Schools
Students Learn About Rockland At First County History Conference
The Historical Society of Rockland organized the High School Local History Conference
Local author Linda Zimmermann finished a talk at the Finkelstein Memorial Library a few years ago when an elderly man approached her and said he remembered that Spring Valley was a “one-horse town” when he moved there.
Zimmermann asked him when that was, and he replied “oh, about 1995.” Zimmermann, who was written about Rockland history, said that’s one example of just how much the county changed in a short period of time, and urged students to think about what took place over the last 100 years.
“He already saw these massive changes in 10 or 15 years,” Zimmermann said of the man at the library. “We are just continually emphasizing the importance of recorded history now.”
Zimmermann shared that story and others from her time learning about the county and while writing her book, “Rockland County: A Century of History,” at the first ever High School Local History Conference.
The conference was organized by the Historical Society of Rockland and took place Tuesday at the Comfort Inn in Nanuet. About 50 students attended in total from Clarkstown High School North, Clarkstown High School South, Nanuet High School, Pearl River High School, Albertus Magnus High School, Ramapo High School, North Rockland High School, Spring Valley High School, Suffern High School and Tappan Zee High School.
During her talk, Zimmermann urged students to look into their local history, as well as their family history.
“Make history personal. History isn’t what happens to the other person in the town in the other time. History is happening here and now,” she said. “We just don’t recognize it because we’re living it, and don’t miss that opportunity to start recording things. Record things about you. Print photos and label them. Keep things archived. Your history is important. Your family’s history [is important]. Has your family been here for 200 years, has it been here for two years? Find out about your family so that future generations can know.”
She said that while the typical everyday goings on might not seem important right now, they could be of interest to future generations. Zimmermann said that in the last 100 years, Rockland went from open plains to having shopping malls.
State Sen. David Carlucci, who was the Clarkstown town clerk before running for his senate seat, said when he first ran for the clerk position, they were talking about putting a website together. That was about 10 years ago. Since then, he said they have a website with fully digitized archives dating back to the first records ever kept in Clarkstown, which date back to April 7, 1752. The records, Carlucci said, are of things like property lines and who owned what cattle.
“It’s extremely important to preserve our history and that we work to educate people about our history here in our home community,” he said. “It’s something that’s very important to me.”
County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef also spoke to the students, sharing some Rockland history as well. He pointed outside and asked the students if they knew about Route 59. He said for a long time, people couldn’t drive on what is now known as Route 59 because it was swampland. He said the Greenbush Swamp forced people to ride around, or their horses and wagons would sink.
“You know the Greenbush Swamp as the Palisades Center Mall. That’s the swamp,” he said. “So when you go down there in heavy rain, and you see the water on 59, what does that tell you? There was a swamp there in the old days and they didn’t build a road through it because the horses and the wagons got lost.”
In addition to the speakers, each group of students from the separate schools had to get up and give a presentation on history in their hometowns. The presentations focused on local history sites, including a lot from the Revolutionary War era. The students from Suffern High School prepared a video, and the students from Spring Valley High School dressed up in period costumes and acted out a play titled “The Price of Freedom,” which was written by Spring Valley teacher Doug Carey, who worked on it for seven years along with students.
