Editing Ellenville, New York (section)

==Transportation and commerce==
One of the first roads in America, the [[Old Mine Road]], which followed earlier Indian trails, led to sporadic Dutch and later settlements along its {{convert|104|mi|adj=on}} length from New Jersey to Kingston, including Ellenville, but with no navigable rivers, the construction of the [[Delaware & Hudson Canal]] in the 1820s led to the first major boom in development of Ellenville as a canal town and manufacturing center. The D&H Canal was eventually superseded at the close of the 19th century by the [[New York, Ontario and Western Railway]], more commonly known as the O&W or NYO&W, which opened up a significant tourism and hospitality industry, including dozens of hotels, inns, boarding houses, and bungalow colonies. The eventual modernization of the Old Mine Road into [[U.S. Route 209 in New York|US 209]] continued to bring vacationers to the area, even after passenger railroad service was discontinued in the 1940s.<ref>{{cite journal |title=New York, Ontario and Western Railway, Table 5 (freight only)|journal=Official Guide of the Railways |publisher=National Railway Publication Company |volume=78 |issue=12 |date=May 1946}}</ref> Relatively inexpensive and increased air travel beginning in the 1960s, a generational change in tastes, and, most recently, the economic downturn's impact on tourism in general, though, have taken their toll. The Nevele Hotel, perhaps the most famous local resort,<!-- perhaps {{whom|date=December 2021}} --> was closed in 2009.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dailyfreeman.com/2009/07/19/neveles-demise-compounds-economic-woes-in-ellenville-area/ |title=Nevele's demise compounds economic woes in Ellenville area|access-date=May 14, 2022 |work=The Daily Freeman |last=Kirby |first=Paul |date=July 19, 2009}}</ref> Its sister resort hotel, the Fallsview, has recently been purchased and renamed Honor's Haven, and has undergone major renovations and introduced health-related programs in an attempt to attract new customers.<ref>[http://www.honorshaven.com/page.aspx?id=54 Honor's Haven website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813132338/http://www.honorshaven.com/page.aspx?id=54 |date=August 13, 2009}}</ref>

The canal and westward expansion led to various industrial opportunities. Reportedly,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ellenvillejournal.com/2007/09/20/news/2.html|work=Ellenville Journal |title=Just What The Doctor Ordered|access-date=December 27, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hvmag.com/Hudson-Valley-Magazine/Neighborhoods/Hudson-Valley/index.php/name/Ellenville/record/964/|title=Hudson Valley|website=Hudson Valley Magazine|access-date=December 27, 2017}}</ref> very pioneer wagon heading west carried a [[Napanoch, New York|Napanoch]] axe and an Ellenville [[demijohn]]. Ellenville pottery and glassworks still remain sought-after collector items; many examples are on display at the Ellenville Public Library's Terwilliger House Museum.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://eplm.org/museum.aspx|title=Terwilliger House Museum |publisher=Ellenville Public Library |access-date=December 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226123529/http://eplm.org/museum.aspx|archive-date=February 26, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> Knife manufacturing was a major industry in Ellenville and Napanoch for over 100 years; the Ulster Knife Company set up in the 1870s, eventually merging with Imperial Knife Company and [[Schrade Cutlery]], finally becoming [[Imperial Schrade]] until its closing in 2004.

In the early 20th century, the rediscovery of the lost Old Spanish Tunnel<ref>[http://www.ironminers.com/ironmines/sun-ray-tunnel-1.htm IronMiners.com website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015103455/http://www.ironminers.com/ironmines/sun-ray-tunnel-1.htm |date=October 15, 2009}}</ref> at the base of the Shawangunk Ridge in Ellenville led to the development of the Sun-Ray Spring and the international marketing by White Rock beverage entrepreneur Frank T. Huntoon of Sun-Ray Water, tested and promoted as the "World's Purest Spring Water". Although beset by financial difficulties from its inception, the water and its carbonated derivatives were sold until the early 1920s, and redeveloped as "Pure Rock Mineral Water" in 1939, also serving as a base for Pepsi-Cola bottled in Ellenville during World War II.

In the late 1940s, [[Joseph Resnick]], a radio officer in the U.S. Merchant Marine during the war, developed a turnable DIY antenna system just as the TV boom was taking off. With his brothers Harry and Louis, he created [[Channel Master]], and built one of the region's major manufacturing plants just north of the Ellenville border, along with an aluminum plant to fabricate necessary components. After selling the company to [[Avnet]], production moved to South Carolina. The vacated Channel Master factory was eventually bought by Imperial Schrade, and the aluminum plant by [[VAW of America|VAW]], and later [[Hydro Aluminum]]; both factories closed in the 2000s, leaving hundreds unemployed, compounding Ellenville's economic doldrums that began with a decline of the tourism and hotel industry in the 1960s, and the development of regional shopping malls, which directed much shopping traffic away from the village.