The featured photo for the Village of Sloatsburg by Geoff Welch that is part of the Rockland County Tourism Explore Harriman poster. The campaign promotes western Rockland County as a trail town and outdoors destination. Posters are due to be installed on NJ Transit North Bergen County Line trains and select platforms this fall (including trains on the Sloatsburg line).

September is the traditional turning of the season for Sloatsburg and other Hudson Valley communities. It marks the return of school and the coming of October’s leaf peeping, when temperatures dip and the trees begin to light up with a bit of fall color.

Rockland County Executive Ed Day looks on as Lucy Redzeposki, director of the county’s economic growth & tourism agency, discusses local grant funding to county non-profits organizations.

For the Villages of Suffern and Sloatsburg September will bring extra notice. Soon NJ Transit posters will go up in trains on the North Bergen County Line promoting the villages and western Rockland County as an important gateway to New York State and county parks and a gateway to outdoor recreation. The upcoming Explore Harriman trail town initiative promotes the Route 17 corridor communities  (Suffern/Hillburn/Sloatsburg – and by extension, Tuxedo).

Explore HarrimanNY’s message means to leverage Rockland County parks as inducements to visit Rockland County and especially the villages of western Ramapo.

2018 Rockland County Tourism Explore Harriman poster that will find its way into NJ Transit trains this fall during a four-week western Rockland trail town initiative. The villages of Suffern and Sloatsburg are featured in the ads.

Now in its third iteration as a county grant campaign, the Rockland County Tourism program was incubated by Alexandria Evans for the Suffern Chamber of Commerce, with input from SloatsburgVillage.com and the Sloatsburg Revitalization Committee.

Evans also designed the Explore Harriman poster, working with both chambers and Rockland County Tourism.

The initial program was an economic and community initiative to connect the expansive surrounding parks to local trail heads and village businesses — a sort of trails, rails and restaurants campaign.

The inset photo for Sloatsburg on the Explore Harriman poster features a shot from Harmony Hall’s Bluegrass Festival (here is the photograph enlarged). American bluegrass master Tony Trischka plays banjo in the center.

With Sloatsburg perfectly poised as a gateway trail town, the Route 17 corridor from Suffern through Sloatsburg (and Tuxedo). Efforts have been underway since to develop park-friendly partnerships, such as with the New York New Jersey Trail Conference, including opportunities for infrastructure funding, that could economically benefit the area. The Explore Harriman campaign has helped attract interest in the area and broadcast in its small way that western Rockland County is open for business.

This year Sloatsburg Chamber of Commerce participation this year has been another important step in the campaign and certain feather in the nascent chamber’s cap.

Chamber members, both from Suffern and Sloatsburg, should be pleased with their organization being awarded grant funding for with so many other Rockland County groups and agencies advocating for funding. Sloatsburg’s recent strong message about revitalization and the village’s position as gateway to the surrounding parks has resonated beyond the village boundaries.

And now, Sloatsburg has much more to offer visitors than it did even two seasons ago. From Michael Bruno’s Valley Rock Inn & Mountain Club in the village center to Seven Lakes Station craft beer and local favorites Characters and Rhodes, along with other new businesses and older establishments gaining new customers, the Sloatsburg drumbeat is resonating.

Meanwhile, the New York New Jersey Trail Conference has invested in building multi-use trails in Sterling State Park next door to Sloatsburg and the state has awarded grant dollars to various Sloatsburg projects that, along with other infrastructure improvements, will help the community leverage it access to the surrounding parks and continue to help the village position itself as a viable western Rockland County trail town.

The Explore Harriman campaign is a seasonal campaign that carries the message by train and social media that the Route 17 corridor, from Suffern through Sloatsburg, is open for business and poised to continue to grow as a park and recreation destination.