Join international explorer, educator and Sugar Loaf Historical Society president Jay Westerveld for an exploration of the fascinating history of Sugar Loaf at the Chester Public library on April 1, 2023 from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m.
Westerveld’s long ancestry in Sugar Loaf, stretching back to colonial times, has taught him much about its mining and bootlegging histories, its mysteries and its unique folklore. He also draws from his hamlet childhood in the 1960s as well as some its predecessors, such as Arlette Seligmann, the local enclave of the Anthroposophist movement, the mountain-dwelling McGinnis clan and the many dairymen and their families that gave the hamlet its identity.
Westerveld is an internationally-recognized ecologist and educator who has been researching natural and cultural history for over 40 years, throughout America, Europe, Asia and the South pacific. He co-founded the Glenmere Conservation Coalition and the Sugar Loaf Historical society in 2007, The New York Natural History council in 2010, and the Wawayanda Watershed Alliance in 2011.
He is a visiting lecturer with Columbia University, the United States Military Academy at West Point, the NY Entomological Society, the American Museum of Natural History, Northeast partners in Amphibian Conservation, Northeast Natural History Association, the National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, and others. In 2008, the NYS Assembly recognized him for his research with the endangered “Bog Turtle” in NY.
This presentation is a project of the Sugar Loaf Historical Society, Incorporated in 2007 by the New York Education Department.