Russell Brook Falls, located in the Delaware Wild Forest in Delaware County, New York, features two waterfalls and the ruins of old dams and mills.
In 1880, Samuel W. Cable acquired 2,000 acres of land from Horace Utter on Russell Brook and started a wood products business. He cut hemlock and hardwood trees to make shingles and wooden shoe pegs, employing 100 people in his factory, which included a blacksmith shop, horse barn, boarding house, and several other buildings. Five dams were built on the stream, including a 100-foot-wide dam near Russell Brook Falls.
Cable owned five sawmills in Walton, Rock Rift, Liberty, Russell Brook, and at the head of Cable Lake. Between 1902 and 1904, he supplied two million feet of hemlock for the New York, Ontario, and Western Railway’s double-tracking project.
In 1898, George I. Treyz built a retort acid factory on Russell Brook near Cooks Falls. The factory operated six days a week, consuming 32 cords of wood daily and employing 100 men. Treyz also built a narrow-gauge railway five miles up Russell Brook between Cooks Falls and Cable’s mills. In 1924, the factory was upgraded with new ovens, increasing its capacity to 36 cords of wood daily. It burned down in 1925 but was rebuilt by Treyz’s son, Victor.
Victor modernized the factory, installing an alcohol refining column to produce pure methanol sold as antifreeze under Treyzone. He also used bulldozers to transport wood from steep hills to roads for direct loading onto trucks. Additionally, Victor added a formaldehyde plant and, in the late 1940s, expanded to produce acetic acid directly from wood liquor.
Victor Treyz died in 1949, leaving the business to his sisters. Laura Treyz took over, converting the plant to charcoal production to meet new demand in industries like steel, chemicals, rayon, rubber, glass, copper, brass, and bronze. In 1951, the plant was sold to the Susquehanna Chemical Company, which used 50% of the charcoal to produce carbon disulfide for rayon manufacturing. The charcoal plant continued operations until it was demolished in 1967 to make way for the Route 17 freeway.
Today, much of the land once used for Cable’s mills and Treyz’s operations is now permanently protected within the Delaware Wild Forest, part of the western Catskill Forest Preserve. The area features 47 miles of recreational trails leading to destinations such as Russell Brook Falls, Big Pond, Beaverkill Vista on Cabot Mountain, Trout Pond, Split Rock Lookout, and Huggins Lake.
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