Niagara Frontier

Niagara Frontier refers to the stretch of land south of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and extending westward to Cleveland, Ohio. The term dates to the War of 1812. This only includes the land east of the Niagara River and south of Lake Erie within the United States. The western side of the Niagara River on the Canadian/Ontario side is the Niagara Peninsula and is considered part of the Golden Horseshoe.

The Niagara Frontier is most commonly referred to as the land bordering the eastern Niagara River and southern shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and is part of the region known as Western New York State. The portion of Ontario just across the Niagara River is known as the Niagara Peninsula. The Niagara Frontier also forms the eastern part of the Great Lakes North Coast, while its southeastern boundary forms what is known as ski country.

The National Weather Service office in Buffalo, New York currently defines the Niagara Frontier as the following:

Erie County, New York north of US 20A - includes Buffalo, New York

Niagara County, New York - includes Niagara Falls, New York

Orleans County, New York

Genesee County, New York - includes Batavia, New York

Other, less common, definitions may also include the following areas:

Erie County, NY south of US 20A (also known as the Buffalo Southtowns)

Chautauqua County, New York (particularly the area that is part of the Lake Erie watershed, north and west of the Chautauqua Ridge. This is in contrast to the southeastern part of the county, in the Conewango Creek watershed, which is NOT part of the Niagara Frontier and is instead part of the adjacent Southern Tier to the east)

Erie County, Pennsylvania - includes Erie, Pennsylvania

Ashtabula County, Ohio

Lake County, Ohio

Cuyahoga County, Ohio - includes Cleveland, Ohio

Finger Lakes

Finger Lakes are a pattern of lakes in the west-central section of Upstate New York in the United States and are a popular tourist destination. The lakes are linear in shape, each lake oriented on a north-south axis. The two longest, Cayuga Lake and Seneca Lake, are among the deepest in America. Both are close to 40 miles (64 km) from end to end, and never more than 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide. Cayuga is the longest (38.1 miles, 61 km) and Seneca the largest in total area. Seneca is the deepest (618 feet, 188 m), followed by Cayuga (435 feet, 133 m), with their bottoms well below sea level. These largest lakes resemble the others in shape, which collectively reminded early map-makers of the fingers of a hand. Oneida Lake is generally not considered one of the Finger Lakes, but it is sometimes called the "thumb".

The Finger Lakes region is a central part of the Iroquois homeland. The Iroquois tribes include the Seneca and Cayuga tribes, for which the two largest Finger Lakes are named. The Tuscarora tribe lived in the Finger Lakes region as well, from ca. 1720. The Onondaga and Oneida tribes lived at the eastern edge of the region, closer to their namesake lakes, Lake Oneida and Onondaga Lake. The easternmost Iroquois tribe were the Mohawk. During colonial times, many other tribes moved to the Finger Lakes region, seeking the protection of the Iroquois. For example, in 1753 remnants of several Virginia Siouan tribes, collectively called the Tutelo-Saponi, moved to the town of Coreorgonel at the south end of Cayuga Lake near present-day Ithaca, until 1779 when their village was destroyed. Major Iroquois towns in the Finger Lakes region included the Seneca town of Gen-nis-he-yo (present-day Geneseo), Kanadaseaga (Seneca Castle, near present-day Geneva), Goiogouen (Cayuga Castle, east of Cayuga Lake), Chonodote (Cayuga town, present-day Aurora), and Catherine's Town (near present-day Watkins Glen).

As one of the most powerful Indian nations during colonial times, the Iroquois were able to prevent European colonization of the Finger Lakes region for nearly two centuries after first contact. By the late 18th century Iroquois power had weakened, relative to the European-Americans, and internal strife eroded the political unity of the Iroquois Confederacy. During the American Revolutionary War some of the Iroquois sided with the British and some with the Americans, resulting in civil war among the Iroquois. In the late 1770s, British-allied Iroquois attacked various American frontier settlements, prompting counter-attacks, culminating in the Sullivan Expedition of 1779, which destroyed most of the Iroquois towns and effectively broke Iroquois power.

