ABOUT

Bellvale is a wooded hamlet in the town of Warwick in Orange County, New York, United States.

History
Leni Lenape of the "wolf" clan known as Munsees occupied the Warwick Valley before the first Dutch trappers appeared on the Hudson River. Munsees lived in long houses made of sapling staves and layers of collected bark; they raised crops using the Three Sistersform of companion planting and utilized the tall-growth forests and streams for hunting and fishing. The Munsees of the area lived in a long house by the creek they called Wawayanda.Part of a land patent granted by Queen Anne in 1703, Bellvale was called Wawayanda (the name of the patent) in colonial times. Settlers were drawn to the area because of the abundant timber, game and water power readily available from Long House Creek, allowing the operation of water wheel-driven mills.Tanneries, sawmills, gristmills and forges have been served by the fast rushing creek since Lawrence Scrauley first built his trip hammer plating and slitting mill in 1745, the only such mill then operating in New York colony.Scrauley hoped Bellvale's remote location would allow him to escape notice of British authorities intent on shutting down the American colonies' nascent iron-working industry. By 1750, the Iron Act was passed in London requiring Governor George Clintonto report on the plating forge. The mill was later wrecked by the British, and its destruction became one of many incidents leading to the American Revolutionary War.