Friends of Taconic State Park was established in the fall of 2008 when several neighbors and friends of the 7,000-plus-acre park began meeting to discuss how they could help to promote recreational, historical, educational and cultural activities within it. There are currently about 300 dues-paying members of Friends, with that number growing daily!

The designation in 2007 of the Copake Falls Iron Works Historic District by the National and State Registers of Historic Places, including 18 acres around the iron works site, was one of the key motivating factors in the establishment of the Friends group. In 2016, the Copake Iron Works was designated a National Heritage Area Site in the Hudson Valley.

It is the long term goal of the Friends of Taconic State Park, headquartered in Copake Falls, NY, to restore the Copake Iron Works to the condition of its operating heyday in the 1880s, including the re-creation of the narrow gauge railroad that circumnavigated the ironworks. It is our intent to create a pre-eminent site of historic iron-making and a national destination for tourists. The construction of the Pomeroy Family Railroad at the Copake Iron Works was completed in 2022 and approved for operation in 2023 by the New York State Department of Labor.

The first phase of this multi-phase plan was to cover the historic Copake Iron Works Furnace (seen up top, at night). Our Copake Iron Works Visitor Center is open year round during daylight hours an features an 8 minute video on the history of the Copake Iron Works.  Our Museum is open Saturdays, Sundays and holiday Mondays from May to November or by appointment. Continued preservation of the Copake Iron Works National Heritage Area Site is on-going thanks to the generous support of our many friends and neighbors. Your membership (join us now) is helping us reach that goal.

Board of Directors

as of July 2023

Tom Ferguson (President), Deborah Cohen (Treasurer), Virginia Martin (Secretary)

Robin Bruce, Benedict Gedaminski, Edgar M. Masters, Jamie Carano Nordenstöm, Milbrey Zelley

Our Historic Mission

The Copake Iron Works was established in 1845 along the Bash Bish Brook at the base of the Taconic Ridge, and has a rich background. For more on our historical mission, and our history committee, plus links to a bibliography of articles on the ironworks, click here.

The Friends’ Bylaws

The Friends of Taconic State Park by-laws can be read at this link (pdf).