An illustrated talk, “Homesteads to Go-Karts: A History of the Denver-Vega Valley,” will be presented at the Middletown History Center in Margaretville July 14 at 1 p.m.
This is the second of five ‘Second Sunday’ events sponsored by the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown, whose president, Diane Galusha will be the speaker. Admission is by donation. The History Center is located at 778 Cemetery Rd., Margaretville.
The program, first delivered to Roxbury Senior Citizens in 2023, describes the hamlets of Denver and Vega and the farms, schools, churches, stores and post offices around which valley life centered.
The talk will span 270 years, beginning with land leases of early homesteaders in the 1790s, and stretching to the Denver Go-Kart Speedway of the 1960s. Stories recounted in the program were taken from diaries, newspapers and other period sources, including former residents recorded by HSM and the Open Eye Theater in separate oral history projects.
This bucolic valley, which traverses Middletown and Roxbury, once had 50 farms, a creamery, three schools, two churches, an active Grange, a ski center, a hopping dance hall and several busy boarding houses. A fire decimated Vega in the 1930s, farms ceased operating, vacationers went elsewhere and the schools and general stores closed. Today the valley is the quiet home to many full-timers, retirees and weekend residents.
FMI: 845-586-4973 or history@catskill.net. Information about HSM events and programs can be found at mtownhistory.org.
This was the hamlet of Denver, with the general store at the intersection of Denver and Dimmick Mountain Roads, and the Finch farm on the hill.