NARROWSBURG, NY — There are some places to which you can travel, where the history of the town permeates the air. Thick with the ghosts of the people who lived, worked and made their homes here, Narrowsburg is a hamlet where all folklore has some truth, because the names and places are captured in stories passed down through the generations. 

Located in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains and situated in the Town of Tusten, Narrowsburg’s economy grew and prospered largely due to the lumber and quarrying businesses that began during the 1770s. Forests filled with stately white pine, oak and chestnut were cut down, assembled as rafts and floated down the Delaware River. 

The rafting season began with the winter thaw in March, as hundreds of rafts filled the river. Rafts, some as long as two hundred feet and as wide as 75 feet, were managed by crews of four, with the steersman issuing orders to the crew from the back of the raft.

There were many risks involved for the raftsman, and accidents—sometimes fatal—were a fact of life in the logging industry. According to Grace Johansen’s book, “Tusten’s Colorful History,” (Tusten Historical Society, 2016), one of the greatest jams on the Delaware River occurred in 1876. At the area called Big Eddy, where the river suddenly narrows, many rafts were caught and broken apart. Rafts were so jammed that a thousand raftsmen had to find lodging in Narrowsburg. 

Two methods were used to move the logs down the banks to the river: a rollway, an area cleared from top of the hill to the bottom; and a runway, a trench where the logs were slid down the mountains when there was ice and snow. 

One such runway was called Peggy Runway; it went down the New York side of the mountain, across the narrow valley. 

The logging industry brought many new businesses to Narrowsburg, with hotels and taverns eagerly opening along the river to accommodate the many raftsmen. 

When it comes to the hardy rivermen who were “goin’ down the river,” one could only imagine the relief they felt from enjoying a hearty meal or soft bed. When hotels were full, sleeping barges provided men sleeping quarters and floating dining cars called eating barges housed kitchens and tables. 

According to “Lodge Perpetuates Name of Old Peg,” an article published in the Narrowsburg News on July 19, 1929, “Old residents and history tell us that the one across the Delaware from Narrowsburg known as Peggy Runway, was named after an old woman named Peggy, who lived nearby. So this is how the unusual name came to be applied to this particular section of the Delaware Valley, one that is romantic, but enduring.”

Long before the establishment of the beautiful Peggy Runway Lodge in 1929 (the lodge was located just across the Delaware from Narrowsburg, in Darbytown, PA), could there have been another establishment run by a woman named Peggy? Did she provide food and lodging to one of the rivermen who established the runway down the falls? Was the riverman smitten with Peggy and she with him? Did she grow old waiting for his return?

Here lies the romantic and enduring folklore the article in the Narrowsburg News suggests: Once upon a time, Old Peg was beautiful and the riverman give his beloved the gift of everlasting remembrance with the name Peggy Runway Falls. 

The Narrowsburg Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual Logging Days event on Saturday, October 5 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fireman’s Field, 69 DeMauro Ln. in Narrowsburg. Visit http://welcometonarrowsburg.com/logging-days. 

Information came from Art Hawker at the Tusten  Historical Society.

To purchase Ruth Behling’s memoir “Ruth & Frank, Memories of Our Life Together,” that chronicles her life at Peggy Runway Lodge, email publisher@riverreporter.com.