In the mid-19th century, Thomas Botsford built the Sam’s Point Mountain House to provide access to one of the Hudson Valley’s most iconic destinations.
Botsford also laid out a flight of stone steps ascending through a stone chasm to connect the hotel with the panoramic overlook above in 1858.
Four years later, Botsford’s hotel went up in flames. But the steps and view remained, drawing visitors for the next century.
Still, the steps fell into disrepair. By the 1960s, they were significantly decayed by a century of freezing and thawing that undermined them.
In March of this year, the staircase — called the Lenape Steps after the Lenape Nation of Native Americans which inhabited the area until the 18th century — were reopened thanks, mostly, to a group of trail-rebuilding volunteers known as the Jolly Rovers.
YouTube Video Link below: