Adirondack Mountain Club, Hanging Spear Falls

November/December 1999 article written by Russell Dunn

Opalescent River

The Opalescent River is a river in Essex County, New York. It is both a tributary of and the longest source of the Hudson River.
Part of the river is designated by New York State as a Wild River in the Wild, Scenic, and Recreational Rivers system.

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The 11-mile stretch from Flowed Lands to the confluence with the Hudson River is designated a New York State Wild River by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). In the 1800s, David Henderson, the owner of an iron vein, thought to dam the Opalescent River to run water past his blast furnaces. The dam was eventually built, but only after Henderson died in a gunshot accident while scouting locations for the dam. The dam diverted water to Calamity Brook (named after the aforementioned accident) until 1984, when it was broken by the DEC over safety concerns.