Rondout Creek is a 63.3-mile-long (101.9 km)[3] tributary of the Hudson River in Ulster and Sullivan counties, New York, United States.

In the Dutch records of Wildwyck, however, the spelling used to designate this same fort is invariably Ronduyt during the earliest period, with the present form rondout (often capitalized) appearing as early as November 22, 1666.

At Napanoch, where it turns northeast and receives its first significant tributary, the Ver Nooy Kill, it becomes wider, as does the valley it drains, and deeper.

[citation needed] North of the Shawangunks, where the Wallkill trickles down from Sturgeon Pool, it is wide enough to be referred to as the Rondout River at some points.

Now at an elevation of 840 feet (260 m),[8] the creek resumes at the site of the former hamlet of Lackawack, leaving the Catskill Park, now headed eastwards, in a rocky, wider streambed through some slightly more development.

After crossing under US 209 and receiving the Ver Nooy Kill it bends northeast, paralleling the Shawangunk Ridge and the edge of the Catskill Plateau.

[citation needed] The creek, here wider and deeper, forms the bed of a widening valley as it continues northeast past Eastern Correctional Facility, where the first remnant of the canal, an empty ditch next to an old railroad station, can be found alongside.

[citation needed] The local fire department, which owned the land, had to sell it to keep its liability insurance premiums affordable, and the new owner has posted the property for the same reason.

[citation needed] Here it crosses under Route 213 and NY 32 in a gravel-lined flood control channel, but returns to a more natural bed shortly afterwards to flow beneath the New York State Thruway.

In the wooded areas east of the Thruway, the Wallkill River, its flow attenuated by Sturgeon Pool just upriver, joins in from the south.

The city's West Strand neighborhood along the waterfront has been rejuvenated in recent years and many boats can be seen moored at docks here on summer weekends.

However, the contention that a trading post or fort was established at the mouth of the Rondout in the early part of the 17th century is thoroughly debunked in Marc B.

In 1652, an Englishman, Thomas Chambers, became the first to acquire a land deed from the Indians, nearby, along the Esopus Creek (which has a vast expanse of good farmland), and thus began the genesis of present-day Kingston.

In the early 1820s two Philadelphia businessmen realized the immense profits that could be made if they could find a way to get the mostly unmined high-quality anthracite coal from undeveloped Northeastern Pennsylvania to the lucrative markets of New York City.

The canal remained a prosperous operation until late in the 19th century when rail transportation finally became more affordable, and ended its days in 1904 after a brief period carrying Rosendale cement.

In 1937 it began construction of Merriman Dam near Lackawack, which would soon be flooded forever to allow the growing city to tap the pure waters Burroughs had written about.