Sullivan County, New York

Sullivan County is a county in New York, United States, in the Catskill Mountains region of the Hudson Valley. It had a population of 78,624 at the 2020 census and covers 997 square miles (2,580 km2), of which 968 square miles are land and 29 square miles are water, centred near 41°43′N 74°46′W.

Monticello is the county seat, and its postal code is 12701. The county has 7 incorporated villages, 15 towns, and dozens of unincorporated hamlets, and sits entirely in the Eastern time zone.

Towns & Villages in Sullivan County

Sullivan County is divided into 15 towns, which are its primary units of local government; some of those towns also contain an incorporated village, and all contain one or more unincorporated hamlets that have their own name, post office, or fire district but no separate municipal government. The table below lists the county’s towns, its 7 villages (Monticello is both the county seat and a village), and the named hamlets and localities carried over from historical gazetteer records. “Unincorp.” marks a hamlet or locality with no municipal government of its own.

Two entries deserve a note. The old scrape listed “Forestburg,” a truncation of the Town of Forestburgh. And the hamlet list includes names that appear in more than one Sullivan County town under local usage — Mongaup and Mongaup Valley, for instance, both sit along the Mongaup River near the Bethel–Forestburgh line and are treated here as a single entry each.

ZIP Codes

• 12701 — Monticello (county seat)
• 12754 — Liberty
• 12723 — Callicoon
• 12748 — Jeffersonville
• 12758 — Livingston Manor
• 12776 — Roscoe
• 12764 — Narrowsburg
• 12790 — Wurtsboro
• 12721 — Bloomingburg
• 12789 — Woodridge
• 12759 — Loch Sheldrake
• 12779 — South Fallsburg
• 12747 — Hurleyville
• 12734 — Ferndale
• 12768 — Parksville
• 12765 — Neversink
• 12740 — Grahamsville
• 12719 — Barryville
• 12732 — Eldred
• 12751 — Kiamesha Lake (also serves Monticello’s eastern edge)

Many of the smaller lake communities and hamlets in the table above share the ZIP code of their nearest post office town rather than carrying one of their own.

Geography

Sullivan County sits in the southern Catskill Mountains, a landscape of forested ridges, trout streams, and glacial lakes. The Delaware River forms most of the county’s western and southwestern border with Pennsylvania, and the Neversink River and Willowemoc Creek — both prized fly-fishing waters — drain the county’s interior. Rondout Reservoir, part of New York City’s water-supply system, lies along the county’s eastern edge in the Town of Neversink.

Sullivan County borders Delaware County to the north, Ulster County to the northeast, Orange County to the southeast, Pike County, Pennsylvania, to the southwest across the Delaware River, and Wayne County, Pennsylvania, to the west, also across the Delaware.

Demographics

Sullivan County had a population of 78,624 at the 2020 census. Its largest population centers are the Town of Thompson, which contains the village of Monticello, and the Town of Fallsburg, which contains South Fallsburg and Loch Sheldrake. Median household income in the county runs below the New York median of $82,095, reflecting a rural, seasonal-tourism economy rather than the state’s downstate metro job market. Population density countywide is roughly 81 people per square mile, low even by upstate standards outside the county’s handful of village centers.

Economy & Local Life

Tourism and second-home real estate drive much of Sullivan County’s economy, a legacy of its mid-20th-century run as the “Borscht Belt,” when hundreds of Catskills resorts and bungalow colonies drew New York City vacationers each summer. Resorts World Catskills, a casino and resort complex in Monticello, is now among the county’s largest private employers. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, built on the original 1969 Woodstock festival grounds in the Town of Bethel, anchors a growing arts and heritage-tourism sector and hosts a summer concert season. Government, healthcare, and outdoor recreation — fly-fishing on the Beaverkill and Willowemoc, and hiking in the surrounding state forest land — round out the local economy.

History

Sullivan County was formed in 1809 from part of Ulster County. It is named for Major General John Sullivan of the Continental Army, commander of the 1779 Sullivan Expedition, a scorched-earth campaign against Iroquois villages allied with the British during the Revolutionary War. The county’s later history is dominated by the rise and decline of the Borscht Belt resort era from the 1920s through the 1970s, and by the August 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair, held on a dairy farm in the Town of Bethel and now commemorated at Bethel Woods.

Getting There

New York State Route 17 (the future Interstate 86) runs the length of the county and is its main east–west artery, along with US Route 209 in the east and NY Routes 42, 52, 55, 97, and 206 elsewhere in the county.

• Middletown, NY — 25 miles southeast
• Newburgh, NY — 45 miles southeast
• Binghamton, NY — 55 miles northwest
• New York City — 90 miles southeast

The nearest commercial airport is Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, New York.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Sullivan County, New York?
It is in the southern Catskill Mountains of the Hudson Valley, in southeastern New York along the Pennsylvania border.

What is the population of Sullivan County?
78,624 people, according to the 2020 census.

How big is Sullivan County?
997 square miles (2,580 km2), of which 968 square miles are land and 29 square miles are water.

What is the county seat of Sullivan County?
Monticello is the county seat.

How many towns and villages are in Sullivan County?
The county has 15 towns and 7 incorporated villages, plus more than a hundred named unincorporated hamlets and lake communities.

What ZIP codes are in Sullivan County?
Monticello uses 12701; other main ZIP codes include 12754 (Liberty), 12723 (Callicoon), 12758 (Livingston Manor), 12776 (Roscoe), and 12790 (Wurtsboro).

Where was the 1969 Woodstock festival held?
On Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in the Town of Bethel; the site is now home to the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in New York.