A History of "The Farm" - New York Military Academy

Two weekends ago, our new cadets, joined by their new cadet trainers and our Latin/Greek teacher Mr. Petite took the day to hike out to “The Farm” – NYMA’s reserve on the other side of 9W. I posted pictures of the excursion on Instagram and Facebook and in return a NYMA alumnus from the 1970s and one of my predecessors as NYMA Dean of Academics shared with us his memories in this post:

“In a part of the reserve that now seems like a forest, NYMA once had one of the finest equestrian courses on the East Coast – deRubio Field, named for the late 19th Century cavalryman who helped found the Academy riding troop – Troop D. Anyway, if you explore out there you can find evidence of the Spanish American War and WW-I era rifle range (just to the northwest of the deRubio field area) and an area that cadets and summer campers of the 60s and 70s called the bivouac where they would do overnight and weekend campouts. My first time in a tent overnight was at that site in 1971 with Cavalry Campers and our horses! Also, of note about “The Farm”, the renowned Catskill Aqueduct that carries water from upstate New York to NYC runs under part of it! Also, there is an old railroad right of way from the late 1800s on The Farm where as cadets in the 70s we used to find old train bits. There’s lots of interesting stuff out there. I remember the legendary cadet Raul Figarola leading a bunch of us on a hike out there on a snowy weekend in the 70s and we found a poor and unlucky little dog with a leg stuck in an ancient bear trap that had to have predated the Academy! It was barely alive, but we figured out how to release it and Figgy (who is a big burly guy) gently carried the dog out back to campus and then carried her to a vet’s office who agreed to meet us there on a Sunday. Anyway, the dog survived (on three legs from there on in) and Figgy? He’s now “Dr. Fig” a vet in Florida.”