Joppenbergh Mountain

Joppenbergh Mountain

Joppenbergh Mountain is a nearly 500-foot mountain in Rosendale Village, a hamlet in the town of Rosendale, in Ulster County, New York. The mountain is composed of a carbonate bedrock overlain by glacially deposited material. It was named after Rosendale’s founder, Jacob Rutsen, and mined throughout the late 19th century for dolomite that was used in the manufacture of natural cement. Extensive mining caused a large cave-in on December 19, 1899, that destroyed equipment and collapsed shafts within the mountain.

About Joppenbergh Mountain in brief

Summary Joppenbergh MountainJoppenbergh Mountain is a nearly 500-foot mountain in Rosendale Village, a hamlet in the town of Rosendale, in Ulster County, New York. The mountain is composed of a carbonate bedrock overlain by glacially deposited material. It was named after Rosendale’s founder, Jacob Rutsen, and mined throughout the late 19th century for dolomite that was used in the manufacture of natural cement. Extensive mining caused a large cave-in on December 19, 1899, that destroyed equipment and collapsed shafts within the mountain. Skiing began again in the 1960s, when a new slope was built on the mountain, and the revived competitions continued until 1971. In 2009, the Open Space Institute offered to purchase the entire 117-acre property and sell it to the town. The town board initially agreed to the deal the following month, with payment planned to come from a surplus fund. That June, however, the board found that the surplus fund had already been exhausted and could not cover the entire cost of the purchase. Ultimately, the OSI completed its purchase of JoppenBERgh in October 2011, without town money. It has also been called Jacob’s Nose, Jacob’s Mount, and, in an early 18th-century deed, Jobsenbright. The spelling of the mountain’s name has been disputed, and has been rendered as Joppenberg and JoppENburgh. The bedrock underlying the mountain is. composed of limestone and dolmite members of the Helderberg Group, laid during the Paleozoic era.

Most of the helderberg carbonates are located north of the Rondout Creek, and have given Rosendale a karst topography, resulting in sink holes, disappearing streams, caves, and springs. In some areas, the soil depth is less than 20 inches, which hinders groundwater filtration. These areas, comprising nearly 75 percent of the 117- acre property, cannot be easily developed. The highest point in the village is the 600-foot peak of the Shawangunk Ridge, a 600-year-old peak of. the Shawanunk Ridge. In 1825, engineers working on the Delaware and Hudson Canal found extensive outcrops of dolOMite in the region, which enabled the production ofnatural cement. By late December 1899, the mining had compromised the integrity of the entire mountain. The collapse happened while all the miners were outside, eating lunch, and it was initially believed that fifteen workers had been killed, though it was originally believed that it was just one person. The original slope was designed by Harold Schelderup for Rosendale’s first competition in 1937; Schelder up himself skied that July, after the slope was coated with borax for a summer competition. Several Olympic skiers participated in the competitions. In the late 1930s, several ski jumping competitions, which continued until the early 1940s.