Bash Bish Creek descends more than 1300 feet from a spring-fed source in Mt. Washington, Massachusetts, through a gorge to the Roeliff Jansen Kill at the base of the Taconic Ridge, including Bash Bish Falls, where the water drops 200 feet into a boulder-lined pool. First admired by adventurous 18th-century travelers, the falls became a well-known tourist destination by the 1850s through travel accounts, periodicals, and John Frederick Kensett’s paintings. As its reputation as the most picturesque waterfall in Western Massachusetts grew, stories about its name and its commercial potential drew further attention. A rustic tavern for visitors was built near the falls, and after 1865 renewed interest in the area led Jean Roemer to assemble eight parcels including the falls. In 1874 he conveyed the land to Josephine Douglas, and soon afterward an elaborate Swiss-style country estate was built near Copake Iron Works. After Alfred Douglas died there in 1876, Josephine Douglas remained and built an inn overlooking the falls in 1879, but it failed and was torn down about 1897. By 1899 John Haldane Flagler owned all the Douglas property, and in 1903 he sold the estate buildings and 300 acres to Margaret and Eugene Vacheron, who enlarged the residence and added a Swiss chalet guesthouse for a country inn, but this venture also did not prosper. In 1914 Louis Moquin acquired the property through foreclosure and operated Bash Bish Inn until it burned in 1918. Philip Schick then turned the remaining buildings and new facilities into a commercial automobile campground. Long troubled by commercial use of the falls, conservationists saw a turning point in 1923 when Francis R. Masters and Ella R.K. Masters bought the falls and 400 acres from John H. Flagler and resold it to the State of Massachusetts. In 1925 they donated the first of many parcels for the newly created Taconic State Park to the State of New York, and by 1930 public ownership of the gorge, waterfalls, and surrounding mountainsides had ended the long era of private exploitation.

Photo: Steve Stoessel

Photo: Steve Stoessel

Photo: Steve Stoessel

Photo: Steve Stoessel