Nearly 250 years ago, British warships moved up the Hudson to reinforce General Burgoyne in the Battles of Saratoga, firing hot cannonballs that set colonists' property on fire but missed the home of Anthony Yelverton, which still stands as the oldest wooden structure in Ulster County. Yelverton, a son of Poughkeepsie, built his house partly from the timbers of an old boat, started a brickyard when he needed bricks, turned his ground floor into a tavern and store as more settlers arrived, and created a ferry service across the river using slaves to man the oars. The waterfront long prospered with wharves, warehouses, icehouses, coal and lumber depots, and a foundry, but in the 1880s the West Shore Railroad cleared many buildings for its right of way and fires destroyed much of what remained. Highland's economic activity and population then shifted up the hill as the Hudson shoreline declined into an industrial echo. After the Mid-Hudson Bridge made ferry service obsolete in 1941, the waterfront gradually came to be valued more for scenic beauty and recreation, and residents helped create Bob Shepard Highland Landing Park with a boat launch and deep-water dock for access to the Hudson. Remains of the Revolutionary War still surface along the riverside, where British cannonballs continue to be dug up and are displayed at the Town Hall in Highland.