Peace Pole greets visitors at the entrance of Dover Stone Church Preserve, Dover Plains ( Town of Dover), New York-USA

June 2024

The entrance is directly adjacent to the major county route 22, in the Town of Dover.

Throughout the years, thousands of visitors have walked the trail to Stone Church and they return to rediscover this hidden jewel.  

The entrance is a very short walking distance from the Dover Train Station.

The popularity of the Stone Church dates to the 1830s, when thousands of visitors would come see this natural phenomenon and stay in the adjacent Stone Church Hotel. The romantic nature of the Stone Church and the proximity to the hotel, made it a popular wedding site. The Stone Church captured the attention of Hudson River School artist Asher B. Durand who depicted the site in his Master Drawing in 1847. It was also the subject of a book by Benson Lossing, a local historian, entitled The Dover Stone Church.

The legends that surround the Dover Stone Church date back to the 1600s and the Pequot War. Fleeing Long Island, the Chief of the Pequots, Sassacus, with six sachems, a few women (perhaps his daughter), and a bodyguard of 20 warriors fled north up the Housatonic River and west up the Ten Mile River into eastern New York with the intention of reaching Mohawk territory near Albany. Sassacus and his men took refuge in the cave of the Dover Stone Church, subsisting on the abundant fish and berries of the area.

https://www.dutchessland.org/get-involved/places-to-visit/dover-stone-church-preserve