The community was named for Colonel Benjamin Tusten, a 36-year old Goshen, NY physician killed in the Revolutionary War Battle of Minisink. The Town has four communities located within it’s boundaries — Beaverbrook, Lava, Narrowsburg and New Weiden.
Although not well documented, the first settlement in the township was reportedly near the confluence of the Ten Mile River and the Delaware River in 1751. This small group of 20 souls were massacred in its entirely in April 1763, by an Indian group enroute to attack the Cushetunk Settlement near present day Milanville. The impetus for the attack was the death of Chief Teedyuscung, whose son, Captain Bull, blamed on white settlers in the Wilkes-Barre area; and Cushetunk was seen as the gateway for the white man into the Indian lands, in eastern Pennsylvania, he was determined to eradicate it along with any other settlers along the way.
This settlement consisted of at least two stores, a post office, a school, a church several homes and a grist mill. Today all that remains of the original Tusten community whose livelihood was tied to the quarries, is a stone arch bridge built across the Ten Mile River in 1896 and the Baptist church erected in 1856.
Originally Tusten was formed by the timber cutting industry and agriculture as the land was improved. Dairy farming and egg production to supply the City’s became popular along side the blustone quarry industry.
In 1927 a transfer of more than 16,000 acres of land in Tusten and its adjoining townships was made to the Boy Scouts of New York City and was designated as the Ten Mile River Scouts Camps. Over the past 50 years, thousands of young men and women from the New York metropolitan area have attended or worked at the camp.
Narrowsburg
Believed to have been settled in the early 1770s by Benjamin Homan. Following the Revolutionary war as the area became further settled the area became know as Narrowsburg due to the Delaware being at its narrowest point there, just above the wide expanse, “Big Eddy” where sunrise and sunset views are spectacular.
This lively hamlet in Tusten is alive with history and an abundance of cultural life. Home to the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, a group which supports art, music literary and other cultural programs, also runs its own gallery space on Main Street. Keeping company with a host of specialty shops and eateries.
Growing in entries in the Narrowsburg International Independent Film Festival and well as DiGit, a newly formed digital art form festival. The Delaware Valley Opera presents several productions a year.
Fort Delaware
The Fort Delaware Museum is an authentic depiction of the life of the Delaware Company Pioneers who settled in the Upper Delaware Valley in 1754, and is chartered by the NYS Department of Education as a museum. A tour of the facilities includes demonstrations of early settlers’ lifestyles and craft-making. A gift shop, vending area and picnicking facilities are located on the grounds. Each spring, the Fort is host to over 1000 students who participate in the Student Days program. This facility is located within the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, a unit of the National Park Service.