In 1861 the city of Kingston had considered buying the land around Bishop's Falls near Ashokan to dam and use as a reservoir.
It dropped the idea quickly since the creek's waters were still fouled by tanning effluents.
A quarter-century later it took a second look, and found the waters had returned to their pristine state with the tanneries gone.
It eventually developed Cooper Lake on a tributary of the Saw Kill, for its water needs instead, after the privately owned Ramapo Water Company bought the rights.

Twenty years after that, in the early years of the 20th century, New York City's reservoirs in Westchester and Putnam counties were barely keeping up with the growing city's demand.
The city's agents looked at land along the Ramapo River on the other side of the Hudson, in Rockland and Orange counties, for new reservoir sites, but found the Ramapo Water Company had gotten there first, and was locking up similar rights in Delaware and Sullivan counties as well.
The city balked at rewarding this act of speculative profiteering, and after political wrangling the state created water commissions and granted the city the exclusive right to acquire land in the Esopus and Schoharie watersheds and construct two reservoirs.
The former was particularly promising as a water source since the weather station at the Winnisook Club on Slide Mountain, the north slopes of which are in the creek's watershed, gets 63 inches (1,600 mm) of precipitation annually, the highest average annual rainfall in the state.

Residents in the Esopus valley objected to the dislocation the proposed reservoir would require, forcing out the population of seven hamlets and relocating the Ulster and Delaware.
They also noted that both reservoirs would be outmoded in a decade, requiring the construction of more reservoirs, and suggested the city look further north, to the Adirondacks.
They feared the dam would fail, and called the project the "Esopus folly".

The state's water supply commission ruled in the city's favor, and once the city began acquiring land most local objections faded because local lawyers, well versed in the tangled history of land claims on the former Hardenburgh Patent, were able to negotiate prices highly favorable to local landowners.
The reservoir was completed in 1913 and began delivering its first water to the city via the Catskill Aqueduct two years later.

City engineers had taken note of the clays and silts on the beds and banks of the Esopus to cloud the water for long periods of time after heavy rain.
To deal with this, they designed the reservoir with two basins.
Water from the upper Esopus accumulates in the western basin, where accumulated sediment is allowed to settle.
The clearer water near the surface is then allowed to flow into the eastern basin, where the aqueduct begins.

The water releases from the Portal made the sections below it into a whitewater stream with rapids of Class II-III on the International Scale of River Difficulty.
In the mid-1960s the Kayak and Canoe Club of New York began holding an annual whitewater slalom near Phoenicia.
Later businesses in the hamlet began offering tubing to summer visitors; it has become one of the most popular recreational activities on the creek despite its negative impact on angling and occasional fatalities.
In 1861 the city of Kingston had considered buying the land around Bishop's Falls near Ashokan to dam and use as a reservoir. It dropped the idea quickly since the creek's waters were still fouled by tanning effluents. A quarter-century later it took a second look, and found the waters had returned to their pristine state with the tanneries gone. It eventually developed Cooper Lake on a tributary of the Saw Kill, for its water needs instead, after the privately owned Ramapo Water Company bought the rights.
Twenty years after that, in the early years of the 20th century, New York City's reservoirs in Westchester and Putnam counties were barely keeping up with the growing city's demand. The city's agents looked at land along the Ramapo River on the other side of the Hudson, in Rockland and Orange counties, for new reservoir sites, but found the Ramapo Water Company had gotten there first, and was locking up similar rights in Delaware and Sullivan counties as well. The city balked at rewarding this act of speculative profiteering, and after political wrangling the state created water commissions and granted the city the exclusive right to acquire land in the Esopus and Schoharie watersheds and construct two reservoirs. The former was particularly promising as a water source since the weather station at the Winnisook Club on Slide Mountain, the north slopes of which are in the creek's watershed, gets 63 inches (1,600 mm) of precipitation annually, the highest average annual rainfall in the state.
Residents in the Esopus valley objected to the dislocation the proposed reservoir would require, forcing out the population of seven hamlets and relocating the Ulster and Delaware. They also noted that both reservoirs would be outmoded in a decade, requiring the construction of more reservoirs, and suggested the city look further north, to the Adirondacks. They feared the dam would fail, and called the project the "Esopus folly".
The state's water supply commission ruled in the city's favor, and once the city began acquiring land most local objections faded because local lawyers, well versed in the tangled history of land claims on the former Hardenburgh Patent, were able to negotiate prices highly favorable to local landowners. The reservoir was completed in 1913 and began delivering its first water to the city via the Catskill Aqueduct two years later.
City engineers had taken note of the clays and silts on the beds and banks of the Esopus to cloud the water for long periods of time after heavy rain. To deal with this, they designed the reservoir with two basins. Water from the upper Esopus accumulates in the western basin, where accumulated sediment is allowed to settle. The clearer water near the surface is then allowed to flow into the eastern basin, where the aqueduct begins.
The water releases from the Portal made the sections below it into a whitewater stream with rapids of Class II-III on the International Scale of River Difficulty. In the mid-1960s the Kayak and Canoe Club of New York began holding an annual whitewater slalom near Phoenicia. Later businesses in the hamlet began offering tubing to summer visitors; it has become one of the most popular recreational activities on the creek despite its negative impact on angling and occasional fatalities.
Esopus Creek