Prattsville: New York’s Mount Rushmore (nickname)
American businessman Zadock Pratt (1790-1871) helped found Prattsville, New York. Pratt’s Rock, in Prattsville, was made in the 19th century and features stone carvings. Pratt’s Rock has often been compared to the Mount Rushmore National Monument that came over half a century later.
The nickname “New York’s Mount Rushmore” has been cited in print since at least 1990.
Wikipedia: Prattsville (town), New York
Prattsville is a town in Greene County, New York, United States. The Town of Prattsville is in the northwest part of the county. As of the 2010 census, the population was 700.
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Prattsville was later named after Zadock Pratt, a congressman and prominent citizen. Pratt built a tannery larger than any other in the world at the time, helping it become a major town in Upstate New York. His life is depicted through as series of stone carvings called Pratt Rock which he commissioned during his lifetime.
Wikipedia: Pratt Rock
Pratt Rock, also known as Pratt’s Rock, is a rockface or other landform that includes a series of stone carvings in Prattsville, New York depicting the life of Zadock Pratt. Pratt was supposed to be buried in a tomb carved into the stone, but work was stopped after only a small recessed chamber was created because water leaked through the rock overhead, and excavating the stone was providing to be too difficult. The rock was originally a monument for Pratt’s son, George W. Pratt, who was killed in the Civil War. It is considered the first memorial for the Civil War.
Ripley’s Believe it or Not once called it “New York’s Mt. Rushmore”.
4 June 1990, Syracuse (NY) Herald American, “Rock of Ages” by Dick Case, “Hometown Voices,” pg. 1, col. 2:
Years ago, a guy I know told me about “New York’s Mount Rushmore.” He was talking about Pratt Rock in the village of Prattsville.
18 September 1994, New York (NY) Times, “New York: Rites of Passage Riding a Bike” by Robert Byrd, sec. 20, pg. 20, col. 4:
Pratt Rock survives as a monument to the impulse that gave us Mount Rushmore, a bit of natural scenery improved by the hand of man.
Google Books
Gilboa:
New York’s Quest for Water and the Destruction of a Small Town
By Alexander R. Thomas
Lanham, MD: University Press of America
2005
Pg. 121:
At the east end of town were the Pratt Rocks, a series of stone carvings made in the nineteenth century paying homage to the town’s leading citizen of the time. They are today sometimes called “New York’s Mount Rushmore.”
Google Books
New York Curiosities:
Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff
By Cindy Perman
Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press
2008
Pg. ?:
CARVING HIS PLACE IN HISTORY
Prattsville
There’s an odd set of small, white objects set into the rock high above Route 23, just outside of Prattsville.
It’s been called “New York’s Mount Rushmore,” but quite honestly, it looks like someone got tired of all the knicknacks in his living room and, for kicks, decided to bolt them to the side of the striated rock!
Catskill Mountainkeeper
April 12, 2009, New York Newsday: Golf and good food in Windham
POSTED BY BETH SCULLION ON APRIL 10, 2009
UPSTATE NEW YORK
Golf and good food in Windham
BY MALERIE YOLEN-COHEN|SPECIAL TO NEWSDAY
APRIL 12, 2009
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In the new parlance of sustainable agriculture, the region is a locavore’s utopia - visitors can purchase a variety of fruits, vegetables and organic meats after working up an appetite hiking to the graceful and multitiered Kaaterskill Falls or up New York’s mini Mount Rushmore, Pratt Rock.
GoNOMAD
New York’s Mount Rushmore
Posted on August 7, 2012
by Sonja Stark
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Delight at alabaster profiles of a horse, a hemlock tree, a muscular arm holding a sledgehammer and a wreath – among other quirky oddities that date back to 1843. Further above is a an outcropping perfect for taking photos of the valley, debris and all.
OnlyInYourState
Posted in New York May 05, 2016 by Lea Monroe
These 14 Strange Spots In New York Will Make You Stop And Look Twice – At Least
3. Pratt Rock, Prattsville
Known also as Pratt’s Rock or New York’s Mount Rushmore, these curious rock carvings will completely throw you off. Not your ordinary sight, the quirky location was put on the National Register of Historic Places back in 1992! Open every day, be prepared for a bit of a climb at Pratt Rock Park to get to the carvings.