After the Revolutionary War, the Iroquois and other Indians of the region were assigned reservations. Most of their land, including the Finger Lakes region, was opened up to purchase and settlement.

Roughly the western half of the Finger Lakes region comprised the Phelps and Gorham Purchase of 1790. The region was rapidly settled at the turn of the nineteenth century, largely by a westward migration from New England, but to a lesser degree by northward influx from Pennsylvania. The regional architecture reflects these area traditions of the Federal and Greek Revival periods.

The Finger Lakes region, together with the Genesee Country of Western New York, has been referred to as the Burned-Over District, where, in the 19th century, the Second Great Awakening was a revival of Christianity, and some new religions were also formed. The region was active in reform and utopian movements. Many Underground Railroad sites have been documented. The Harriet Tubman Home at Auburn recalls the life and work of the African-American "Moses of her people."

On the northern end of the Finger Lakes are also Seneca Falls, the birthplace of the Women's suffrage movement; Waterloo, the birthplace of Memorial Day; and Palmyra, the birthplace of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). An annual outdoor drama, The Hill Cumorah Pageant, produced by the Mormons, draws thousands of visitors each year.

Hammondsport was the home of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss, and the favorable air currents make the area a popular spot for glider pilots. Elmira, just to the south, was the home of Mark Twain in his later life, and the site of an infamous Civil War prison. Corning is most noted as the home of Corning Glass Works and the Corning Museum of Glass. Hornell, just southwest of the Finger Lakes was a major railroad center. Locomotives were repaired there until recently. Conesus, New York remains the home of the oldest producer of pure grape sacramental wine in the Western hemisphere.

The eleven Finger Lakes from east to west are: Otisco Lake • Skaneateles Lake • Owasco Lake • Cayuga Lake • Seneca Lake • Keuka Lake • Canandaigua Lake • Honeoye Lake • Canadice Lake • Hemlock Lake • Conesus Lake

Cazenovia Lake to the east, although smaller, is sometimes called "the twelfth Finger Lake," because it is similar in shape, located in Appalachian hill terrain, with a historic village linked to other Finger Lakes by US 20. It may have been formed in the same manner as the Finger Lakes, as satellite photos show three valleys similar in character and spacing to the Finger Lakes east of Otisco Lake. The first is the Tully Valley, which includes a chain of small lakes at the south end that could be a "Finger Lake" that never formed because of a terminal moraine. The moraine caused the Tioughnioga River to flow south instead of north, the opposite of the other waters of the Finger Lakes. The next two valleys to the east contain Butternut Creek, which flows north, and the East Branch of the Tioughnioga River, which flows south. The next valley contains Limestone Creek, which flows north. The next valley after that contains Cazenovia Lake.

Oneida Lake, to the northeast of Syracuse, New York, is sometimes included as the "thumb," although it is shallow and somewhat different in character from the rest. Onondaga Lake, though located just north of the Finger Lakes region, is not considered one of the Finger Lakes. As with Oneida and Cazenovia Lakes, it drains into Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

Conesus, Hemlock, Canadice, Honeoye, and Otisco are considered the minor Finger Lakes. Other, smaller lakes, including Silver, Waneta, and Lamoka lakes, dot this region. However, Waneta and Lamoka lakes are part of the Susquehanna River watershed as they drain into a tributary of the Chemung River. East of Oneida and Cazenovia Lakes are the headwaters of the Susquehanna River and Hudson River watersheds (the former in the foothills of the Catskills, the latter through the Mohawk Valley and southern Adirondacks).

The 2,000-acre (8 km2) muckland of a valley located in Potter, New York, which is part of Torrey Farms, is considered to be almost a twelfth Finger Lake, as the waterline is just below the surface. It used to be a swamp.

