New York State historic marker nearby Yellow Church Cemetery.

National Historic Marker Day

Date: April 28, 2023
All-day event
Location: Locations throughout the Mohawk Valley
Organizer: Little Falls Historical Society
Fulton County | Herkimer County | Montgomery County | Oneida County | Otsego County | Schoharie County

A service-oriented event intended to bring people together to help maintain their historic markers, celebrate local history, and beautify their communities.

The event is sponsored in part by the William Pomeroy Foundation.

There are approximately 172,000 historic markers in the United States.

People willing to help out with National Historic Marker Day should visit the William Pomeroy Foundation website to find more complete information.

Guided Walking Tour – Foxestown

Date: September 9, 2023
Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Covered Bridge Lane parking lot off Rte 443 Schoharie
Organizer: Turning Point 1777
Phone: 1 518-823-4307
Schoharie County

This tour at the north end of the Village of Schoharie features the Palatine settlement of Fuch’s Dorf, 18th century architecture, and the American Revolution.

Foxestown is the English version of Fuch’s Dorf, one of the seven Palatine Dorfs, or villages, settled by 1714. Mohawk & other native occupation sites, colonial trails & roads, Mann’s Tavern, Eckerson Mill, Stone Church parsonage, early churches, Old Stone Fort, 1772 Swart’s Tavern, Johnson Raid of 1780, David Williams Monument, Col. Peter Vroman House & so much more!

$10 adults, $5 ages 9-17. Approx. 2hrs/ 1.5 miles. More information at www.turningpoint1777.com or facebook.com/turningpoint1777

Guided Walking Tour – Foxestown

Date: July 29, 2023
Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Covered Bridge Lane parking lot off Rte 443 Schoharie
Organizer: Turning Point 1777
Phone: 1 518-823-4307
Schoharie County

This tour at the north end of the Village of Schoharie features the Palatine settlement of Fuch’s Dorf, 18th century architecture, and the American Revolution.

Foxestown is the English version of Fuch’s Dorf, one of the seven Palatine Dorfs, or villages, settled by 1714. Mohawk & other native occupation sites, colonial trails & roads, Mann’s Tavern, Eckerson Mill, Stone Church parsonage, early churches, Old Stone Fort, 1772 Swart’s Tavern, Johnson Raid of 1780, David Williams Monument, Col. Peter Vroman House & so much more!

$10 adults, $5 ages 9-17. Approx. 2hrs/ 1.5 miles. More information at www.turningpoint1777.com or facebook.com/turningpoint1777

Guided Walking Tour – Foxestown

Date: June 24, 2023
Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Covered Bridge Lane parking lot off Rte 443 Schoharie
Organizer: Turning Point 1777
Phone: 1 518-823-4307
Schoharie County

This tour at the north end of the Village of Schoharie features the Palatine settlement of Fuch’s Dorf, 18th century architecture, and the American Revolution.

Foxestown is the English version of Fuch’s Dorf, one of the seven Palatine Dorfs, or villages, settled by 1714. Mohawk & other native occupation sites, colonial trails & roads, Mann’s Tavern, Eckerson Mill, Stone Church parsonage, early churches, Old Stone Fort, 1772 Swart’s Tavern, Johnson Raid of 1780, David Williams Monument, Col. Peter Vroman House & so much more!

$10 adults, $5 ages 9-17. Approx. 2hrs/ 1.5 miles. More information at www.turningpoint1777.com or facebook.com/turningpoint1777

Guided Walking Tour – Foxestown

Date: May 20, 2023
Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Covered Bridge Lane parking lot off Rte 443 Schoharie
Organizer: Turning Point 1777
Phone: 1 518-823-4307
Schoharie County

This tour at the north end of the Village of Schoharie features the Palatine settlement of Fuch’s Dorf, 18th century architecture, and the American Revolution.

Foxestown is the English version of Fuch’s Dorf, one of the seven Palatine Dorfs, or villages, settled by 1714. Mohawk & other native occupation sites, colonial trails & roads, Mann’s Tavern, Eckerson Mill, Stone Church parsonage, early churches, Old Stone Fort, 1772 Swart’s Tavern, Johnson Raid of 1780, David Williams Monument, Col. Peter Vroman House & so much more!

$10 adults, $5 ages 9-17. Approx. 2hrs/ 1.5 miles. More information at www.turningpoint1777.com or facebook.com/turningpoint1777

Guided Walking Tour – Foxestown

Date: April 22, 2023
Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Covered Bridge Lane parking lot off Rte 443 Schoharie
Organizer: Turning Point 1777
Phone: 1 518-823-4307
Schoharie County

This tour at the north end of the Village of Schoharie features the Palatine settlement of Fuch’s Dorf, 18th century architecture, and the American Revolution.

Foxestown is the English version of Fuch’s Dorf, one of the seven Palatine Dorfs, or villages, settled by 1714. Mohawk & other native occupation sites, colonial trails & roads, Mann’s Tavern, Eckerson Mill, Stone Church parsonage, early churches, Old Stone Fort, 1772 Swart’s Tavern, Johnson Raid of 1780, David Williams Monument, Col. Peter Vroman House & so much more!

