Columbia County, New York

Columbia County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Hudson
Year Organized: 1786
Square Miles: 636

Court House:

401 Union Street
County Courthouse
Hudson, NY 12534-2451

Etymology - Origin of County Name

From the Latin feminine form of Columbus, the name was popular at the time as a proposed name for the United States of America

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Columbia County, taken from Albany in 1786: its greatest length on the E. line 36, medium breadth 18 miles. Centrally distant N. from New York 125, from Albany, SE., 34 miles. The surface of the county is considerably diversified, though no part can be called mountainous. Ranges of small hillocks are interspersed with extensive plains or valleys, and much of rich alluvion. There are some excellent lands, and much of the larger portion may be, by judicious culture, rendered highly productive. Nature, in the abundant beds of lime, has furnished the means, as if by a special providence, of tempering the cold and ungrateful constituents of the clay; and in many places the lime in the form of marl does not require burning to become a stimulant. Scarce any portion of the state is better adapted to the raising of sheep, and the profits from this source, already great, are yearly increasing. This county is famed for the quantity and quality of its Indian corn. Lead and iron ore are found in this county. It is divided into 19 towns. (Historical Collections of the State of New York, Past and Present, John Barber, Clark Albien & Co, 1851)

Formed from a portion of Albany County by legislature action April 4, 1786, Columbia County is bounded on the north by Rensselaer, on the south by Dutchess, on the east by a small portion of Dutchess County and on the west by the Hudson River. As a result of an act passed March 24, 1772, the area now Columbia County was divided into districts: Kinderhook in the northwest, Kings in the northeast; Claverack, in the central portion; and Livingston Manor in the southern. Full History at NYSAC

Geography

Columbia County is in the eastern part of New York State, southeast of Albany and immediately west of the Massachusetts border. The western border is the Hudson River.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 648 square miles (1,679 km²), of which, 636 square miles (1,647 km²) of it is land and 13 square miles (32 km²) of it (1.93%) is water.

The terrain is gentle, rolling hills, rising sharply into the Taconic and Berkshire Mountains along the state line.

The highest point is on the Massachusetts state line near the summit of Alander Mountain, at approximately 2,110 feet (643 m) above sea level, in the town of Copake. The lowest point is at or near sea level along the Hudson.

Neighboring Counties:

Rensselaer County, New York - north
Berkshire County, Massachusetts - east
Dutchess County, New York - south
Ulster County, New York - southwest
Greene County, New York - west
Albany County, New York - northwest
Litchfield County, Connecticut - southeast

Cities and Towns:

- Ancram	town
- Austerlitz	town
- Canaan	town
- Chatham	village	Incorporated Area
- Claverack	town
- Clermont	town
- Copake	town
- East Nassau	village	Incorporated Area
- Germantown	town
- Ghent	town
- Hillsdale	town
- Hudson (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Kinderhook	village	Incorporated Area
- Livingston	town
- New Lebanon	town
- Philmont	village	Incorporated Area
- Stockport	town
- Stuyvesant	town
- Taghkanic	town
- Valatie	village	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Penn Foster High School

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