Post-glacial peoples begin occupying the peninsula. The earliest undated artifacts suggest habitation roughly contemporaneous with the retreat of the Wisconsin ice sheet.
Virginia oyster shell deposits at Croton Point — the oldest on the North Atlantic coast. Radiocarbon dating established these as among the earliest evidence of sustained habitation in the Northeast.
The earliest ceramic tradition in the Northeast, found in stratigraphic position in the middens — a key discovery for the regional chronological sequence.
The Kitchawank, a band of the Wappinger Confederacy, maintain a fortified stockade at the neck of Croton Point, guarding oyster beds in Haverstraw Bay. Territory extends from the Croton River north to Anthony's Nose.
Officer Robert Juet documents encounters with indigenous peoples who traded tobacco for knives and beads, wearing deer skins and displaying copper items.
Permanent Dutch settlement begins. The Wappinger Confederacy — 18 bands including the Kitchawank — controls the east bank of the Hudson from Manhattan to Poughkeepsie.
The boy, now a man, enters the wheelwright's shop near Turtle Bay with beaver skins and murders him with an axe. Director Kieft demands the Weckquaesgeek surrender the killer.
The first popularly elected body in New Netherland urges Kieft to demand the killer 'once, twice, yea for a third time' in a 'friendly manner.' Kieft refuses and dissolves the council.
The famous religious dissident, living in exile in the Bronx, is killed by Siwanoy warriors as the war engulfs the entire region. ~1,500 indigenous warriors attack across New Netherland.
Dutch soldiers kill ~120 sleeping Wappinger refugees at Pavonia (Jersey City), including women and children. 40 more killed at Corlears Hook that same night. Unified Algonquian resistance follows.
Captain John Underhill's forces attack a Weckquaesgeek village. Many burned alive in their dwellings. One of the deadliest single events in the colonial Indian wars.
After two years of war costing over 1,500 indigenous lives, the Kitchawank and 68 other tribes sign peace with the Dutch. A plaque at Croton Point Park marks the site.
Peter Stuyvesant surrenders to the English fleet. Dutch colonial rule ends. The Wappinger bands continue to lose territory under the new administration.
Original grant covers ~15,000 acres. Philipse reportedly 'cut down the tree marking the eastern border, rode all day and remarked a tree near the CT border' — expanding the claim to 205,000 acres.
Elizabeth Legget of Westchester deeds her daughter 'my two negro children, born of the body of Hannah, my negro woman, of the issue of the body of Robin, my Indian slave.'
Daniel Nimham's band — Mahican and Munsee speakers — survives across five colonies through basket weaving, broom crafting, and seasonal farm labor. He maintains annual pilgrimages to Mount Nimham in Putnam County.
Nimham and three Mohican chiefs sail to England. The Lords of Trade acknowledge 'frauds and abuses' but restore nothing. The deed is snatched from Munroe's hands before he can prove fraud.
The county is contested territory between American and British lines. 'Skinners' and 'Cowboys' plunder civilians. 'Neither of them stopped to ask the politics of horse or cow which they drove into their lines.'
Abraham Nimham becomes captain of the Stockbridge Militia — Mohicans, Wappingers, Munsee. Both father and son serve under Washington and later with Lafayette.
The last Wappinger sachem and ~40 warriors die fighting for the Continental Army. 'He called out to his people to fly, that he himself was old, and would die there.'
Croton militia fire on HMS Vulture, forcing it downstream and stranding Major Andre behind enemy lines. Andre is captured at Tarrytown with plans of West Point in his stockings.
Dr. Richard T. Underhill begins cultivating 75 acres of grapevines at Croton Point. He will breed the 'Senasqua' variety, named after the Kitchawank meadow.
After decades of epidemics and fires fueled by contaminated wells, the city creates a commission to find a clean water source. The Croton River is chosen.
The West Point-trained engineer designs a 41-mile gravity-fed system from the Croton Dam to Manhattan — one of the greatest engineering projects of the era.
Water Commissioners begin purchasing land along the aqueduct route. The New York Sun warns that 'landholders are seldom diffident in taking advantage of public improvements, to enhance the price of property.'
Laborers demand wages of 87.5 to 100 cents per day and march from the dam site to Sing Sing. Engineer Edmund French reports 'the affair that resulted in the death of one of the overseers on Section 10.'
Workers build the High Bridge across the Harlem River (the oldest standing bridge in NYC), ventilator towers, weirs at Ossining and Yonkers, and the Murray Hill Reservoir.
'The greatest jubilee New York has ever boasted.' A parade, fountains, and a commemorative medal by engraver Robert Lovett Sr. mark the arrival of clean water. John Quincy Adams was invited but sent his regrets.
A second, larger aqueduct with three times the capacity, tapping lakes across a watershed of several hundred square miles. The old aqueduct continues to operate.
Two new varieties: the Croton (Delaware x Chasselas) and the Senasqua (Concord x Black Prince). The Senasqua grape carries a 7,000-year-old Kitchawank name.
The contract drawing for the Cornell Site reveals 'buildings, bridges and roads behind the dam which were destroyed when the valley was flooded.' Construction begins.
Workers dig 131 feet below the riverbed. Italian immigrants controlled by padrones who 'managed up to 150 workers' and kept them in permanent debt. 'A man lost his life for every stone set on the dam.'
Dormitories for 60 workers each, saloons, a chapel, a schoolhouse. 'It was a rough area. Fellas would get a few drinks, you couldn't tell what the dickens they would do.'
After NY mandates an 8-hour day, workers demand higher wages. Contractors refuse. Roosevelt establishes 'Camp Roosevelt.' The strike ends after three weeks without improvements.
1,168 feet across, 297 feet high, 206 feet at the base. The reservoir extends 20 miles upstream. Acclaimed internationally as the 'Croton Profile.' Little Italy vanishes.
Clifford Harmon builds 'the most important and extensive suburban development in the history of New York.' The Japanese-themed Nikko Inn opens as a tea house.
A Curtis biplane carrying 250 quarts of Scotch and Irish whiskey from Montreal crashes near the Tumble Inn. A route map reveals an aerial smuggling corridor.
Federal Judge John C. Knox padlocks Roy Kojima's Nikko Inn for two months — described as 'the first place run by Japanese to be closed in padlock proceedings.'
An aerial photograph shows two 250-foot objects in the Hudson. The Navy confirms none of its vessels are in the area. The photo is filed with Coast Guard Intelligence.
William E. Harmon's foundation — funded by the same real estate fortune that built Croton-Harmon — becomes 'one of the first major supporters of African American creativity.'
Louis Brennan discovers Vinette I pottery in stratigraphic position and establishes the middens as among the oldest on the Atlantic coast. Founds the Lower Hudson Chapter of the NYSAA.
An eight-foot bronze statue by sculptor Michael Keropian is unveiled, honoring the last Wappinger sachem who traveled to London and died at Kingsbridge.
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