The area is also known for education, with the largest institution being Cornell University in Ithaca, the state land grant institution. Its alma mater begins "Far Above Cayuga's Waters", because it is on the hills overlooking the city of Ithaca and the southern end of Cayuga Lake. Elmira College, founded in 1855 in Elmira, has the distinction of being the first exclusively women's college to grant degrees equal to men in the country and is the final home of Mark Twain's study where he created his most famous characters: Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. There are several other private colleges in the area. They include Ithaca College in Ithaca, Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, Wells College in Aurora, also on Cayuga Lake, Keuka College in Penn Yan, and New York Chiropractic College in Seneca Falls. There are also four community colleges: Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua; Cayuga Community College in Auburn; Corning Community College in Corning; and Tompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden. There are also four statutory colleges at Cornell. These include: New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (which includes the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva), the New York State College of Human Ecology, the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine, and the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

The Finger Lakes region is also home to a number of museums. These include the Corning Museum of Glass, the Strong National Museum of Play, Glenn H. Curtiss Museum, Wings of Eagles Discovery Center, Museum of the Earth, National Soaring Museum the Rockwell Museum of Western Art, the Genesee Country Museum in Mumford and the Samuel Warren Homestead of the York Historical Society, birthplace of NYS' first successful commercial winery. The Women's Rights National Historic Park is located in Seneca Falls. The park includes the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Wesleyan Chapel where she held the first convention on women's rights in 1848.

Thousand Islands

Thousand Islands is the name of an archipelago of islands that straddle the Canada-U.S. border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for about 50 miles (80 km) downstream from Kingston, Ontario. The Canadian islands are in the province of Ontario, the U.S. islands in the state of New York. The islands, which number 1,793 in all, range in size from over 40 square miles (100 km2) to smaller islands occupied by a single residence, to even smaller uninhabited outcroppings of rocks that are home to migratory waterfowl. The number of islands was determined using the criteria that any island must be above water level all year round, have an area greater than 1 square foot (0.093 m2), and support at least one living tree.

Popular boating, fishing and vacationing locations

One of the few beaches in the Thousand Islands, Potter's Beach on the American Grindstone Island has a fine, shallow sandy bottom with a very gradual slope, perfect for boaters that want to stretch their legs or socialize.

A popular location for swimming or anchoring out of the wind, the Lake of the Isles is a secluded area cut off from the rest of the St. Lawrence River by Wellesley Island and neighboring Canadian Hill Island. Access is limited through two narrow passages.

Known for its fishing, Eel Bay is a shallow bay just southwest of Wellesley Island. From the air, the bay can resemble the Caribbean with a turquoise-tinted crystal clear water and sandy bottoms.

Boldt Castle, a testament of one man's love of his wife, has been under renovation by its owner, the Thousand Islands Bridge Authority since 1977, and can be visited by boat or tour cruise. This 120-room mansion and surrounding grounds are available for touring, and is also available for wedding ceremonies.

The Antique Boat Museum in Clayton houses exhibits antique wooden boats used or built in the region. The museum also features exhibits on the region's maritime culture and is home to the LaDuchess, George Boldt's luxury houseboat.

Though not as famous as George Boldt's Castle, Singer Castle on Dark Island is privately renovated and is open to tourists. Frederick Bourne had his castle constructed with secret passageways so that he could spy on his guests.

Curiosities

In the Saint Lawrence River, about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Alexandria Bay, there is an island called Deer Island that is owned by the secret society of Skull and Bones.

There is a pair of islands near Rockport called the Zavikon Island. A popular but incorrect tale among the local tourist guides is that the bigger island is in Canada, while the smaller one is in the USA, and the foot bridge between them is the shortest international bridge in the world. The Zavikon Island is located in the Canadian territory and belongs to the Leeds and Grenville municipal unit.

There is only one artificial island in the entire region, Longue Vue Island.

Thousand Island dressing was named for the chain of islands by the actress who popularised the dressing, May Irwin, stating that she thought the dressing looked like the thousand islands region in regards to the islands as being the chopped vegetables.

History

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many distinguished visitors made the region widely known as a summer resort. Several grand hotels provided luxurious accommodations while steamboats offered extensive tours among the islands. Wealthy and middle-class summer residents built summer homes. Some masonry "castles" remain as international landmarks. The most famous extant examples are "The Towers" on Dark Island, now called Singer Castle, and the long-neglected Boldt Castle on Heart Island, which is slowly being restored.

