Albany, and the entire Hudson River Valley region of New York State, have been celebrating a significant anniversary. The year 2009 officially marked the 400th anniversary of our European founding by Dutch explorer, Henry Hudson. The Hudson 400 celebration offers a wonderful opportunity to explore the Dutch heritage of the Hudson Valley and to celebrate with special events on the Hudson River, along the shores of the river, and at historic sites throughout the region. Join us as we revisit our past and share a future of continued discovery.European Discovery
In 1609, The Dutch arrived at the broad tidal river, known to us now as the Hudson, and introduced European culture to its shores.  Holland’s domination of the seas fueled a hunger for new markets and raw materials and for shorter, safer routes to reach them. To find a supposedly shorter route to the Orient, the powerful Dutch East India Company hired an ambitious English explorer, Henry Hudson, who sailed the Atlantic three times. He found no passage, but on his third voyage he found what we now call the Hudson River and, near the head of navigation, the place we know as Albany. Hudson returned to Europe without the silk, spices, and stoneware he had expected to find. Instead he carried beaver furs, and word of a land with vast resources.
“I pray with all my heart…that my name be carved upon the tablets of the sea” Henry Hudson
Click here to visit The New Netherland Project Native American History
 For centuries before the arrival of the Europeans, Algonkian-speaking Native Americans lived along the Hudson River. In the Upper Hudson Valley, it was the Mohican people who greeted Henry Hudson, as he anchored his ship the Half Moon in this fertile river valley in 1609.
The Iroquoian-speaking Mohawks lived west of the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers and were the eastern-most tribe of the Five Nations, comprised of the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Seneca. The Mohican and Mohawk people both played an important role in the development of the Fur Trade. But by 1624, competition grew and the Mohawks eventually gained control of the land around what would become Albany.
Click here to visit the Hudson River Valley Institute
Native American Institute of the Hudson River Valley
Future of Discovery
 For 400 years, Albany has reinvented itself as a trading center, hub of government, home to world-class art and architecture… and now the cutting edge of technology and research. Always at the crossroads of the northeast, there is a new vibrancy in Albany that reflects both its link to history and its promising future.
  
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