Spackenkill: The origin of the word and the path of the creek
June 25, 2010 by admin
The Spackenkill was once a very small watershed adjacent to the Casperkill watershed. In the early 1900s the Spackenkill was referred to as Specken zyn kil (number 11 in the 1891 map above). At that time, the creek was much larger and it flowed all the way from the Spackenkill High School area to the Hudson River (number 12 above). Today, the headwaters of the Spackenkill creek are actually within the Casperkill watershed, but the–now separate–lower reaches of the Spackenkill still drain into the Hudson east of Route 9.
The following definitions were taken from Helen Wilkinson Reynolds’ 1924 book Poughkeepsie: The Origin and Meaning of the Word.
“Speck zyn kil. Speck his brook. Name given to a small stream that rises in a spring, opposite the Specken Kill school-house, and flows west to the Hudson. Speck was an Indian who lived in the neighborhood. Speck zyn kill was corrupted by English-speaking residents into the present form: Specken Kill (now Spackenkill).”
Another source (Adams, Arthur G. The Hudson River Guidebook. 1996) mentions that the Speck zyn kil emptied into the Hudson at Ganse Bocht, or Goose Cove.
From the Reynolds book:“Ganse Bocht: Goose Cove. Name given to a small indentation in the east shore of the Hudson, south of Rudco and north of Camelot. Ganse Bocht carries its own suggestion of the abundant wildlife in the Hudson Valley in the colonial period.”
Today, few people know that “the Spackenkill” is a creek—they think of that name mostly in association with the Spackenkill neighborhood and the Spackenkill High School. The Spackenkill is still a creek though. It runs from the McCann Golf Course under Hagan Drive and into the Spackenkill neighborhood. The lower reaches can be seen beyond the Eastern Mountain Sports and other stores along Route 9.
Information and 1891 map from: Reynolds, Helen Wilkinson. Poughkeepsie: The Origin and Meaning of the Word, Volume 1. Poughkeepsie, NY: Collections of the Dutchess County Historical Society, 1924.