Carex Pensylvanica

Fishkill Creek is a tributary of the Hudson River in Dutchess County, New York, United States. At 38 miles (61 km)^[1] it is the longest stream in the county. It rises in the town of Union Vale and flowing generally southwest to a small estuary just south of Beacon. Part of its 193-square-mile (500 km²) watershed is in Putnam County to the south. Sprout Creek, the county's third-longest creek is its most significant tributary. and Whaley and Sylvan lakes and Beacon Reservoir, its largest, deepest and highest lakes, are among the bodies of water within it.

While the creek is not impounded for use in any local water supply, it remains a focus of regional conservation efforts as a recreational and aesthetic resource, especially since the lower Fishkill watershed has been extensively developed in the last two decades. It flows through several local parks and is a popular trout stream. Industries and mills along it helped spur the settlement of the region.

• ... that Albany, New York, has a life-size sculpture of its coat of arms (pictured) that was sculpted by a local political cartoonist?
• ... that the Mill Street-North Clover Street Historic District in Poughkeepsie, New York, was expanded 15 years after its designation to include two city blocks that had been originally scheduled for demolition?
• ... that before the construction of North Main Street School, schoolchildren in Spring Valley, New York, were attending classes in the local fire station?

Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith and Muhammad, and several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors, and the Alhambra. Irving also served as the U.S. minister to Spain from 1842 to 1846.

He made his literary debut in 1802 with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle, written under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle. After moving to England for the family business in 1815, he achieved international fame with the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. in 1819. He continued to publish regularly—and almost always successfully—throughout his life, and completed a five-volume biography of George Washington just eight months before his death, at age 76, in Tarrytown, New York. The village of Irvington, New York, is named after Irving.