During the half century (1874–1912) of the resort's greatest prominence, most wealthy vacationers came from New York City, joined by prominent families from Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and other cities of the United States and Canada. The region retains a historically important collection of vacation homes from this time. The Thousand Islands have long been a center for recreational boating. Large steam yachts, many designed by Nathanael Herreshoff required distinctive yacht houses. The region was known also for innovative power boating during this period. Three local yacht clubs hosted the Gold Cup Races of the American Power Boat Association for nine consecutive years. The Antique Boat Museum of Clayton retains one of the world's major collections of recreational freshwater boats.

Central New York Region

Central New York Region, Central-Leatherstocking Region, also known as Leatherstocking Country) is a term used by the New York State Department of Economic Development to broadly describe the central region of New York State for tourism purposes. The region roughly corresponds to the upper Susquehanna and Mohawk Valleys. It is one of two partially overlapping regions that identifies as Central New York, the other being the Syracuse metropolitan area.

Geography

The region includes the following counties and cities:

Broome County – Binghamton

Chenango County – Norwich

Herkimer County – Little Falls

Madison County – Oneida

Montgomery County – Amsterdam

Oneida County – Utica, Rome, Sherrill (smallest city in New York)

Otsego County – Oneonta, Cooperstown

Schoharie County – Cobleskill

The region has a population of 764,240, according to the 2000 Census.

Travel & Tourism

The Central region of New York (formerly Central Leatherstocking Region) is a tourism region in New York State defined by the New York State Division of Tourism (I Love NY). It borrows aspects from all of the surrounding regions to create a microcosm of New York as a whole: hills and rivers, cities and farms, hard work and recreation.

The eight-county area is known for its fresh produce and homemade goods from numerous family-run farms and farm stands, an abundance of B&Bs, country houses and inns offering overnight accommodations and culinary experiences, live musical and theatrical performances at various venues, year-round festivals, museums and exhibits touting cultural heritage and ancestry, and trailblazing opportunities throughout its many forests and lakeside areas.

Adirondack Mountains

Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties.

The mountains are often included by geographers in the Appalachian Mountains, but they bear a greater geological similarity to the Laurentian Mountains of Canada. They are bordered on the east by Lake Champlain and Lake George, which separate them from the Green Mountains in Vermont. They are bordered to the south by the Mohawk Valley, and to the west by the Tug Hill Plateau, separated by the Black River. This region is south of the Saint Lawrence River.

Mountains

The Adirondacks do not form a connected range such as the Rocky Mountains of the Western United States. They are instead an eroded dome consisting of many peaks, either isolated or in groups, often with little apparent order. There are over one hundred summits, ranging from under 1200 to over 5000 feet (370 m to 1500 m) in altitude; the highest peak, Mount Marcy, at 5344 ft (1629 m), is near the eastern part of the group.

Other noted High Peaks include:

Algonquin Peak; 5114 ft (1559 m).

Haystack; 4960 ft (1512 m).

Skylight; 4926 ft (1501 m).

Whiteface; 4867 ft (1483 m).

Dix; 4857 ft (1480 m).

Giant; 4627 ft (1410 m).

High peaks

Forty-six of the tallest mountains are considered "The 46" Adirondack High Peaks — those over 4,000 feet (1,200 m), that were climbed by brothers Robert and George Marshall between 1918 and 1924. Since that time, better surveys have shown that four of these peaks (Blake Peak, Cliff Mountain, Nye Mountain, and Couchsachraga Peak) are in fact just under 4,000 ft (1,200 m). One peak just over 4,000 feet (1,200 m) (MacNaughton Mountain) was overlooked.

Some hikers who enjoy the Adirondack Mountains make an effort to climb all of the original 46 peaks (many go on to climb MacNaughton as well), and there is a Forty Sixers club for those who have successfully reached each of these summits. Twenty of the 46 mountains remain trailless, so climbing them requires bushwhacking or following game trails to the top.

