Empire State Railway Museum and Phoenicia

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, railroads reached deep into the Catskills, carrying summer visitors from the cities to the boarding houses, hotels, and camps of the mountains and hauling out the region's bluestone, timber, and tanned leather. Phoenicia sat on the line that ran up the Esopus valley, and its depot was a busy gateway.

The museum grew from a desire to preserve that vanished world of mountain railroading, gathering the artifacts, photographs, and equipment of the lines that once served the Catskills. It makes its home in the historic Phoenicia station, so the setting is itself part of the story. The Catskills are ancestral homeland of the Lenape peoples, whose paths through these valleys long predate the rails.

The museum fills the old station with the memory of Catskills rail travel, displays of railroad equipment, tools, photographs, and the everyday objects of the age when the train was the way in and out of the mountains. It tells how the lines were built through difficult terrain and what they meant to the towns and resorts they served.

Because it lives in a real depot rather than a purpose-built hall, a visit carries the atmosphere of the era it describes. It is a modest, lovingly kept place, run by people devoted to keeping the region's railroad history alive, and it opens on a seasonal schedule.

The village of Phoenicia is a Catskills favorite, a short, walkable main street of restaurants, shops, and old buildings set against the mountains. Its great summer tradition is tubing the Esopus Creek, the fast, cold stream that runs through town, where visitors float the rapids on inner tubes on hot days.

Around the village rise some of the highest peaks in the Catskills, with trailheads for climbs like Slide Mountain, the range's tallest, close at hand. The mix of an easygoing village, a lively creek, and serious mountains makes Phoenicia a natural base for exploring the central Catskills.

Spring swells the Esopus with snowmelt and greens the mountainsides, waking the village after the quiet winter. Summer is the heart of the season, warm and busy, with tubing on the creek, hiking in the peaks, and the museum open to visitors.

Fall brings the Catskills' famous color to the surrounding slopes and a crisp, beautiful run of hiking weather. Winter quiets the village and the creek, brings snow to the high peaks and the nearby ski areas, and the museum settles into its off-season until spring returns.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.