Wallkill River - Course

Course

The broad valley of the Wallkill River nestles between the main Appalachian Mountains and the New York-New Jersey Highlands, supporting much local agriculture. In the beginning of its course it drains the eastern section of Sussex County, New Jersey, then flows through the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge at the New Jersey/New York state line. Most of the New Jersey portion is navigable by canoe.

Then it is heavily diverted as it flows through the rich Black Dirt Region of Warwick. Until drainage projects were built here, this region was known as the Drowned Lands. After lending its name to the town of Wallkill, in northern Orange County, it begins to regain its volume as it passes by Orange County Airport, Montgomery and through Walden, where dams have been built in the past to provide power for local industry. The largest, in Walden, still is used by New York State Electric and Gas today.

After briefly serving as the line between Orange and Ulster counties, it passes by Wallkill, the second community to take its name from the river, and then the striking scenery of the Shawangunk Ridge is visible as it winds past the Ulster County Fairgrounds and New Paltz, where its floodplain becomes more noticeable, on the way to its mouth at the Rondout.

The Wallkill tends to cross political borders much more often than it forms them, at least in New York (in New Jersey it divides several townships). Other than the brief segment that follows the Orange-Ulster line, there is only southern Orange County, where it divides the towns of Minisink, Wawayanda and Wallkill on its west from Warwick and Goshen to the east. Two villages, Montgomery and New Paltz, are also bounded by the river in part.

In addition to the town and hamlet in New York, two school districts take their name from the river: Wallkill Valley Regional School District, in New Jersey and Wallkill Central in New York (Valley Central also derives its name indirectly from the river).