It was a summer when the Berkshires met the Catskills, at least by name and only for a few days near Cooperstown. Fans of bluegrass music couldn't have been happier about that meeting.
That's when the Berkshire Mountains Bluegrass Festival took place at the Beaver Valley Campgrounds beginning Thursday, July 22, 1982. It was the seventh annual event, originally held in Hillsdale, Columbia County. The festival, called one of the largest bluegrass events on the East Coast, had outgrown its site bordering New York and Massachusetts.
The Beaver Valley site, found in the Town of Hartwick, was chosen supposedly because of its easy access from Canada, New York and other areas of the Northeast.
The Daily Star reported how an estimated 500 people had lined up before dawn at the campground entrance to get the best camping spots when the gates opened at noon. At the opening, a line of cars and campers stretched from there to state Route 28 in Hartwick Seminary. Others had arrived the day before to stay on the 400-acre campground.
While there had been predictions of 12,000, the crowds reached about 9,000 by the end of the weekend, and were reported as well-behaved. Families made up the largest portion of the campers. Some 6,500-gallon tank trucks had to be brought in with fresh water to fill the reservoir on the grounds, as the need for water was much higher than usual. Performers and bands played into the late hours each night, and promoter Nancy Talbott, president of Hazard Productions, said the parking lot jam sessions were among the festival's major attractions.
"Those … jam sessions are a sight," Talbott said. "Those people go all night." Some of the major performers at the four-day festival included Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, the Osborne Brothers, The Seldom Scene and Tony Trischka.
Reflecting on the new site of the festival, Talbott said she was concerned about the move from Hillsdale, but all was going well, and the staff coordinating the event liked Beaver Valley. More than 200 were on staff -- some paid, some volunteer.
"People said why not change the name to something else for the new site. But it wouldn't be the same. It's the people that really make this work, and these people have been doing a tremendous job."
While campers and bluegrass music fans lauded the success of the festival on its final day, there were some doubts whether the event would return to Otsego County in 1983. There had been some minor flaws, such as a temporary power outage because of overloaded circuits, but campers seemed to shrug it off.
Talbott said a few days later she was looking for another permanent site in Otsego County, but not Beaver Valley, because the campground was not large enough.
Apparently no site was found, as it was reported in The Daily Star of Saturday, Oct. 9, that the festival would locate somewhere in the Hudson Valley.
"We were very successful in the Cooperstown area," Talbott said, "and both the staff and the performers loved it, but we just couldn't draw the day crowds there from New York City and Boston."
She referred to day crowds as those who travel to the festival for a day only and return home. "We need those day people. Unfortunately, Cooperstown is just a bit too far from the two major cities to draw enough of them." The festival returned to Columbia County, near Ancramdale. After some name changes, it is now called the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. It recently relocated to Oak Hill, Greene County. This year's festival is Thursday through Sunday, and the aforementioned Tony Trischka will be among the many performers.
This weekend: James Fenimore Cooper had his unpopular side in Cooperstown.
City Historian Mark Simonson's column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or email him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com. His columns can be found at www.thedailystar.com/marksimonson.
Mark Simonson
Bluegrass played first fiddle during 1982 festival near Cooperstown
- Mark Simonson
-
-
General Clinton Canoe Regatta got a new home in 1972
Ever since 1963, when Charles Hinkley and a group of Tri-Town businessmen came up with the idea for what we know today as the General Clinton Canoe Regatta, people lined the shores of the Susquehanna to watch the canoeists as they made their 70-mile trek from Cooperstown to Bainbridge.
-
Sunday movies in Oneonta finally shown in 1934
You know an issue is divisive when a vote to resolve it is quite close. In Oneonta during the early 1930s there were probably plenty of discussions or arguments at the family dinner table or sermons from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, regarding whether or should be able to see a movie in Oneonta on Sunday.
-
Politics, fitness and landmarks dominated local news in May 1968
Area residents mulled over the idea of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller as their next President of the United States. New fitness opportunities emerged for all ages. One area landmark was saved while another was razed. It was only a part of our life and times in May 1968.
