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Graham Mountain is the seventh highest of the Catskill High Peaks and the highest privately owned mountain in the range. It is located in the town of Hardenburgh, New York, United States. Its summit is unique in the Catskills for its pygmy hardwood forest cover and absence of evergreen boreal species that normally dominate at that elevation in the range, despite the presence of balsam fir on the slopes below the summit. In the early 1960s a relay station was built there for Instructional Television, a predecessor to today's Public Broadcasting Service. The relay station was abandoned after a few years and its ruins can be seen from the slopes and summits of neighboring peaks. Graham is within the Catskill Park. Only part of it is in the state-owned Forest Preserve; the summit and the most common access route are owned by descendants of railroad magnate Jay Gould, a native of the region. Despite being private property requiring permission to enter and cross, it is a popular hike, particularly since a successful ascent is required for membership in the Catskill Mountain 3500 Club. ==Geography== Graham is near the eastern end of the range beginning at Barkaboom Mountain in Delaware County in the west and centered around the lengthy Mill Brook Ridge. A ridge with two summits known unofficially as East and West Schoolhouse mountains connects Graham with Balsam Lake Mountain, the westernmost High Peak. Between Graham and Doubletop, the Catskills' highest trailless peak, to the east is a steep and deep col below the summits on either side. The slopes of the mountain on the north and south alternate between steep hollows carved out by creeks and gentler hollows between them. The largest is Drury Hollow on the north, drained by an unnamed brook that rises far down the slopes. Flatiron Brook to the northeast drains a narrower, unnamed valley. The northwest slopes form the southern wall of Turner Hollow, also drained by an unnamed brook. All three are tributaries of Dry Brook, itself a short tributary of the East Branch of the Delaware River.〔 Since Dry Brook drains into the East Branch above Pepacton Reservoir, this puts the north slope of the mountain within New York City's water supply system. The southern slopes are gentler, draining to the higher plateau around the headwaters of the Beaver Kill, which itself rises just south of the Doubletop col. Gulf of Mexico Brook drains a narrow valley on the southwest, and Tunis and Vly ponds near the mountain's base also feed the Beaver Kill.〔 The Beaver Kill also, eventually, drains into the East Branch at East Branch, below the reservoir and thus outside of the city watershed. Graham's L-shaped summit ridge is narrow, with its spurs pointing northwest and southwest. The United States Geological Survey benchmark indicating the mountain's height of land is at the northwest end, near the ruins of the relay station. The southwest end descends gently to before dropping off more steeply into the Doubletop col.〔 The north slopes and most of the summit are within a large tract of land purchased by George Jay Gould I, the son of Jay Gould, a native of nearby Roxbury. Known as Furlow Lodge, it still is owned by the Gould descendants and serves as a family retreat. The south slopes, up to almost on the summit ridge's southwest spur, are publicly owned Forest Preserve in the Big Indian-Beaverkill Range Wilderness Area. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Graham Mountain (New York)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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