Beeren Island is an island in the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...

 within the town of Coeymans

Coeymans (town), New York

For the community within the town, see Coeymans , New York.Coeymans is a town in Albany County, New York, USA. The population was 7,418 at the 2010 census. The town is named after an early settler, who was the patent-holder for the area. The town is in the southeast part of the county, south of...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. It lies 11 miles south of the city of Albany

Albany, New York

Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

, and is at the border of four counties, Albany

Albany County, New York

Albany County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, and is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name is from the title of the Duke of York and Albany, who became James II of England . As of the 2010 census, the population was 304,204...

, Greene

Greene County, New York

Greene County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Its name is in honor of the American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene. Its county seat is Catskill...

 (to the south), Columbia

Columbia County, New York

Columbia County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 63,096. The county seat is Hudson. The name comes from the Latin feminine form of the name of Christopher Columbus, which was at the time of the formation of the county a popular proposal...

 (to the southeast), and Rensselaer

Rensselaer County, New York

Rensselaer County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 159,429. Its name is in honor of the family of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the original Dutch owner of the land in the area. Its county seat is Troy...

 (to the east). Beeren Island was once referred to as Mach-a-wa-meck, which may come from mashq (bear) and wamock (enough), meaning "place of many bears" and would make it in agreement with the Dutch name.

History

The island was claimed by the Patroon

Patroon

In the United States, a patroon was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland in North America...

 Kiliean Van Rensselaer as the southern border of his patroonship of Rensselaerswyck, it was from the start of the New Netherland

New Netherland

New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...

 colony chosen as a fine site for fortifications to protect the patroon's lands. In 1643 a fort named Rensselaer Stein was built and garrisoned, and included mounted cannon; Nicolas Coorn was appointed watchmaster. Every ship passing the island had to lower its flag in deference to the patroon and pay five stiver

Stiver

The word stiver is derived from the Dutch Stuiver. It was a currency denomination in use in Ceylon from 1801 until 1821. It was also a denomination that formed part of the currency system of Demerara-Essequibo ....

s. A dispute arose between Coorn and the captain of the ship Good Hope when Coorn demanded that Captain Govert Loockermans lower his flag, and Loockermans replied that “I lower my colors for no one except the Prince of Orange and the Lords my masters.” At which point Coorn shot a cannonball through the mainsail of the Good Hope. The West India Company

West India Company

There has been more than one West India Company:* The Dutch West India Company* The French West India Company* The Danish West India Company* The Swedish West India Company...

 however refused to acknowledge the patroon's exclusive right over the river, this led to tension between the two until the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 conquered the entire New Netherland colony in 1664. The island was the location of the first white

White people

White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...

 child born along the Hudson River.

The island has at various times also been occupied by a few Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 hunters, by the Coeymans family, a quarantine

Quarantine

Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....

 station, and was even the site of fortune hunters looking for Captain Kidd's hidden treasure.