ORANGE COUNTY- 'The Drowned Lands' >From the chapter on Orange County, in "French's Gazetteer, 1860." Along the south west border extending through several towns and into New Jersey, lies a low, flat region, lying upon the streams, and known as the "Drowned Lands." This tract of land consisting of about 17,000 acres, was originally covered with water and a dense growth of cedars; but a large portion of it has been drained and reclaimed; and it now forms one of the finest agricultural portions of the county...the Drowned Lands are covered with alluvium and vegetable mold, and are among the most fertile lands in the State... >From a "History of Orange County." [Hager's I believe] In the Drowned Lands tract the so-called islands form a peculiar feature. They are known as Little Gardner's, Black Walnut, Pine, Merritt's, and Owen's. They are simply small portions of upland in the midst of what was once low and swampy ground. In the early settlement of the county some of these islands could only be approached by a boat, but under the drainage and cultivation of modern times this would never be suspected, as the Drowned Lands themselves are now traversed by good roads and divided into valuable farms. >From Ruttenber, E.M and Clark, L.H., "History of Orange County, New York. ...The whole of Orange County is rich in lacustrine and marsh alluvions more so than any other county in the state. The principal districts being 'the Drowned Lands,' The Grey Court Meadows, the Long Swamp in Warwick, Cedar Swamp in Goshen and Warwick and the Black Meadows in Chester and Warwick. The Drowned Lands extend from the Chechunk Outlet in Goshen, through Warwick on into New Jersey. They are full of Islands of great fertility, some of considerable area, i.e, Pine Island. An arm of the lands extends east to near Orange Farm, known as Cedar Swamp, in Goshen. >From Hull, Richard W., "Peoples of the Valleys; A History of the Valleys of the Town of Warwick, New York, 170-1796. ...A new era in vegetable farming opened with the arrival of Polish immigrants. Commissioners had been appointed in the early 1800's to construct drainage ditches in 'the Drowned Lands,' but it was a modest effort until in the 1880's when the Polish Immigrants expanded the operation at their own expense and with their own labor...Such enterprising Polish farmers ...began to transform these swamps into one of the most productive muckland vegetable producing areas in America. By 1939, Florida had acquired a reputation as the Onion Capital of the United States. Out of the black dirt farms of Florida and Pine Island flowed a cornucopia of vegetables - first mainly potatoes, beets, spinach, and sweet corn, but soon onions, lettuce and carrots. A map titled," A Chorographical Map of the PROVINCE of NEW YORK in NORTH AMERICA, Divided into Counties Manors Patents and Townships; Exhibiting likewise all the private GRANTS of LAND made in that Province, Compiled from ACTUAL SURVEYS deposited in the PATENT OFFICE at NEW YORK, by order of His Excellency Major General WILLIAM TYRON By Claude Joseph Sautheir, Esq. [how is that for a titles?] It shows the Drowned Lands lying along the Wall Kill in the valley east of the Shauvungunk Mountains, and the Braderods Hills and west of the Scunnemank Hills, a section or the lower levels of the High Lands. The Drowned Lands starting just to the southwest of Goshen and west of Florida , running southwest, into New Jersey, and encompassing, Big Island, Pine Island, Edenville, and Liberty Corners, in Orange County. An even better map of the area is to found on a "Road and Property Ownership Map of Orange County New York," published by Dolph & Stewart Map Publishers in 1938. This gem shows the 'The Drowned Lands,' starting just to the southwest of Goshen, and close into the west of Florida, and encompassing the areas of: Big Island, Pine Island, Edenville, and Liberty Corners, in Orange County then running southwest, into New Jersey. The map, as the tittle indicates lists most of the property owners within the county, and in this case those owners adjacent to and within the Drowned Lands, or as it is designated on the map, 'the Black Dirt area.' Charles Herbert Crookston, born 1929, and raised in Florida Orange County, NY