One of my favorites local places is the Helderberg Escarpment in Albany County. As a young boy, I always admired the view of this geological formation as it symbolized to me the backdrop of the city of Albany when viewed from Prospect Park. Only later, as a college student, did I learn about the richness of the natural and human history that it contains.

When you admire the escarpment you're actually admiring events that took place over a billion years ago when New York was part of a supercontinent called Rodinia and located near the South Pole.

Running from Albany to Auburn, the Helderberg Mountains form the northern boundary of the Allegheny Plateau. These Devonian era rocks of 408 million years ago were laid down in an expanding sea that covered New York State. Known as the Helderberg Group, it consists of layers of limestone and other rock.

Rising some 2000 feet above sea level, we know the top of this area as the "escarpment" or "embattlement," and simply as Thatcher Park or Indian Ladder.

Emma Treadwell Thatcher, the widow of Albany Mayor John Thatcher donated the escarpment to NYS in 1913. Recently more acres have been added, but as I will point out shortly, the new acquisitions came up short of preserving one of the most significant parts of the ridge.

While the Dutch settlers in the area viewed the escarpment like the walls of a fort (hence the name embattlements), and probably had a name for the mountain, though now lost in history, the German settlers gave it the present name, Helderberg, which means "clear mountain." The Palatine Germans, on their way to Schoharie County named the mountains in 1710. On most days, it certainly lives up to its name.

From a scientific viewpoint, it's a gold mine. Several formations of rock laid down over the last millions of years give the escarpment a "layered" look, a fairly continuous sequence of Late Ordovician to Middle Devonian fossiliferous, marine limestone which existed from 408 to 360 million years ago. Among these layers (15 identified) are embedded thousands of mostly marine fossils from bryozoans, corals, brachiopods, bivalves, gastropods, cephalopods, tentaculites, and trilobites.

While we know Troy is the birthplace of American Geology with Amos Eaton and RPI, the escarpment must be viewed as preschool as John Gebhard, Sr. and Jr., began exploring and describing some of the earliest American invertebrate fossils from the area in the 1820's. Later, the father of American Paleontology, Albany's James Hall, who by himself, used the area to establish North American equivalents for all European described stages of the Devonian Era. The Devonian Era saw many explosive radiations of species but also mass extinctions during the end of the era. It is also known as the age of fishes and some fish remains have been found as well.

Parts of the rocks are also known in historic times for its natural gas production, and the thicker beds have been tapped for their abundance of methane. Old gas drills have been found occasionally and residents of the area do find natural gas in their drinking water.

Helderberg "Bluestone" was also used as building stone and early gravestones, and you can find them with their hand carved engraved epitaphs throughout the area. Many abandoned quarries dot the landscape.

Of course, historians know the Helderberg area, in particular the Town of Berne, as the scene for the famous Anti Rent Wars of the pre Civil War era when farmers rebelled over paying rents to the vestiges of the Patroon land system that started in the 17th century.

This led to a series of armed clashes between the civil authorities and persons occupying land on which rent was owed. The farmers were dressed in calico and Indian garb, and called 'Calico Indians' so they wouldn't be recognized. There is one episode when the Albany Sheriff was tarred and feathered by the anti-renters!

However, one of the most unusual formations on the ridge is a large coral reef, comprised of honeycomb coral, on Ketcham Road, formed when the area was about 3 degrees south of the equator, 350 millions of years ago, while in tropical waters. Blacksmith Martin Milner of Voorheesville owns the reef, and parts of it have been mined years ago. Recent additions to the park stop right at Milner's property line.

Why the State did not purchase this world famous coral reef is beyond me? Martin will certainly sell it, he tells me, and perhaps now that we call attention to it, New York will add it in the near future.

After all, you don't find a 350 million year coral reef at 2000 feet above sea level every day!