Climbing is also very popular in areas throughout Keene Valley, NY, including a site called Bark Eater. The word 'Adirondack' is a Native American expression applied to the Algonquians by the Iroquois, who intended it as a derogatory name meaning 'the ones who eat bark'.

Ecology

The Adirondack Mountains form the southernmost part of the Eastern forest-boreal transition ecoregion. They are heavily forested, and contain the southermost distribution of the boreal forest, or taiga, in North America. The forests of the Adirondacks include spruce, pine and broad-leafed trees. Lumbering, once an important industry, has been much restricted since the establishment of the State Park in 1892.

Approximately 260 species of birds have been recorded, of which over 170 breed here. Because of its unique boreal forest habitat, the park has many breeding birds not found in most areas of New York and other mid-Atlantic states, such as boreal chickadees, gray jays, Bicknell's thrushes, spruce grouse, Philadelphia vireos, rusty blackbirds, American Three-toed Woodpeckers, black-backed woodpeckers, ruby-crowned kinglets, bay-breasted warblers, mourning warblers, common loons and the crossbills.

Catskill Mountains

Catskill Mountains, an area in New York State northwest of New York City and southwest of Albany, are a mature dissected plateau, an uplifted region that was subsequently eroded into sharp relief. They are an eastward continuation, and the highest representation, of the Allegheny Plateau. They are sometimes considered an extension of the Appalachian Mountains into Upstate New York, although they are not geologically related. The Catskills are west of the Hudson River and lie within the bounds of six counties (Otsego, Delaware, Sullivan, Schoharie, Greene, and Ulster). The Catskill Mountains are also considered a physiographic section of the larger Appalachian Plateau province, which in turn is part of the larger Appalachian physiographic division. The mountains lie within the Allegheny Highlands forests ecoregion.

Catskills are famous in American cultural history for being the site of the so-called Borscht Belt, a Jewish resort area where many young Jewish stand-up comics got their start.

The Catskill mountains and their inhabitants play an important role in the stories My Side of the Mountain and its sequels by Jean Craighead George and in H. P. Lovecraft's "The Lurking Fear" & "Beyond the Wall of Sleep".

The town of Palenville located in the Catskills figures in Washington Irving's story as the home of "Rip Van Winkle".

The Catskills are mentioned in The Band's song "Time to Kill." The Band was also photographed there for their first album, Music from Big Pink The Band in the Catskills.

The Catskills are also mentioned in Beck's song "High Five (Rock the Catskills)" on his 1996 album Odelay.

Mercury Rev's song "Opus 40" on their 1998 album Deserter's Songs contains the line "Catskill mansions buried dreams/ I'm alive she cried but I don't know what it means". The band and their studios are based in the Catskills, and the area is often referred to in interview.

The Catskills are mentioned as well in Pela's song "Rooftops (Moth Song Outro)" on their 2007 album Anytown Graffiti.

Much of the present-day (as of publication) action of Art Spiegelman's award-winning graphic novel Maus is set in the Catskills.

Kid Rock Mentions The Catskills In His Song 'Low Life'

The Catskills is the setting for much of the King of Queens episode "Paint Misbehavin'."

Referenced in John Green's Paper Towns.

A Home Box Office miniseries is planned that will dramatize the a New York magazine article on natural gas drillers coming to the region. Richard Russo, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is writing a script for the project.

Catskills Mountains is also referred to in the introductory monologue of the 1977 movie Annie Hall, directed by Woody Allen. The line, spoken by movie's main character Alvy Singer, goes like this: "There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, 'Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.' The other one says, 'Yeah, I know; and such small portions.' Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly."

The town of Bethel, New York, located in the Catskills was home to the famous Woodstock Music festival in 1969

The 1973 novel Nickel Mountain: A Pastoral Novel by John Gardner takes place in the Catskill Mountains.

===Films set, or filmed in, the Catskills===F)U: 

The Tears of Julian Po (1997) Christian Slater - filmed in FleischmannsC

99 Geiger Road  2007 - Documentary abouKt a bungalow colony of Holocaust survivors

The Cake Eaters (2007)

Casper Meets Wendy (1995) Wendy and her aunts run into Casper and his uncles at a resort in the Catskills.

