Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Salisbury Mills. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1902Schunemunk sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Salisbury Mills.
The story so far
Salisbury Mills, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Salisbury Mills yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Salisbury Mills ( SAWLZ-bər-ee) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the towns of Blooming Grove and Cornwall in Orange County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 580. The CDP is in eastern Orange County and is bordered to the north by Beaver Dam Lake. Salisbury Mills is built along Moodna Creek, which flows east into the Hudson River between New Windsor and Cornwall-on-Hudson. The Moodna Viaduct, the longest actively used rail trestle in the eastern United States, crosses Moodna Creek at the eastern edge of the CDP. New York State Route 94 forms the northern edge of the CDP. It leads northeast 6 miles (10 km) to New Windsor and southwest 10 m…
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 536 to 580 (+8%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Salisbury Mills, 1881–1908
Passages that mention Salisbury Mills, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Orange County, New York1908 · page 136Read the page →
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N. Hulse, so long and so favorably known years ago to all travelers upon the Hudson River, now the home of his niece, Mrs. James A. Knapp, daughter of Benjamin Moffatt. Two and a half miles east of the village of Washingtonville is the village of Salisbury Mills, the oldest settlement of the town, where, on the falls of Murderer's Creek, Vincent Mathews built his mill, which later was owned by Captain Richard Caldwell, by Peter Van Allen, by Isaac Oakly, and is now the Arlington paper mills, owned and operated on a very large scale by Henry Ramsdell.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
degrees north, and 85 chains from the wigwam of the Indian Maringamus, which was on the southwest bank of Murderer's Creek just across the railroad track from the Catholic Church of St. Mary. The present village of Salisbury Mills is on the east end of this patent so far as the village lies in the town. In the northeast corner of the town on the old county line is the 1,000 acre tract of Roger Van Dam which is dated June 30, 1720, although a portion of this tract extends over into the present town of New Windsor. The next patent was granted to Ann Hoagland, May
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Orange County, New York1881 · page 43Read the page →
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aink to half the elevation of the Shawangunk. A limestone, containing fossils of this division, is also found in the town of Cornwall, between the village of Canterbury and Salisbury Mills. Its position is between the slate and grit rock ; its dip is to the southeast.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
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Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
