West Nyack Fall Festival Huge Success

Story and photos by Robert Knight

Heritage of West Nyack’s fourth annual fall festival Sunday was reported to be a huge success with more than 1,000 visitors recorded within an hour of the 12 noon opening at the Town of Clarkstown’s historic Vanderbilt/Budke/Traphagen park off Germonds Road in West Nyack. Among the highlights were:

1. Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann opened the event at a fund-raising cocktail party the night before inside the 1730 Vanderbilt-Budke House, reportedly the oldest structure in the township.
2. Historian Tim Adriance described the history of the Vanderbilt-Budke house to hundreds of visitors Sunday.
3. Children were enthralled with Hayrides, stencil art, writing with a quill pen, colonial games, children’s story hour with the Hausner family and
4. A petting zoo by Nickel-O Farms and
5. Trying to walk on stilts.
6. Most adored the West Nyack Fire Department’s giant fire dog, while a few fled in terror to pick pumpkins instead.
7. Adults were fascinated by hand lace-making by Mayra Petretti,
8. Blacksmithing demonstrations and exhibits by Jonathan Nedbar.
9. Everyone was thrilled by two half-hour skirmishes between British and American troops during the Revolutionary War, portrayed by re-enactment groups the New Jersey Militia, Heard’s Brigade and the 35^th Regiment of Foot.

Other events included 1841 cannon blasts by Stan the Cannon Man, talks by Ben Franklin, Daniel Hanchrow’s re-telling of the trial of Jane “Naut” Kanniff in 1816, the last witchcraft trial in New York State; walking tours of the property led by Paul Tappenden to identify edible plants, fruits, vegetables and weeds; gathering pumpkins in the pumpkin patch and carving or coloring them to take home, pumpkin bean bag toss and corn kernel games, demonstrations on making wood pens on a turning lathe by the Hudson Valley Wood Turners, and demonstrations of honey bees and their hives by Ron Breland.