The land was once owned by the nearby village of Ellenville to protect its watershed and partly by a company which offered tours of the ice caves.

The Open Space Institute, working with The Nature Conservancy bought it with assistance from the Lila Acheson and Dewitt Wallace Fund for the Hudson Highlands, after the village considered selling the land to developers.

Containing the fire required nearly a week of effort from over 300 responders from local and state agencies; no structural damage and only minor injuries were reported.

However, an abundance of fuel due to reduced fire frequency in recent years led to an intense, fast-moving blaze that did not completely burn through accumulated debris, which may inhibit the regeneration of the park's pitch pine.

As a result of the cool microclimate, ice is present throughout the year and more northern plants such as black spruce, hemlock, mountain ash, and creeping snowberry, and bryophytes such as Isopterygium distichaceum are able to survive.