Shandaken was established in 1804, though some tombstones date to the 1700s, and its Native American name is said to mean either "rapid water" or "place of the hemlocks." Its earliest industries were hemlock bark peeling for tanneries, bluestone quarrying, and subsistence farming. In the late 1800s, it became a densely populated, bustling center of lumber milling and furniture manufacturing, including the large Whitney Chair Factory. Around 1900, construction of the New York City reservoir system brought many workers to build the Shandaken tunnel. Today the town serves as a retreat for second-home owners, trout anglers, hikers, and outdoorsmen. Allaben, originally called Fox Hollow, was named for Doctor Orson Allaben, an early settler in this narrow Catskill valley, and is now home to the Shandaken Town Hall and Highway Department; Louisville Slugger also used a bat factory on Fox Hollow Road there, using native Shandaken ash, and Babe Ruth may have used some of those bats while spending time at the Phoenicia Hotel. Bushnellsville, on Route 42, took its name from the Bushnell family, who settled the valley in the mid-1800s, and by the early 1900s it had many farms, with families keeping cows and shipping apples and maple syrup, as well as its own post office, several general stores, a cider mill, ice houses, and a bowling alley.