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Esopus Island is an uninhabited island in the Hudson River. It is part of Margaret Lewis Norrie State Park, located in the town of Hyde Park in Dutchess County, in the state of New York.
To the south of the island is the much smaller Bolles Island, which is private property with a residence. Esopus Island Area - Hudson River, The Travels of Tug 44, retrieved September 23, 2016.
In October 1777, during the Revolutionary War, a British fleet laid off Esopus Island prior to destroying Kingston, then the provincial capital.Frances F. Dunwell, The Hudson: America's River, New York: Columbia University, 2008, , p. 37.
In the second half of the 19th century the island was part of the estate of Robert Livingston Pell and was known as Pell Island.
Aleister Crowley spent 40 days and 40 nights on Esopus Island (which he spelled "Oesopus") in 1918, translating the Tao Te Ching, meditating, and painting slogans on the rocks with red paint. Friends had given him money to buy a tent, a canoe, and stores for his retreat to the island, but instead of food he bought the paint, brushes, and rope for rappeling, saying that he would be "fed by ravens". Local people as well as friends brought him supplies.Lawrence Sutin, Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley, New York: St. Martin's, 2000, , n.p..
It was illegal to camp on the island until it was incorporated into the New York State parks system.
History
The Lenape Indians are presumed to have made use of the island, and a stone on the east shore shows signs of human working, resembling a megalith. There is a legend of a Jesuit missionary killed on the island by the Indians.Peter Lourie, River of Mountains: A Canoe Journey Down the Hudson, Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University, 1995, , Island&f=false p. 278.
In popular culture
Esopus Island is featured prominently in the novel Piper Houdini: Nightmare on Esopus Island, in which Aleister Crowley returns to the island in 1926 to complete the ritual workings he began in 1918.
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