Cochecton was a thriving town in the 18th and 19th centuries. Sitting at the point where the bridge connects NY and Damascus PA.It's Main St. and adjacent roads were filled with merchants and hotels all serving the rail travelers heading north or to local destinations. The original RR station is preserved but moved to a new location a few miles north.
There is still a feed mill in town adjacent to the RR. It's been there for more than a century.
This was a Standard Oil pump house until burning down in 1880. Today it stands as a Gothic brick ruin, windowless and roofless, just across the creek and the field I have my trailers sitting on. Me and my dog Bella visit it most mornings. There is a fantastic swimming hole and fishing spot too. It's as cool retreat on hot summer days - right out my front door.The whole area was part of a commodities transport hub along the river and RR. Logs, coal, feed and all other products of 19th century life passed through. The train still occasionally runs along the Delaware river - a few hundred feet from my front porch.
Oil was pumped in ceramic pipes to Kingston NY from the pump house, for the NYC markets.I still have lengths of pipe exposed in a wooded hill and stone ridge I own, overlooking the river, originating from the pump house.
Standard Oil employed dozens of men that would run along the pipes in relay following a small cannon ball to assure that there were no blockages. The pipes head due north to Kingston over hills and valleys.
Those guys were tough. Many died on the job. There are surely spirits in them thar hills!
