Site #6 North-South Lake
2025 marks 200 years since Thomas Cole traveled for the first time up the Hudson River from New York City to visit the village of Catskill. On this fateful trip in the summer of 1825, Thomas visited the Hudson Highlands, Kaaterskill Falls, and the Catskill Mountain House, a luxurious mountain resort that brought many visitors from around the world to the region. His journey led him to create five paintings, including Lake with Dead Trees, a work which was inspired by views he experienced at North-South Lake, located only 10 miles from the Site today.
Upon returning to New York City Thomas exhibited these paintings in a shop owned by William A. Colman. They were immediately admired by prominent artists and art collectors in the city, including John Trumbull and William Dunlap; the latter purchased Lake with Dead Trees, effectively jumpstarting Thomas’s career and launching him into the New York art scene. This 1825 trip introduced Thomas to his greatest muse: the Catskills.
From Kevin J. Avery, Senior Research Scholar, The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
“The English-born Cole was the first landscape painter to express, with subjects like South Lake, the wilderness character of American scenery. In his painting he accentuates that character with the foreground of pale, skeletal trees, which he may have exaggerated but did not invent. Thanks to the dam of a nearby mill in Cole's time, the water levels on South Lake had changed, drowning trees along its banks. Cole exploited the man-made circumstance to evocatively frame his composition of water, forest, and the distant hump of Round Top Mountain, on the far side of Kaaterskill Clove. Both Cole's pupil, Frederic Church, and his follower Jasper Cropsey, later depicted the view to Round Top across North Lake.”
Plan Your Trip
Contact
Visit their Website
518-589-5058
Admissions
Admission Fee
$8 per car; $22 camping fee
Parking
Paid w/Admission
Restroom
Yes
Accessibility
Somewhat Accessible
Meets few ADA standards and has significant barriers. Most visitors with disabilities will need assistance
Hours
May - Oct (see website for details)
Distance: 0.2 miles
Elevation gain: < 100 ft
Hike time: 20 min
Map & Directions
Driving Directions: We recommend Google Map . Site coordinates: 42.200039 Lat., -74.041588 Long.
Location Notes: North-South Lake is in the North-South Lake State Campground, reached via Rte. 23A and County Rte. 18 (North-South Lake Road) in Haines Falls, New York. Drive two miles on Rte. 18 to the campground, where day-use admission is required and campground and trail maps may be obtained. After entering the campground, bear left toward the North Lake Beach. At the stop sign turn right, drive down the hill and park in the small parking area near the Recreation Center. Follow the short level path directly across from the Recreation Center. About 250 feet down the path, look across South Lake for the head of Round Top rising above South Mountain. This approximates Cole's location in 1825 when he made his sketches for Lake with Dead Trees.
Photography / Painting Credits
Thomas Cole, Lake with Dead Trees (Catskill),1825, Oil on canvas, 27 x 33 ¾ in. Allen Memorial Art Museum. Oberlin, OH. Gift of Charles F. Olney, 1904.1183.
Anonymous, North-South Lake Today, Photograph. © Thomas Cole National Historic Site.
Jasper Francis Cropsey, Catskill Creek [South Lake], 1850, Oil on canvas, 18 3/8 x 27 ¼. Smithsonian American Art Museum, museum purchase, 1966.50.
Anonymous, Parmenter's Pond, no date, stereograph, Courtesy of the Mountain Top Historical Society, Haines Falls, NY.
North-South Lake Today, Photograph. Photo credit: @ralexanderboyle.