Abandoned Towns
A small stone church with a steep roof and a flag flying in front, under bare autumn trees, November 2024

Jones Point

A riverside landing that once had brickyards, docks and saloons, and from 1946 to 1971 looked out on rows of mothballed ships. Its trade and its fleet are gone. A few families still live here.

41°17′10″N 73°57′23″W · ≈20 ft

Photo: Mr. Matté, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Lived-in hamlet

Jones Point is a small residential hamlet, and its homes are private. Walk the public road and the Jones Point Path, and park considerately: neighbors ask visitors to park a little way up River Road (Nyack News & Views, 2021).

Overview

The last landing before the Highlands

The landing at the foot of Dunderberg Mountain was first settled in 1791 and was long known as Caldwell's Landing, the last place for river boats to tie up before the Hudson Highlands. By the late nineteenth century most of the point was built up. Brickyards, sand pits, stone quarries, an asphalt plant and a potash mill were served by the West Shore Railroad and by deep-water docks, and churches, shops and saloons crowded the riverfront, a local history page says. In World War I the U.S. Bureau of Mines, and then the Army's Chemical Warfare Service, ran a chemical weapons research laboratory here.

Then the traffic went around it. In 1931 a 2.44-mile bypass of US 9W was blasted into the side of Dunderberg, and the old road along the river was closed to cars. From 1946 the National Defense Reserve Fleet moored surplus ships off Jones Point in ten rows that reached south toward Tomkins Cove. The fleet peaked at 189 ships in July 1965, and the last two were towed away on July 8, 1971, to be scrapped.

Why a ghost town? Wikipedia files Jones Point in its Ghost towns in New York category and among Rockland County's former populated places, though the article itself calls it a hamlet. A 2021 Nyack News & Views walk calls it "the former hamlet of Jones Point," and the local history page says not a single commercial establishment is left. The rows of laid-up ships offshore are sometimes remembered as the ghost fleet. Jones Point lost its trade and its ships, but it never emptied: it is a residential neighborhood, and more than 85 percent of the hamlet's land lies inside Bear Mountain State Park.

Timeline

Landing, laboratory, mothball fleet

  1. The landing at the foot of Dunderberg is first settled. It becomes known as Caldwell's Landing, the last place for river boats to tie up before the Highlands.
  2. Brickyards, sand pits, stone quarries, an asphalt plant and a potash mill work beside the West Shore Railroad and the deep-water docks. Churches, shops and saloons line the riverfront.
  3. The USGS West Point sheet labels the landing "Jones Point P.O." and "Caldwells."
  4. The U.S. Bureau of Mines, and then the Army's Chemical Warfare Service, run a chemical weapons research laboratory at Jones Point.
  5. A 2.44-mile bypass of US 9W is blasted into Dunderberg Mountain, and the old riverside road closes to cars.
  6. The Hudson River Reserve Fleet of laid-up ships is moored in rows off Jones Point.
  7. The fleet peaks at 189 ships.
  8. The last two ships are towed away.
  9. The old road reopens as the paved Jones Point Path for walkers and cyclists, a $2.2 million state project.
  10. A photo shows the Turning Point Church kept up, with its flag flying.

What's left

A few homes and a path on the old road

Jones Point today is a cluster of homes along River Road between US 9W and the Hudson. Nyack News & Views described the walk in November 2021: from River Road past the Turning Point Church on the left and through the residential area to the start of the Jones Point Path, a paved two-mile path for walkers and cyclists on the roadbed of the original US 9W, with views of the Bear Mountain Bridge toward its north end. Counting the walk through the hamlet, it is about five miles out and back. The path opened in October 2020 after seven months of work by the state Department of Transportation.

The local history page notes a small memorial to the Reserve Fleet on the flats about 10 feet from the CSX main line. We found no dated report of the memorial's condition. The 2021 article also points out the remains of the Dunderberg Spiral Railway, a nineteenth-century tourist railroad that was never finished.

The homes are private. The 2021 article says parking is allowed on River Road just past the Dead End signs, and at the Ramapo-Dunderberg trailhead on the west side of US 9W just south of the River Road turn, but that neighbors would rather visitors park a little way up the road before starting out.

The old maps show the point shrinking to a few houses. The 1901 sheet prints "Jones Point P.O." and "Caldwells" at the foot of Dunderberg. The 1947 and 1957 Peekskill sheets show a short row of buildings on the shore between the highway and the river, with the House of Prayer church marked on the 1957 sheet.

  • Homes along River Road (private)
  • The Turning Point Church
  • The Jones Point Path, on the old US 9W roadbed
  • A small Reserve Fleet memorial by the CSX tracks
  • Remains of the unfinished Dunderberg Spiral Railway
USGS topographic map of Jones Point on the Hudson at the foot of Dunderberg Mountain, with US 9W and River Road
USGS The National Map, topo. US 9W curves around the shoulder of Dunderberg Mountain, with River Road and the old road along the shore below it at Jones Point.
Aerial view of wooded Dunderberg Mountain, the highway and a few houses along the Hudson shore
Aerial imagery, closer in. The wooded mountainside, the highway curving around it, and a thin line of houses and trees along the river.

Historic maps

Jones Point on USGS maps, 1892–1957

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Jones Point, 1892
West Point sheet, 1892, 1:62,500 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Jones Point is on River Road (Old Ayers Road on some maps), which leaves US 9W north of Stony Point at the foot of Dunderberg Mountain. The routes end on River Road near the start of the Jones Point Path.

USGS topographic map of US 9W from Stony Point north to Jones Point and Dunderberg Mountain, with routes drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From Stony Point4.7 miabout 7 min
  1. From West Main Street in Stony Point, turn left on North Liberty Drive (US 9W and US 202) and follow it north.4.1 mi
  2. Bear right on Old Ayers Road (River Road) into Jones Point.0.5 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • Both routes are on highways and parkways to US 9W, then River Road.
  • Homes in Jones Point are private; neighbors ask visitors to park a little way up River Road (Nyack News & Views, 2021).
  • The Jones Point Path is closed to motor vehicles.

Photos

Jones Point in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Jones Point?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

Nearby

Other sites near Jones Point

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our New York index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Jones Point, New York", read October 29, 2026: the hamlet in Stony Point, its categories (Ghost towns in New York; Former populated places in Rockland County), the share inside Bear Mountain State Park, the World War I laboratory, the fleet from 1946 in ten rows and its July 1965 peak of 189 ships, the coordinates.
  2. Dave Zornow, "Roaming Through Rockland: Jones Point Path," Nyack News & Views, November 6, 2021 (read in an Internet Archive copy): the "former hamlet", the residential area and Turning Point Church, parking and the neighbors' request, the 1931 bypass, the October 2020 path, its seven months and $2.2 million, its length, the fleet from 1946 to 1971, the Dunderberg Spiral Railway.
  3. "Jones Point: 100 years ago," bankcorner.net, undated, read October 29, 2026: settlement in 1791, Caldwell's Landing, the industries, docks, churches, shops and saloons, the last ships towed away July 8, 1971, the fleet memorial, no commercial establishment left.
  4. Town of Stony Point, "Our History", read October 29, 2026: the reserve fleet off Jones Point, its 1965 peak of 189 vessels and its departure in 1971.
  5. Mr. Matté, "Turning Point Church, Jones Point, NY, Nov. 2024", Wikimedia Commons, photo of November 23, 2024: the church, kept up and flying its flag.
  6. Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, West Point (1892, 1901, 1936) and Peekskill (1947, 1957) sheets.
  7. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits