At over 1960 feet elevation, Skinner Hill is the highest point in the Town of Sherburne. At least it is now. Before 1853 it was the highest point in the Town of New Berlin. Skinner Hill is in a tract of land that has moved back and forth between these two towns.
The shape of Sherburne is rooted in the 1789 survey of the original Twenty Townships, where it was Township Number 9. It adheres to the typical township plan of a square about six miles on each side. That shape persisted on the 1829 and 1839 maps. However, on the 1855, 1863, and 1875 maps it sports a panhandle protruding south from its southeastern corner into New Berlin. The law that awarded Sherburne this tract of land was passed by the New York State Legislature on November 18, 1852, effective on February 1, 1853. The tract is a rectangle about two miles across on its north and south borders, 1.8 miles on its western side, and 1.6 miles on its eastern side.
A county map in the 1902 “Chenango County Directory” shows the panhandle. The 1910 topographic map (New Berlin 15 minute quad) shows the southern border of Sherburne back where it was prior to 1853, no panhandle. A 1941 Munger map of Chenango County shows no panhandle. The 1943 topographic map (Sherburne 7.5 minute quad) also shows no panhandle. A 1974 New York State Department of Transportation map of Broome and Chenango counties shows the panhandle back again. A 1987 Chenango County Highway Department map also shows the panhandle. The 1994 revision of the 1943 topographical map shows the panhandle.
Ergo, somewhere between 1902 and 1910, the panhandle was removed and between 1943 and 1974, it was returned. I am still trying to nail down the exact dates and, more importantly, trying to figure out why all this back and forth shuffling occurred.
Anyhow, back to Skinner Hill itself, an interesting place no matter where it is located. It was named after Stephen Skinner, who settled here in the early 1800s, according to James H. Smith in his 1880 “History of Chenango County” page 387. The 1855 map shows “S. Skinner” residing on what is today the intersection of Dilley Hill and Skinner Hill roads, in New Berlin south of the panhandle.
The peak of Skinner Hill is about a quarter-mile west of its eponymous road in the panhandle. Unfortunately, the peak is on private property, but fortunately its unusual rock formations are on state land. The Skinner Hill State forest sprawls over 1,666 acres in the towns of Sherburne, Columbus, and New Berlin.
I find the Skinner Hill rock formations so fascinating that I try to make an annual pilgrimage up to its top just to view them. The bedrock, Devonian shale, is the remains of sea beds about 325 million years old. Large blocks of rock are calving off, the way icebergs calve from a glacier. At the crest large rectangular chunks are separating, forming trenches which are deep enough to stand in and wide enough to turn around in. In the winter, when there are a few inches of snow topside, evergreen ferns highlight the lips of the trenches. The walls inside the trenches are covered with moss, which is at its brightest green when the leaves on the deciduous trees above are down and full sunlight reaches the moss. February and March are best. The overall effect is as if the bowels of the earth were made of emerald, or perhaps a dark lime pie where the snow would mimic meringue.
In the photo, three Bullthistle hikers are standing in one of the trenches. From top down are Joyce Post, Anne Altshuler, and Margie Casey. Margie is holding a remarkable young black and white cat that accompanied us. This curious kitty came out of the forest where we parked and followed us on our three-mile hike. (Yes, this was a cat, not a skunk!) There is no trail up here so we had to bushwhack through head-high goldenrod, bramble berry bushes, and feral multiflora roses, all sopping wet from the downpour the night before. That frisky feline stayed with us through all this wet scratchy stuff, although this vociferous perambulating pussy kept muttering his displeasure with our chosen route.
Ringing the crest of Skinner Hill are bedrock blocks that have already calved off and are being pulled by gravity down the hill. Some of the formations reveal their past history because they could be fitted together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Some are toppled over each other like the blocks kids play with.
So now that Skinner Hill is back to being the highest point in Sherburne, there are three hills vying for that honor in New Berlin; all are over 1940 feet. Contour lines are at 20 foot intervals, so 1940 could be anywhere between 1940 and 1959 feet. From north to south, they are: an unnamed hill southwest of Jackson Pond, Flagpole Hill east of Chenango Lake, and an unnamed peak on the Norwich border midway between State Route 23 and Whites Pond.
Why are there so many peaks about the same height so close together? They were all strong enough to withstand the shearing action of the glacier. The area south of Flagpole Hill also has spectacular blocks. My Souvenirs article of November 24, 2004, reported some other blocks in Norwich southwest of Whites Pond. More are in the Lyon Brook State Forest in Oxford. There is a crescent-shaped band of these things running between Sherburne and Oxford.