Modern-day explorers discover Chester's past

CHESTER-Led by Jim Palmer of Warwick, a dozen brave souls recently stepped thousands of years into the past — even though they trekked only three-fourths of a mile into Goosepond State Park. The ancient Greycourt Rock Shelter, pictured above, was reputedly one of Claudius Smith's Revolutionary War hideouts. It is said he stole horses from the locals and hid them here before selling them to the British in New York City. On January 22, 1779, Smith was hung in Goshen for his crimes. Sears Hunter, 90, of Blooming Grove has lived near the rock shelter his whole life. Hhas heard many stories of the place over the years, but this was his first visit. For six-year-old Anna Parrella, everything was new. Jack Focht, director of the Trailside Museum in Bear Mountain, said that in the 1960s, after New York State took these lands to form Goosepond State Park, the Trailside Museum performed an archeological study that yielded artifacts from the prehistoric use of the shelter. Dozens of arrowheads, hundreds of pottery fragments, animal bones, and other items are now in the museum's collection. Vassar College sent an archaeology team to study the shelter in the early 1940s. They concluded the rock shelter had seen 5,500 to 6,000 years of Native American occupation. As we stood under the rocky overhang on this cold and rainy Saturday, one could imagine seeking its shelter in those times — perhaps striking flint to spark tinder into a fire for a little warmth to drive out the chill.