Summiting High Tor today gives grand views of Haverstraw, and its shoreline that was excavated for nearly 130 years of brickmaking. In 1942, the Great Depression effectively ended the 150-year-long Haverstraw brick industry. However, the village still retained trap rock quarrying along Verdrietig Hook Mountain, and High Tor was seen as the next site for mining. [1]

High Tor, a mountain rich in trap rock endeavors, was then owned by Elmer Van Orden. Elmer, whose descendants owned the land on paper since at least 1813 or 1799, refused to sell it to traprock companies. [2] Elmer’s notoriety led to him being the subject of South Mountain Road playwright Maxwell Anderson’s 1936 play High Tor. [3] After Elmer passed in 1942, his estate went up for sale, and the traprock threat to High Tor’s iconic face loomed. [4]

Mary Mowbray-Clarke, designer and foreman of the Dutch Gardens, created the South Mountain road artist colony that rested along the mountain. [5] A member of the Rockland County and Hudson River Conservation Societies, Mary used her experience in the arts world to jumpstart the Committee to Save High Tor. In 1943, Mary organized a traveling exhibition around Rockland County to raise the money needed to purchase the mountain. The exhibition, seen by thousands, was ultimately successful. In turn, the Committee donated the mountain and mining rights to the Palisades Interstate Park Commission (PIPC). [6]