De Bruce is approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Livingston Manor, at the confluence of Willowemoc and Mongaup creeks.

[1] The name, De Bruce, is derived from one of its early European investors, Elias DesBrosses, a French Huguenot who with Renssalier and others, escaped from France and persecution, living in the Netherlands.

The Inn offered a nine-hole golf course, tennis courts and fishing on several miles of the choicest water on the upper Willowemoc.

It had its own farm, fish hatchery, hydroelectric plant, private area telephone system, and later TV cable.

During its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s it was a popular destination for sportsmen from the city, famous for its food and smiling hostesses, and Chef Cesar Ricci.

Chef Ricci would oversee its grand formal picnics at both Little Falls and at Mongaup Pond with tables, linens, and flatware with animals spit roasted whole.

Amusingly, a favorite drink at the Inn was also called the pink lady—gin, grenadine, apple brandy, lemon juice and cracked ice, strained into a stemmed glass.

[17][18] De Bruce was, in its earliest days, a site for one of the Catskills' largest tanneries, employing over 100 men shortly after it was established in 1856.

It is ably organized by Steve Dill (pictured) who enthusiastically energizes his friends and neighbors into a frenzy of speech-making, face-painting, dancing, games, food, costumes and assorted show-and-tells.

The course, it starts in Dill's front yard, and stretches over about one city block, which is considerably shorter than the line of marchers and vehicles in it.