An appreciative thank you to John Conway, who featured Echo Hill and Mountain Grove in his recent weekly Retrospect historical column for the Sullivan County Democrat. The complete article can be read at Retrospect by clicking on “New Book on Local History…11/18/11.” An excerpt follows.
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Where “The Mill on Halfway Brook” chronicled the main occupations of the community at the time, including lumbering, timber rafting, canalling and bluestone quarrying, “Echo Hill and Mountain Grove” focuses on the tourism industry in the upper Delaware Valley. This is a fascinating subject that has received too little scrutiny over the years.
Although much overshadowed by the massive resorts and the international renown of the Borscht Belt, the tourism industry along the Delaware River has been vibrant and strong beginning in the later years of the 19th century until the present day. And much as the O&W Railway provided the impetus for the resorts that flourished along its route, advertising that “Doctors say, ‘Go to the mountains!’” the Erie Railroad was largely responsible for creating the tourism industry in the upper Delaware, promoting the region as “a sportsman’s paradise.”
—Retrospect November 18, 2011