-
Local people sought income in many ways in 1933
In the economy that was the Great Depression, there were times people would do what it took to try to earn some money.
-
Local windstorm in 1983 caused tense moments
I realize I've got the wrong month in mind when I say "May came in like a lion." However, that's what happened in 1983 as a number of twisters moved through our region, leaving plenty of damage behind in their trails. Add some melting snow and heavy rain, and scenes of cleanups were widespread 30 years ago this month.
- Saturday, May 4, 2013
-
Disaster, expansions put people to work in May 1913
- Monday, April 29, 2013
-
Job opportunities abounded in area 45 years ago
If you were looking for a job in April 1968 in our area, or perhaps looking to change your employment situation in the near future, opportunities were pointing in your favor.
- Saturday, April 27, 2013
-
Oneonta greeted an aviation giant in 1928
An early aviation superstar came to Oneonta in 1928.
- Monday, April 22, 2013
-
Area saw its own armed standoffs 30 years ago
This past Friday, we watched how the Boston area went into a lockdown during a tense search for the last suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Had I still been living and working in that area, as I was in the early 1990s, I would have had a day off from work Friday, as police scoured the city of Waltham.
- Saturday, April 20, 2013
-
U.S.S. Maine explosion, war drew much local sentiment
For most people in our area in early 1898, a growing conflict between two distant nations probably didn't get much attention, other than some glances at the newspaper. When a young Oneonta man was one of many injured or killed in an explosion of a battleship he was aboard, the local attention increased markedly to what was soon to become the Spanish-American War.
- Monday, April 15, 2013
-
Oneonta river walking path came from a surveyor's daydream
Leon Kalmus of Oneonta spent a lot of time surveying land near the Susquehanna River in the early 1970s around the time Interstate 88 was being planned and built in this area. What he saw along the shores of the river, he called “pristine,� and soon had an idea for some kind of walking or hiking pathway along the shores of the river in the town of Oneonta.
- Saturday, April 13, 2013
-
Decline of Prohibition led to return of beer in April 1933
“I think this would be a good time for a beer,� remarked President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he signed the Cullen-Harrison Act on March 22, 1933. This marked the beginning of the end for Prohibition that year.
- Monday, April 8, 2013
-
Dietz Street shifted from residential to commercial through the years
By taking a walk along Dietz Street today, heading north to Walnut Street, one can see a lot of businesses and the recently refurbished parking lot on the east side of the street. It would take some imagination to see this street lined with houses and a church, but prior to the late 1940s, that’s what was there.
- Saturday, April 6, 2013
-
Oneontans voted for a 'dry' city in 1918
- Monday, April 1, 2013
-
Future city historian kept family busy for Easter and April 1958
- Saturday, March 30, 2013
-
Colliscroft became new Oneonta landmark in 1902
If the Oneonta building trade sector of the economy could have awarded a plaque to a most valuable individual customer of 1902, it would have nearly been a shoo-in. That was Edward H. Pardee, who was listed in the Oneonta Directory around that time as a farmer, on Southside.
- Wednesday, March 27, 2013
-
Historic Cooperstown cottage got a new address in 1988
To unknowing tourists seeking information from the tourism information center at 31 Chestnut St. in Cooperstown, they would probably believe that the mid-19th century cottage had always been on that site. It blends in well with some of the grand old houses along that street, and the same tourists might think it has an interesting history behind it.
- Saturday, March 23, 2013
-
Free mail delivery began in Oneonta 125 years ago
- Monday, March 18, 2013
-
Oneonta enacted first building code 60 years ago
There will be no parade, fireworks display or commemorative coins minted for the occasion.
- Saturday, March 16, 2013
-
Area isolated during historic March 1888 snowstorm
Earlier in the week, we recalled the "Blizzard of 1993," which was one containing historic snowfall that fell on our region on Saturday, March 13. It was the largest recorded in a single local snowfall in the 20th century, and ever since another storm dating back 105 years. The latter snowfall was worse than the 1993 storm, falling overnight into Tuesday, March 13, 1888. It was commonly referred to as the "Blizzard of 1888."
-
