IMPORTANT!READ THIS FIRST!Before you press ‘Start’, please read this Introduction to the audio tour first. You can also listen to it. Scroll down the text: at the bottom you can touch the audio icon. The Introduction will give you a short history of the Mohawk Valley and its Dutch roots, and it will provide you with a brief explanation as to how to use this audio tour. IntroductionWelcome to the audio tour ‘How Dutch Is New York? – The Mohawk Valley Tour’.  The Mohawk Valley formed the most northern and western border of the New Netherland colony. Although the colony was founded by the Dutch West India Company in 1624, in the decade before several private merchants from the Netherlands were already active in the fur trade in this region. After Henry Hudson had returned from his expedition in 1609 people in the Dutch Republic understood that precious skins of beavers and other fur animals were to be found in this part of America. That’s why initially mostly Amsterdam merchants settled on the upper course of the Hudson River. They built a small fort in the area that is now Albany. They traded furs with the local native people such as the Mahicans, but mostly with the Mohawks. Over the years Dutch colonists moved further West, where the Mohawks lived. Along the Mohawk River they established among others the village of Schenectady. In the 17th century other settlements in the region would follow, like Scotia, Beuckendael, and Fonda.The choice to settle in this part of the colony wasn’t exclusively prompted by the fur trade. The land on both sides of the Mohawk River was fertile and thus very suitable for agriculture. Spread out in the Mohawk Valley there were numerous farmsteads, including houses and barns built in the typical Dutch fashion of that time.Many of those structures are long gone, in many instances due to the fires that occurred here when troops of natives and French colonists from present day Quebec attacked the colony of New Netherland. During this tour you will find that many houses and barns - still referred to as ‘Dutch barns’ - have survived. We have created a separate audio tour for the town of Schenectady. With that tour you will be able to walk within the confines of the old palisade, called the Stockade, of this once 17th century Dutch village. You’ll find this in the app entitled: ‘How Dutch Is New York? – The Schenectady Stockade Tour.’ This tour has been routed along both sides of the Mohawk River. With our directions you will be able to travel to the most important locations of Dutch-American heritage in the Mohawk Valley. You don’t need to follow the order of this audio tour: once you are near one of the sites, you will drive into a GPS-zone. This will start automatically giving you the information on what there is to see. If the audio doesn’t start, you can either read the information or tap on the location you are at on the screen. This will set off the audio. For some sites you’ll find the address and opening days and hours in the written text. You’ll get audio directions on the way, with the addresses. You can also use you own GPS-system.  TIPBefore you start this tour, please check each individual website for special events you may want to attend. ‘How Dutch is New York? - The Mohawk Valley Tour’ starts at the Van Schaick Mansion, 1 Van Schaick Avenue, Cohoes. Press Start now. We wish you a pleasant journey with this audio tour in the rural Mohawk Valley!