Long a popular destination for ski bums and weekenders, the town of Hunter was never noted for glamour, or for year-round living.  But things are changing for this Greene County town high in the Catskills.  Susan Shaw of Shaw Country Realty in Hunter village says that sales have been busy over the past couple of years, with more and more people looking to buy.  And Judith Brown of Gordon Realty says, "It's like we've been discovered.  I'd say nine out of ten people who walk in the door are looking to buy." Many of the new buyers are families and couples, looking to become a part of the Hunter community.

Founded in 1813, the town of Hunter includes two incorporated villages, Hunter and Tannersville, and the hamlets of Haines Falls and Elka Park.  In the 1800s, Hunter, like most of the Catskills, was industrial, with an economy based heavily on sawmills, wood-product factories, and tanneries.  By the 1860s the hemlock forests of the Catskills were all but gone, putting the tanneries out of business.  (Tannin, used in the tanning process, is harvested from the bark of the hemlock.) According to the Catskill Forest Preserve, cleared land was sold for as little as 50 cents an acre to mountain farmers.  In 1881 the extension of the railroads brought an influx of visitors to the area, and the economy shifted to tourism.  By the 1920s cars were replacing the railroads, and rail service was discontinued.  There was a decline in tourism during the Depression and World War II, but in 1960 the Hunter Mountain Ski Bowl opened, bringing tourism back up.  Orville Slutzky, general manager of the Hunter Mountain Ski Bowl and lifetime resident, remembers a time when there was no electricity and the primary mode of transportation was horse and wagon.  "There wasn't all of this rush, rush.  It was a sleepy town."

By the 1970s, says Shaw, Hunter had become a party town.  With its bars and clubs, Tannersville offered nightlife while Hunter offered skiing during the day.  Tourism supported the Hunter economy, but still the town wasn't known as a place to buy property and live full time.

That's starting to change.  "There's a lot of transitioning happening in the town - a lot of positive and exciting things going on," says Glenn Weyant, mayor of Tannersville and owner of the Green Mountain View Inn on South Main Street.  A painting project funded by the nonprofit Hunter Foundation has been underway for some time in which businesses in Tannersville are being repainted and renovated.  The bright, some say gaudy, paint colors have garnered a lot of attention, from curious motorists as well as the press - the New York Times Metropolitan Desk wrote a story entitled "True Colors, Shining Through.  And Taste?"  Whatever your position, says longtime resident Dede Thorpe, the effort was long overdue: "Tannersville was in bad shape.  Lots of places hadn't been painted in many years."

The town is also addressing the "I and I" sewage problem.  In the past, excess rain or snow overwhelmed the sewers.  A contract to improve the sewers is in place and work is expected to continue over the next three years.

Hunter Mountain from route 23A

Tannersville remains the town's entertainment center.  Restaurants, shops, and lodgings are located all along Main Street.  The restaurants range from a more casual dining experience at Pancho Villa's Mexican restaurant to the more upscale Washington Irving Inn Bed and Breakfast.  Maggie's Krooked Café, a juice bar and café, is located here, as is Bruce Barts Tatooing.  Visitors can find everything they need including necessities like the bank, the supermarket, and several gas stations easily on Route 23A.  A small booth near the Historical Society in Haines Falls distributes a variety of pamphlets and information about the area.