The Catskill Chainsaw Redemption (2004) A horror movie.

The hit 1987 film Dirty Dancing was set in a Catskills resort in the summer of 1963 (though filmed at Mountain Lake in Virginia and at Lake Lure in North Carolina.)

Four Seasons Documentary (2006 - in production) Follows the lives of Holocaust survivors in a Borscht Belt colony

The Gig (1985) Director: Frank D. Gilroy, character study, amateur musicians get a gig.

Goyband (2008) Dirty Dancing meets My Big Fat Greek Wedding with a touch of Fiddler on the Roof.

Having Wonderful Time (1938) Red Skelton's first movie, set in a Catskills hotel.

Heavy (1995) An independent film starring Liv Tyler, Debbie Harry, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Shelley Winters, and Joe Grifasi was filmed partially in the southern Catskills in Barryville and Highland Lake.

Kaaterskill Falls (2001) Award-winning independent film about a young urban couple befriending a local hitchhiker. Mountain country version of Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water. (Actually filmed in the Catskills.)

Manny & Lo (1996)

Rip Van Winkle (1921) Silent film version of the classic story

Stagedoor (2006) Documentary on life at a teen camp

Sweet Lorraine (1987) story of an aging Catskill resort in its last days, filmed at the former Heiden Hotel in South Fallsburg.

Taking Woodstock (2009) -- The story of how Elliot Tiber helped bring the Woodstock Festival to Bethel, New York.

Magic, the 1978 film starring Anthony Hopkins is set in the Catskills.

Tootsie (1982) - Features scenes in the "Hurley Mountain Inn" located in Ulster County.

Parts of the movie Transamerica (2005) starring Felicity Huffman were filmed in Callicoon though in the movie it's referred to as Callicoon, Kentucky.

A Walk on the Moon (1999) Set in Sullivan County, but filmed in Quebec, Canada.

Part of the movie War of the Worlds was filmed in Athens at the foot of the Catskills (the burning train and ferry scene)

WaterFall in the Catskills (1897, the Edison Studio)

Wendigo (2001) Filmed in West Shokan and Phoenicia area.Starred Maureen Stapleton.

Woodstock, a 1970 documentary about the Woodstock Festival of 1969, was filmed at the festival in Bethel.

You Can Count on Me (2000) Award-winning independent film set in the village of Scottsville, in western New York near Rochester, but filmed in the Catskills, in and around Margaretville and Phoenicia.

Hudson Valley

Hudson Valley refers to the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York state, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy. An important European settlement in the northeastern United States and a strategic battleground in colonial wars, it now consists of suburbs of the metropolitan area of New York City at its southern end, shading into rural territory, including "exurbs," farther north.

Geographically, the Hudson Valley could refer to all areas along the Hudson River, including Bergen County, New Jersey. However, this definition is not commonly used and the Tappan Zee Bridge is often considered the southern limit of the area. Though Westchester County is often classified as part of the region, Westchester residents who live at the southern end of the county (and especially the parts closer to the Long Island Sound than the Hudson River) generally do not associate themselves with the region, unless their town includes Hudson River banks. Including all of Westchester County in the definition of the region would seem unusual to many and seems like something one might only read in a travel guide. In fact, there is a road sign on the New York State Thruway in Yonkers that suggests that the "Hudson Valley region" is located somewhere farther to the north and west along the Thruway.

Another geographical issue involves the northern extent of the Hudson Valley, and specifically, the northern half of the Hudson River, which does not flow through the valley commonly called the Hudson Valley. Although the southern half of the river flows through the center of a great glacial valley which extends from Lake Champlain to New York City, the northern half of the river runs through the Adirondack Mountains. The great glacial valley continues, apart from the Hudson, farther north, where it is known as the Champlain Valley. Thus, the great glacial valley is known as the Champlain Valley in its northern extent, and the Hudson Valley in its southern, changing names at a point slightly north of Albany. The exact spot can possibly be pinpointed at Fort Edward, which is where the Champlain Canal leaves the Hudson River and goes on its own to Lake Champlain. In common usage, however, the city of Troy appears to be the northernmost point of the Hudson Valley, as that city contains the first lock on the Hudson, keeping deep-water ships from navigating farther north. In fact, the Hudson Valley and Champlain Valley are only two parts of the much greater Great Appalachian Valley.

