Upstater Destinations: Catamount People’s Museum, Catskill

  |  December 5, 2013
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Putting the “Cat” in “Catskill”.

We’re not sure how we never noticed this before. It seems like a giant cat sculpture with a freestyle museum inside its belly filled with hand-written notes, a couple of water color paints, quotes written by typewriter, pictures of bobcats, books, and all manner of random ephemera would just leap right out at you, but the whole fun and messy set-up blends in so seamlessly with its surroundings, one could drive right past it, eyes looking straight ahead at the bridge coming up, missing it entirely.

Which is what we’ve done, apparently, for years. The Catamount People’s Museum in the village of Catskill is tucked into an empty lot on West Bridge Street, right before you cross over Catskill Creek and into the heart of the village. The museum itself is just how we’ve described it above, and it is truly one of our new favorite roadside attractions. It’s also one that can be visited anytime, since it simply exists in all of its hand-hewn glory (the museum is built essentially of sticks, twigs, and planks of reclaimed wood) , right there on West Bridge Street. Since words can’t really do it justice, we took a whole bunch of pictures, bad lighting and all. Enjoy! It’s worth a “paws” to go visit (sorry, we couldn’t resist. We’ll show ourselves out now).

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Of course, no trip to Catskill is complete without a jaunt over to the Martin Van Buren House/Pirate Tiki Bar.

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Was Uncle Sam actually Captain Jack Sparrow? We’ll never know for sure.

About Kandy Harris

Kandy is a writer and musician/music teacher living in Saugerties, NY.

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