HaverstrawLife.com

Rockland Lake, the former home of one of the largest and most famous ice houses in America – the Knickerbocker Ice Company, is hosting the annual Knickerbocker Ice Festival. The festivities are full of new events to mark the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s famous trip up the river that bears his name as well as the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the steam age when Henry Fulton sailed the first steamboat, the Clermont, up the Hudson. The festival will boast Hydrogen cars by GM, solar technology, hot air balloon rides, a fireworks display, scale ice-carved replicas of Hudson’s ship Half Moon and the Fulton Clermont, and an ice gallery that displays historic photographs encased in ice blocks. I highly recommend visiting the festival this year, and to learn more about the ice works that graced Rockland Lake for nearly a century. The festival website is http://knickerbockericefestival.com/ and to learn more about the history of Rockland Lake and the Knickerbocker Ice Company, visit the Palisades Parks Conservancy website at www.palisadesparksconservancy.org .