For over two hundred years, Catskill Mountains have been repeatedly and dramatically transformed by New York City. This text shows transformation of Catskills landscape as a collaborative process, one in which local and urban hands, and ideas have come together to reshape mountains and communities therein, with economic, and cultural consequences.

For over 200 years, the Catskill Mountains have been repeatedly and dramatically transformed by New York City. Stradling shows that the process was collaborative, as local and urban hands, capital, and ideas have come together to reshape the mountains and the communities therein. The painters of the Hudson River School, the "Borscht Belt" resorts, the great reservoir and acqueduct system that supplies the city with 90% of its water are among the many factors Stradling considers in understanding this region in which the nation's ideas about nature evolved. David Stradling is associate professor of history at the University of Cincinnati.