The Fishkill Supply Depot Blog

On Saturday, May 29, 9:30am - noon (approx), the Fishkill Historical Society, in collaboration with the Friends of Fishkill Supply Depot, will sponsor a “clean-up” of the Van Wyck Homestead site.  Cleanup to include the pre-historic floor, historic trail around the sites of the old farm buildings of the Van Wyck farm, and other Supply Depot areas.  The event will conclude with a brief ceremony commemorating the soldiers of the Revolutionary War who served in Fishkill.  All are encouraged to attend and participate.

Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot is in need of working capital to support our efforts. With your help, we are seeking to raise $5,000 in the coming months. Please make a donation via Paypal. For every donation of $15 or more, we will send you a Fishkill Supply Depot bumper sticker!

In the past year, Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot has incorporated, witnessed the official archeological confirmation of the gravesite of Revolutionary War soldiers within the boundaries of the National Register of Historic Places Fishkill Supply Depot lands – likely the largest Continental Army cemetery in existence – and enjoyed a site visit by U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.

Now we are working with the Trust for Public Land, the office of Senator Schumer, and local and state officials to secure the purchase of key properties of the Fishkill Supply Depot for preservation. In February the office of Senator Schumer, the Trust for Public Land and the Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot worked together to submit an application for a FY 2011 appropriation of federal funds for purchase of available properties.  For its part, the Trust for Public Land has pledged to provide additional funds.

On a snowy Saturday in February, 2010, photographer Stefan Baumann met with our friends from the 5th New York (Revolutionary War re-enactors) and the U.S. Army National Guard at the Van Wyck Homestead and the Continental Army Burial Complex, the gravesite of fallen soldiers of the American Revolution. Together they created a stirring collection of images that capture a bit of what service at the Fishkill Supply Depot might have been like, and the encounter between our history and the America we have inherited. See the pictures at www.fsdpix.carbonmade.com.

On Tuesday, April 20, 2010, Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot President Lance Ashworth addressed the annual board meeting of the Fort Homestead Association (FHA), a local 501(c)3 group whose goal is to preserve, rehabilitate, reconstruct, maintain, and open to the publice the historic Abraham Fort homestead located along U.S. 9 in Poughkeepsie.  [Abraham Fort was a Major who fought in the Revolutionary War.]  The speech, which was given at the Cappucino by Coppola restaurant, was received warmly and with great interest.  For more on the FHA, contact forthomestead@optonline.net.

The Fishkill Supply Depot Blog is a project of the Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot website and is the home for the latest news concerning the effort to preserve the Fishkill Supply Depot, New York’s Valley Forge. For quite a while now, that effort has been primarily handled by our friend and board member Michael Boyajian over at our Fishkill Supply Depot Facebook page. His great work will continue there, so be sure to befriend us and stay apprised of the conversation there!