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Post by clarencebunsen on Apr 6, 2010 14:05:58 GMT -5
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Post by bobbbiez on Apr 6, 2010 14:15:41 GMT -5
 Personally, I never cared for the title, Central Leatherstocking Region.  Whenever anyone asked where Utica was located, I always answered, in Central New York.  No big deal to me. Just sounds better. ;D
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Post by chris on Apr 6, 2010 17:39:12 GMT -5
Where did leathestocking come from. (to me it means something referring to German related to skiing as in the Alps Mts) Found this : yorkstaters.blogspot.com/2005/12/whats-in-name-no1-leatherstocking.htmlI guess it originated from James Fenimore Cooper but seems to have really nothing to do with title relating to the region ( as I know it). Doesn't it refer to more of the Adirondack heading North than to heading towards Cooperstown? |
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Post by dgriffin on Apr 6, 2010 19:19:09 GMT -5
Leatherstocking is indeed from Fenimore Cooper's novels, also known as the Leatherstocking Tales and starring the character Natty Bumpo, Deerslayer extraordinaire, who you might want to have around your campfire but probably not appreciate as a neighbor. The use of the word Leatherstocking had always been used by the Cooperstown region and more recently by Albany's Newspeak Geographers (the same idiots who wanted to call the Adirondack Mountains "The Dacks") joined with Central (from Central New York) to be inclusive of Cooperstown back when there were almost as many businesses in the area as there were bedrooms. Four or five years ago we happened to walk one weekday evening through the downtown/residential part of Cooperstown village at a beautiful time of dusk when each of the old homes would appear at its picturesque best with lamps lighted in each window and neighbors conversing over picket fences adorning each front yard. Problem was the houses were dark and the streets were empty. I guess all the beautiful historic homes are now owned by weekenders, who may be the only buyers who can afford them. And they would probably discourage the tourist trade.
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Post by Swimmy on Apr 7, 2010 6:56:49 GMT -5
I'm with bobbbiez. No one outside of central new york knows where the "leatherstocking region" is. For Empire State Games, we're classified as central. And I've been saying I'm from cny for over 10 years now.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Apr 7, 2010 8:13:46 GMT -5
I have no problem with it as a location, it's accurate. For a tourist promotion however, I find it BORING. Will the campaign slogan be, "When you're here, you're half way to Buffalo?"
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Post by dgriffin on Apr 7, 2010 9:26:13 GMT -5
Swimmy, I always said I was from Utica. Of course that's literally and metaphorically true.
Responses to my testimony have ranged from "That's too bad" to my favorite from a fellow worker in New York City, "Holy Crap, Utica's WAY up there, almost as far as Poughkeepsie!" To many New Yorkers, the North Pole was ten miles past Albany.
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Post by dgriffin on Apr 7, 2010 9:29:47 GMT -5
I have no problem with it as a location, it's accurate. For a tourist promotion however, I find it BORING. Will the campaign slogan be, " When you're here, you're half way to Buffalo?" I like it! And how about, "Halfway to Nowhere Is Always Somewhere." Or maybe that's too Yogi Berra-ish. |
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Post by dgriffin on Apr 7, 2010 17:17:27 GMT -5
Chris, hunters and "Deerslayers" wore leather chaps from shoe to knee to protect from forest brambles and more especially snakes. There are diamondbacks and some rattle snakes in the Catskills. Leatherstockings are an old name for these chaps, and since the novels took place mostly in the forested lands around Otsego lake and the Catskills to the east, Cooper (or someone) called the stories the Leatherstocking Tales.
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Post by Ralph on Apr 8, 2010 0:34:35 GMT -5
Well....makes more sense to me.
But you can call it Dixieland and no one will notice anyway, won't change a damn thing other than the name.
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Personally, I never cared for the title, Central Leatherstocking Region. 
