Conesville, first settled in 1764 as Dies’s Manor, developed along the Susquehanna Turnpike after its establishment in 1801 through the town. The turnpike became a major road to the west linking Catskill and Unadilla, and Conesville was formerly known as Stone Bridge for the handsome one-arch stone bridge erected in 1815 as part of that route. The county line between Schoharie and Greene Counties follows the peaks marking the beginning of the Catskills, and the county’s highest mountains are in Conesville. Among the town’s notable natural features are Manorkill Falls, west of West Conesville on Route 990V, and Manorkill Creek, which flows westward through the valley and drops into the Schoharie Reservoir in a cascade of waterfalls. Hunting and fishing have long drawn both residents and visitors, with cold mountain streams suited to trout fishing and hills providing thousands of acres of state and county land for hunting deer, turkey, grouse, and pheasant. In its early history, agriculture was the town’s primary industry, with hay, corn, and many other crops cultivated, but the thin soils of the hill farms eventually became unproductive; many families moved to Nebraska in the late 1800s, and those who remained turned to other occupations.