Tymor Forest Park
Union Vale (with a part in Beekman), Dutchess County, NY
500 acres

Restricted to Union Vale residents, except it is open to nonresidents after Labor Day until Memorial Day. But you probably should call or visit first to make sure cause it sure doesn't say this on the park signs.

Directions:

Taconic Parkway north; NY 55 east, passing the Billings light; at the intersection of East Noxon and Bruzgul Roads, turn left ( east) onto Bruzgul Road; drive 1.76 miles and at the row of red pines turn right onto Duncan Road; turn at the first left and park at the silos.

Geology:

Furnace Pond is found in the park.  Also here is over a mile of the run of Fishkill Creek.

The Clove Valley is 6 miles by 6 miles. The hemlock ravine runs north-south, Union Vale to Beekman into Fishkill Creek which in turn runs into the Hudson River at the city of Beacon. The west side is called Clover Mountain or West Mountain. The east side is called East Mountain. The Clove's east Mountain is Harlem Valley's West Mountain.

History:

Here are the remains of a lime quarry, lime mill and iron furnace. The mill supplied farmers with pulverized alkaline lime to neutralize or sweeten their acidic soils. There were several iron ore pit mines in Beekman and Union Vale.

1831 -- below the dam of Furnace Pond, Elisha Sterling and Company had a charcoal-fired, iron-smelting furnace called the Beekman furnace. There was a hamlet here known as Beekman Furnace that later changes its named to Clove Valley. At one time it had 200 mostly iron company employees as residents. Being as the furnace was charcoal fuel, it is no wonder that the forests in the area were clear cut.

1867 -- the Beer's 1867 map shows a combination grist- and sawmill at a hamlet called Crouse's Store at the juncture of Bruzgul and Lime Mill Roads and Clove Creek.

1873 -- in Clove Valley was the Clove Spring Iron Works. Mr. Sterling added an anthracite-fired furnace slightly to the south. The latter's furnace stack still stands on Furnace Road (on private property and deteriorating). The stones of the old charcoal-fueled Beekman furnace were used to built the dam at Furnace Pond. A lime mill was built and its waterfall provided the necessary energy. (The foundation, sluiceway and pipes are remains of the lime mill.)

1910 -- a bridge build over Clover Creek at Lime Mill Road. There is a marble slab indicating "Erected 1910."

1925 -- the grist mill near the dam shut down.

1971 -- Ralph and Jean McKinney Connor (Jean Webster's daughter) donate the land to the Town of Union Vale as a municipal park.

1993 -- a pool built to replace the pond which provided the water that eventual flowed into Fishkill Creek.

Tymor Park is used as the town's governmental, cultural, and recreational center. Some of the activities held here are family dinners, Community Day, Oktoberfest, and the Festival of Lights.

The Union Vale Historical Society houses the town’s historical artifacts in its museum in Tymor Forest Park.

Habitats:

Here there is a hemlock ravine with creek, dam, and waterfall over dam. There are also limestone outcrops on which grow rare plants.

Facilities:

Equestrian Center (riding), camping, canoeing, tennis and swimming.

Trails:

You can walk south in the hemlock ravine with Clove Creek at the bottom and return.

PLANT LIST:

Trees:
Acer rubrum (red maple)
Carpinus caroliniana (musclewood)
Pinus strobus (white pine) planted by the Connors
Quercus alba (white oak)
Tsuga canadensis (eastern hemlock)

Shrubs:
Cornus sericea (red osier dogwood)
Staphylea trifolia (bladdernut)

Herbs:
Anemonella thalictroides (rue anemone)
Antennaria sp. (pussytoes)
Aquilegia canadensis (columbine)
Arabis laevigata (smooth rock cress)
Arabis lyrata (lyre-leaved rock cress)
Asarum canadense (wild ginger)
Hepatica americana (round-leaved hepatica)
Saxifraga virginiensis (early saxifrage)

Ferns:
Asplenium trichomanes (maidenhair spleenwort)