Doodletown, New York

Doodletown was an isolated hamlet in the Town of Stony Point, Rockland County, New York, United States. Purchased by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission during the 1960s, it is now part of Bear Mountain State Park and a popular destination for hikers, birdwatchers, botanists, and local historians. It is located north of Jones Point, west of Iona Island, and southeast of Orange County. The former settlement is now a ghost town.

Members of the first family to settle in Doodletown during the 18th century, Huguenots whose last name was anglicized to "June", were also the very last to leave it in the 1960s.

The Munsee Indians were the first to inhabit the valley. In 1683, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, bought the land in the area from the Haverstraw Indians. In April 1762, Ithiel June purchased 72 acres, from the Tomkins family who were already living there. The name is said to derive from the Dutch Dooddel, or "dead valley", with the "town" suffix added later by English-speaking settlers.

The settlement was a crossroads for soldiers during the Revolutionary War during battles at Bear Mountain's Fort Montgomery when many hundreds of British soldiers marched through the tiny settlement prior to a bloody and significant battle with colonists. The Doodletown Road was used by troops accompanying Mad Anthony Wayne on his successful attack on Stony Point.

Early residents worked as loggers and miners, and the remains of the mines are still visible today. There were also small farms and businesses. Others worked at the Iona Island Picnic Grove, a resort built on Iona Island after the Civil War. Around 1900 the United States Navy purchased Iona for an ammunition depot. In 1903 there was a severe explosion at the site, and a worker from Doodletown was killed.

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