Rockefeller State Park Preserve

The park has a rich history and was donated to the State of New York over time by the Rockefeller family beginning in 1983.

[1] Rockefeller State Park Preserve is designated by the National Audubon Society as an Important Bird Area with over 180 species, and is known for its wildlife, carriage trails, and scenic vistas.

The preserve also abuts extensive private land owned by the Rockefeller family which is open to the public.

The trails in the private area, still in use by the Rockefeller family[3] and also open to the public, connect with those in the state park.

[8] Raven Rock, a large outcrop in the southeaster corner of the Preserve, is mentioned in Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow as being "[haunted by a woman in white who] was often heard to shriek on winter nights before a storm, having perished there in the snow".

Edwin Bartlett obtained the property and build Rockwood, an English Gothic castle of locally quarried stone.

[11] Robert David Lion Gardiner, one of the co-owners, complained that the proposal to expropriate his family's property was unfair, when the Rockefellers had been allowed to continue to own the Pocantico Hills.