active in civic organizations. Frederick became a director of Salisbury Bank and Trust and they were both on the board of Salisbury Welfare Association, now Salisbury Family Services.
Eighteen years after Bauer’s death, a special Town Meeting was held to decide whether or not to allow the park he donated to become a parking lot. According to the June 19, 1969, Lakeville Journal “the meeting proved a long and frequently emotional one.” The Selectmen were reminded that Mr. Bauer had bought and donated the park to be used for recreation and that “if the wishes of donors are disregarded, no one would give anything to the town in the future.” Mrs. Bauer confirmed her late husband’s intention and the motion to prohibit parking in Bauer Park was “voted by a fair majority.”
According to our town’s 2020 financial report, the funds Bauer donated to maintain the park, depot and surrounds has grown to over $2M. Perhaps some of it could be used to refurbish the park’s stone marker so that its engraving is once again legible: Bauer Park Given and Maintained in Memory of Frederick Bauer.
Frederick Bauer’s legacy to the town isn’t only green space. For decades, the Bauer Foundation has provided thousands of dollars in college scholarship assistance to local high school students in Regional School District One. Information on how to apply can be found at https://www.bauerfundfoundation.org.
Helen Klein Ross lives in Lakeville. Her latest novel “The Latecomers” was inspired by the old governor’s mansion that she and her husband, Donald, restored in 2011. More local history can be found on her blog, www.bringingbackholleywood.com.
Abstract art display in Wassaic for Upstate Art Weekend, July 18-21.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene from the Amenia garden tour.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else.
I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.