$10 adults, $5 ages 9-17. Approx. 2hrs/ 1.5 miles. More information at www.turningpoint1777.com or facebook.com/turningpoint1777

The Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad

Date: February 27, 2023
Time: 7:00 pm - 8:15 pm
Location: Sharon Historical Society, 129 Main St 129 Main Street Sharon Springs, NY 13459
Schoharie County

How Quilts Lead Slaves to Freedom

February 27 • 7pm • Virtual event via Zoom (Registration is free)

In celebration of Black History Month, join historical quilter, Sharon Aernecke Aitchison as she takes us on a journey on the Underground Railroad and explains how quilts were used as signals along the treacherous escape routes.

The Underground Railroad is part of a larger story of personal and cultural survival of proud African people brought to America against their will prior to 1860. America captured and enslaved about four million black Africans. Slavery came about because Americans needed workers to do the difficult labor on sprawling plantations that stretched across the South and because slave traders saw an opportunity to make a great deal of money buying and selling slaves.

According to legend, a safe house along the Underground Railroad was often indicated by a quilt hanging from a clothesline or windowsill.

These quilts were embedded with a kind of code so that by reading the shapes and motifs sewn into the design, an enslaved person on the run could know the area’s immediate dangers or even where to head next. Nimble fingers working in secret, armed with needle and thread, engaging with a visual language, doing their part for freedom.

This program is available by Zoom only but will be available for playback at a later date for those who register.

Schoharie County’s Abandoned Quarries

Date: May 7, 2023
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Location: Lasell Hall 262 Main St Schoharie NY 12157
Organizer: Old Stone Fort Museum & Schoharie County Historical Society
Phone: (518) 295-7192
December | Schoharie Colonial Heritage Association

May 7, 2023 at 2pm • Lasell Hall, Main Street, Schoharie

In a continuation of the Schoharie County Historical Society’s Spring lecture series, we will have author Dana Cudmore speaking on Schoharie County’s quarries in their heyday and what has happened to them since the downfall of their popularity. 

In the decades before concrete, there was cut stone. And in the final years of the 19th Century, Schoharie County quarries supplied millions of tons of it to help build New York.  The Brooklyn Bridge, New York’s expanding barge canal system, and other engineering marvels of the period created a huge demand for cut building stone from upstate (and elsewhere). The boom was short-lived.  There were eight limestone quarries in the Town of Cobleskill alone, six in the village The largest, near Barnerville, employed nearly 450 men to fulfill a huge contract with the City of New York, worth about $65 million today.

These are not the quarries we see today. All have been abandoned. This presentation looks at some of the largest and catalogs the others, long forgotten. A Q&A will follow.  Signed copies of Underground Empires will be available to those attending.

Christmas in Schoharie on December 3

Date: December 3, 2022
Time: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Location: Old Stone Fort Museum, 145 Fort Rd, Schoharie, NY 12157
Organizer: Old Stone Fort Museum & Schoharie County Historical Society
December | Schoharie Colonial Heritage Association

Enjoy baking all day at the Old Stone Fort Museum on December 3rd and see the bake oven in action from 10am - 3pm

Who's ready for Christmas?? This event will help you get into the holiday spirit and maybe you'll even get some Christmas shopping done! There will be a visit from Sinterklaas along with plenty baking and cooking demos.

The Old Stone Fort was built as a High Dutch (German) Reformed church in 1772. 

It was the third building erected by the congregation of the Palatine German settlement of Fuchs Dorf (Fox Town).  Builders chiseled parishioners’ names into the stones. They include many of the early families of the valley.

Through the Civil War and until 1873 it was used as a militia/National Guard armory.  Then the state turned it over to Schoharie County for preservation. In 1889, the Schoharie County Historical Society was chartered to operate a museum at the old fort and by 1899 a catalog of 2,500 items was published.

For the past 125 years, visitors have learned about the first Dutch and German settlers in the Schoharie Valley and their Indian neighbors, viewing artifacts that date back to the early 1700s — including a fire engine built before George Washington was born!  Stories of the Revolutionary War on the frontier are illustrated with muskets, swords, powder horns, and even the British cannonball that was recovered from a roof beam during renovations in the 1830s.  A double-barreled rifle attributed to legendary marksman Timothy Murphy who served here and remained after the war is a highlight.  A Civil War Sesquicentennial Exhibit was installed in 2011 recognizing the soldiers from Schoharie County that served from Fort Sumter (literally!) to Appomattox.

Fear on the Frontier

Date: October 29, 2022
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Lily Park, Fort Road, Schoharie
Organizer: Turning Point 1777
Phone: 518-823-4307
Schoharie County

Living on the frontier in the 17th & 18th centuries meant enduring a near constant state of fear. Explore with us some of the most horrific scenes enacted in and around the forests of American nightmares. NOT recommended for young children or the squeamish. Bring lawn seating, a warm blanket or two, and a flashlight. Admission: $10.