Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys

The Mohawk Valley and the American Revolution
Published by the State of New York
Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor
Parks and Recreation
Alexander Aldrich, Commissioner
Historic Trust, Louis C. Jones, Chairman
Albany, NY 1972

The Valley

When the Dutch Patroon Van Rensselaer directed his agent Arent Van Curler to study the region of the Mohawk Valley in 1642, Van Curler reported a majestic valley, "the most beautiful land that the eyes of man ever beheld."

Unknown centuries before Van Curler's apt description, geological processes had fashioned the Valley's features. With the thawing of the immense sheet of glacial ice covering most of the future New York State, a great river channeled through rock and scoured out an early valley. Today the Mohawk Valley consists of an inner valley combining rock masses and precipices with wooded hills. From this flat, narrow valley, rolling hills merge, on the north, with foothills of the Adirondack Mountains and, on the south, with the farthest reaches of the Allegheny Plateau. Cataracts and waterfalls plunge from these elevations through deep gorges before joining the Mohawk River.

Starting as a woodland stream in the hills north of Rome, the Mohawk flows about 150 miles before pouring over the great falls at Cohoes where it enters the Hudson River. It washes the soil of rich valley flatlands, channels through a compact gorge at Little Falls and pierces the mountains at The Noses (between Canajoharie and Fonda).

Strategic as well as beautiful, the Mohawk Valley has had enormous significance in national history and international affairs. The Valley's impact on strategy and economic progress resulted from facilitating transportation by its water level route to the interior of the continent.

Mohawk Valley in The Revolution