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 Yonkers NY - Eric Nelsen, Historic Interpreter of the Palisades Interstate Park, uses photographs, artifacts and film to tell the natural and human history of the Palisades cliffs.
This presentation, on Saturday, March 28, at 7 PM at Beczak Environmental Education Center, also celebrates the opening of The Palisades Revealed, a new permanent exhibition at Beczak. Admission is $5 and includes live music and refreshments.
Eric Nelsen knows the hidden crevasses and secret caves of the Palisades firsthand. As Director of the Kearney House, the two-hundred year old riverfront tavern that sits at the base of the Palisades in Alpine, New Jersey, he has led hundreds of guided walks through the cliffs. Nelson says, “The Palisades have hosted several chapters of the American story—and the ruins and remnants remain if you know where to look.”
“Viewed from across the Hudson, the Palisades seem picturesque and romantic yet barren,” Nelsen continues. “But that’s anything but the truth. Colonial and British troops marched up and down the Palisades and nineteenth-century settlers built villages at the riverfront and cliff top. Gilded Age estates once adorned the cliffs and the immense quarries once tore into the cliffs. Huge crowd of people summered here in the 1930s, while the New Deal agencies built structures during that time that are still in use.”
The Palisades’ majestic columns rim twenty-two miles of the Hudson River. The Lenape called the cliffs “We-awk-en,” meaning “rocks that look like rows of trees.” By 1908 they were home to one of the greatest amusement parks in the world. In 1983, the Palisades were designated a National Natural Landmark by the National Parks Service. These icons of the lower Hudson River have been referenced in popular culture from The Sopranos to Billy Joel.
Eric Nelsen’s presentation celebrates the opening of The Palisades Revealed, a new permanent installation at Beczak Environmental Education Center that shows the geological forces that created the Palisades cliffs. The exhibit was created by Interpretive Solutions in West Chester, PA, and funded in part by grants from Empire State Development Corporation, Hudson River Improvement Fund and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Estuary Grant.
This presentation is the third of Beczak Environmental Education Center’s yearlong Hudson Quadricentennial Lecture Series. Each one has been a sold-out event.
ABOUT BECZAK ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CENTER
Beczak Environmental Education Center is a non-profit environmental education facility that presents exhibits and programs for all ages to raise environmental awareness and to encourage informed stewardship of the Hudson River, the Saw Mill River and the Bronx River.
Located on the banks of the Hudson in the City of Yonkers, at River Mile 18, Beczak Environmental Education Center is an adaptive reuse of the former Social Club for Habirshaw Cable & Wire. Named after Joe Beczak, a Yonkers fisherman and environmentalist, this spacious interpretive center continues his legacy of helping others “learn to love your river.” Outside, the two-acre park features a welcoming riverfront lawn, an easily accessible tidal marsh and a beach used for river exploration and seining. Approximately ten feet off shore is an Estuary Monitoring System, a computerized water and weather monitoring station that posts real-time data on Beczak’s website.
Founded in 1989, Beczak has become a vital part of river communities from Staten Island to Poughkeepsie providing schools with multidisciplinary programs that are easily integrated into their educational curriculums. The Center also hosts numerous river-related public events and activities including teacher development programs, River Explorers programs for children, Lunchtime Learning for seniors, public forums and cultural and social events.
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