New Parking Lot Packed

As Brookwood Is Reborn

Traffic – pedestrian traffic – was steady throughout the day and the new parking lot was filled as the 22-acre Brookwood Point nature refuge and non-motorized recreation hub celebrated its Grand Reopening under the auspices of the Otsego Land Trust.  Entertainment (such as in top photo of John Sullivan & Friends – Hannah Kubica, right, of Little Falls, and John Phillips, left, of Cooperstown) was the order of the day, plus kayaking (see Brent Baysinger of Canoe & Kayak Rentals in top right of photo) and garden tours, led by former Brookwood caretaker Pat Thorpe, in right photo.  The day marks a new beginning for Brookwood, one of the last public-access sites available on Otsego Lake, which was endangered with sale for development twice in the past seven years.  The Land Trust board, which has controlled the former Cook estate for five years, voted last December that maintaining the property a mile up West Shore Road from Cooperstown was more aligned with its mission.  Attending on behalf of the National Park Service was Bob Campbell, its planning and development director, and his wife, Becky Shiffer, National Park Service program manager.  Campbell explained that the Park Service provided a grant for Brookwood’s new mission as the northernmost point of the Capt. John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail.   (Jim Kevlin/AllOTSEGO.com)