Narrowsburg, in the town of Tusten, was established in 1853 when Tusten was separated from the Town of Lumberland, and the town was named for Lt. Col. Benjamin Tusten of Goshen, New York, who fell in the July 22, 1779 Battle at Minisink. The region’s history has been shaped by the river, commerce, and transportation. Settlement began here in the mid-1750's, when the community was first called Homan's Eddy after early settler Benjamin Homan, and later Big Eddy for the large quiet pool in the river at this location. Narrowsburg became a favored stopping point for lumbermen guiding timber rafts downriver to Easton, Trenton, and Philadelphia, and at the height of rafting a thousand raftsmen could arrive seeking meals and lodging. In the later 1800's, the railroad brought people from the New York City area escaping summer heat, and from the 1930's through the 1950's thousands of New York City Boy Scouts came by rail to the nearby Ten Mile River Scout Camps. Railroad service also supported local business, including a feed mill and a lumberyard, while earlier the Erie Railroad's arrival in 1848 brought trackside eating houses and hotels, and many German and Irish immigrant laborers who built the railroad remained in the area and their descendants still live in the region. As lumbering and tanning bark declined, agriculture stayed strong and bluestone quarrying grew, with the railroad carrying these products to market, while ice was harvested each winter from the Big Eddy. Visitors continued to come for the area’s beauty and relief from city life, filling boarding houses in summer, while hunters returned in fall. Main Street developed as a center of community life, and annual events such as RiverFest and EagleFest draw thousands of visitors; Narrowsburg is known as the Eagle Capital of New York State. Arts and entertainment have long been important here. Built by the Narrowsburg Fire Department in 1925, the Tusten Theatre presented silent films, dances, and traveling shows, became known in the 1930's as the Park Theater, remained part of local entertainment into the late 1980's, and after the Town of Tusten bought the building in 1973 it became Town Hall; it was renovated in 1989-90 through a HUD grant obtained by U.S. Representative Benjamin Gilman in partnership with the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, the Town of Tusten, and the Sullivan County Planning Department. The Arlington Hotel, owned by Joseph and Mary Gutheil, was rebuilt in 1894 after a fire in 1893 destroyed it and other Main Street buildings; with indoor plumbing, a large second-floor dining room, and ground-floor billiard room and barroom, it later became the Delaware Arts Center after its 1981 purchase by the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, was placed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 1983, and since the mid-1980's has hosted contemporary art exhibitions, readings, recitals, and digital media events.