The Hudson Valley Renegades is a minor league baseball team affiliated with the Tampa Bay Rays. The team is a member of the New York - Penn League and plays at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill.

The Hudson Valley Rebels are the Hudson Valley's Premiere Rugby union club. The Hudson Valley Rebels are members of the Metropolitan New York Rugby Football Union and were established in 2001. Their home pitch is Beacon Memorial Park, in Beacon.

The Hudson Valley Hawks are a team in the newly formed National Professional Basketball League. The team's home court is at Beacon High School, in Beacon.

The Hudson Valley Highlanders of the North American Football League play their home games at Dietz Stadium in Kingston.

The Hudson Valley Horrors are the region's first non-urban flat track women's roller derby team and are part of the grass-roots derby revival. They currently practice and host bouts at Hyde Park Roller Magic in Hyde Park.

The Hudson Valley Hoopers are the region's premiere hoop troop. Hoop Dancers, or "Hoopers", are people who perform tricks and dances with various size hand made hula hoops.

Hudson Valley Fourth and Fireworks

Mamaroneck: Catch one of the county's splashiest fireworks shows at Harbor Island Park, on the waterfront in Mamaroneck. Dusk, July 4; rain date July 5. Boston Post Road, at Mamaroneck Avenue. 914-777-7763, www.village.mamaroneck.ny.us.

New Rochelle: "Spark the Sound" fireworks and music at Five Islands Park. Starts at 9 p.m. Fireworks are visible from all the waterfront parks.

Pearl River: Independence Day celebration takes place July 4. Children's activities and rides during the day. Music by the Rockland County Concert Band at 7 p.m., fireworks about 9:30 p.m. Rain date July 5. Central Avenue Field.

Peekskill: The Peekskill Fire Department hosts a full night of fun activities, music and fireworks. 7 p.m. Food vendors will be onsite, too, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Bring your own blankets and chairs. Located at Riverfront Green Park, Route 9 and Hudson Avenue.

Port Chester is known for a vibrant restaurant scene that regularly draws visitors from near and far. But it also hosts one of the most impressive fireworks displays throughout the Hudson Valley. Join this longtime family tradition by coming to Ryan Stadium at Port Chester High School, 1 Tamarack Rd., on July 4, well in time for a 9 p.m. fireworks by the famed Grucci family. The only other local display by the “first family of fireworks” this year will be at Spark the Sound in New Rochelle, which is rain or shine at 9:30 p.m. on the July 4 on the city’s waterfront. New Rochelle suggests the best views can be found at either Hudson and Five Islands Parks or among its waterfront restaurants. The Grucci tradition dates back to 1850 in Bari, Italy, and they count among their clients the Sultanate of Dubai and ABC’s The Bachelor.

SAIL AWAY

The picturesque village of Cold Spring in Putnam County offers an impressive family friendly fireworks display right on the Hudson River, regularly drawing thousands to its Dockside Park, and features a maritime visitor that elevates it above your average flash-boom pyrotechnics. Once settled you’ll find fantastic Hudson River views, face-painting, music and food. The Sloop Clearwater docks at the park for two days this year, which is a great treat for kids and boating enthusiasts. The 106-foot wood replica of an old Dutch sailing sloop — which doubles as a floating clean water classroom — will return this year with free deck tours from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and paid public sails from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on both July 3 and 4. Fees are $50 for adults, $35 for members and $15 for children 12 and under. Reserve spots online here. (The Clearwater will also dock in Beacon on July 2 with free deck tours from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. and paid public sails from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.) If you arrive early in Cold Spring, on-street parking can be found just a 5- to 10-minute walk from the riverfront taking you past some of the best preserved 19th century structures among all the Rivertowns. There is also a Metro-North stop just steps away from the water. Fireworks start at 9:15 p.m.