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ABOUT SKÓHARE (THE SCHOHARIE VALLEY)

Skóhare (the Schoharie Valley) is the original name of this fertile valley in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains of New York. These are the ancestral homelands of the Kanien’kehá:ka (People of the Flint), also known as the Mohawk People. Originally, the name Skóhare means the place of cleaning or cleansing. It is known as the Eastern Door of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Kanien’kehá:ka are the keepers of that door.

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Rich in history, culture, geology and ecology, the the Valley of Skóhare is uniquely situated as a convergence point of several Bioregional landscapes.  The ancient alluvial floodplains of the valley provide some of the best farmland in the world; and it’s unique glacier formed geology, forests and waterways support an abundance of plants, insects, animals, and wildlife. 

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Towns and Hamlets within Schoharie include Middleburgh, Schoharie, Fulton, Breakabeen, Blenheim, Broome, Carlisle, Cobleskill, Conesville, Esperance, Fulton, Gilboa, Jefferson, Middleburgh, Richmondville, Schoharie, Seward, Sharon, Summit, Wright, Villages, Cobleskill, Esperance, Middleburgh, Richmondville, Sharon Springs, Central Bridge, North Blenheim, Charlotteville, Esperance, Fultonham, Gallupville, Grovenors Corners, Livingstonville, Sloansville, Warnerville, and West Middleburgh.
 

"The Schoharie Valley forms one of the most beautiful and interesting regions of the Mohawk Valley. While it constitutes a large part of the Mohawk watershed, the Schoharie River region has marked characteristics of its own and a geographical situation and a topography which make it quite a distinct region, as compared with the rest of the Mohawk Valley. 

 

The Schoharie Valley, with the exception of the northern ten miles of its river section, lies in the Catskill region.... The northerly part of our Valley lies in the Adirondack region.... While the Schoharie Valley is a markedly separate section, its broad flats and abrupt hills along the Schoharie River form a valley region with a beauty all its own, while its upper basin has the rugged mountain picturesqueness of the wild Catskill region in which it lies.

 

The valley of the Schoharie comprises 920 miles of the 3,485 square miles in the Mohawk watershed, and it thus forms about 27% or a little more than one-quarter of the total area of the Mohawk Valley.

 

The greater part of both Schoharie and Greene counties lies within the watershed of the Mohawk, inasmuch as the Schoharie is that river's greatest tributary.”​

© 2025 The Waterfall Center. 

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