![Revisiting Leary’s Millbrook](https://lakevillejournal.com/media-library/the-gatehouse-that-visitors-to-the-hitchcock-estate-located-at-route-44-and-franklin-avenue-millbrook-and-leased-by-timothy-le.jpg?id=51246328&width=1200&height=675)
The gatehouse that visitors to the Hitchcock Estate, located at Route 44 and Franklin Avenue, Millbrook and leased by Timothy Leary, passed as they entered the realm of psychedelic possibilities.
Judith O'Hare Balfe
The gatehouse that visitors to the Hitchcock Estate, located at Route 44 and Franklin Avenue, Millbrook and leased by Timothy Leary, passed as they entered the realm of psychedelic possibilities.
When author Tonia Shoumatoff attended a Millbrook Historical Society (MHS) presentation May 16, 2019, about psychedelic guru Timothy Leary, it made a big impression on her.
In fact, as she related at another MHS presentation Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, she told the audience that the presentation — made by New York State Historian Devon Lander about the life and times of Millbrook in the Timothy Leary era — inspired the second part of her latest book, “Historic Tales of the Hudson Valley: Life at the End of the Line,” which came out in July 2023.
Shoumatoff told the by now well-known story: Leary had started on the Psilocybin Project while at Harvard University, researching the use of psychedelic drugs and their potential for use in the treatment of mental health issues. Through meetings with different people, and some haphazard events, the Project devolved from there, into something not that scientific and not widely regarded as serious research.
But was Millbrook an odd choice for Leary? No, said Shoumatoff. This area has been a home, a birthplace, for many innovative projects, she said, naming some of the many religious orders that found homes here, such as the Millerites, the Shakers and the Quakers.
Perhaps the beautiful landscape lends itself to solitude, or that the closeness to nature fosters a closeness to prayer. Whatever the reason, Dutchess County, in particular its northeastern corner, has attracted, many peculiar utopian and religious groups.
She read an excerpt from her book:
“A Victorian utopian community claiming to see fairies settled in Wassaic, attracting Japanese samurai and remaking the townscape of Amenia. An early version of the “Borscht Belt” began on the shores of Lake Amenia, where a once-thriving resort community vanished along with the lake itself.
Amidst a crisis of dwindling membership, the NAACP was brought together at major conferences held at Amenia’s Troutbeck estate, then owned by Joel Spingarn, the organization’s first Jewish president. Young graduates from the Rhode Island School of design and other art schools launched the Wassaic Project, a festival and art residency using a converted agricultural grain elevator as their venue.”
Leary and fellow Harvard professor Richard Alpert started the Psilocybin Project in 1960, but by 1962, the project had gotten bad reviews from others at Harvard; Alpert was accused of having given psilocybin to an undergraduate, and both were fired from the university.
In 1963, the Hitchcock brothers invited Leary to rent the estate, consisting of 2,300 acres, for $1 per year, and he lived and entertained there for the next five years. The estate is at Route 44 and Franklin Avenue, and the impressive gate house is still there.
They entertained an assortment of hirsute celebrities such as Allen Ginsberg, R.D. Laing, and Charles Mingus.
Depending on who you’re talking to, the estate is remembered for its endless parties and all kinds of happenings; others say it was all research and science.
At any rate, after five years and a lot of FBI raids, Leary and his entourage left, and we can imagine that Millbrook gave a collective sigh of relief.
John Flanagan, a member of the MHS, was a young reporter at the time for The Poughkeepsie Journal. He related a story involving Leary and Rosemary Woodruff, whom Leary married at the estate in 1967:
Sent by the paper to cover the event, Flanagan was with fellow a fellow journalist when Woodruff began talking to them. Realizing that Flanagan was from The Poughkeepsie Journal, which continuously made negative comments about Leary through its editorials, she flew into a rage and insisted he be thrown out.
When Leary resisted, she said she wouldn’t get married as long as Flanagan was present. He went off to another part of the estate, the marriage was conducted, and Flanagan got his pictures and story through his friend. Because the Journal was a feed for the Associated Press, it ran in newspapers across the world. Begged Flanagan, “Just don’t use my name! I have to live in Millbrook.”
Many people still remember that time in the ’60s when Millbrook became known for its infamous inhabitant. But like all things in the past, memories soften a bit with age, and become substance for historical society presentations.
Shoumatoff was entertaining, at times funny, but still got the message across that however serene the scenery may be, there is always something interesting festering beneath the surface, and even Millbrook has some wild tales to tell.
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.