A fascinating account of America’s first great mountaintop hotel. This is also a tale of romantic tourism, Hudson River School art, and cutthroat competition in New York’s Northern Catskills. For 140 years, from 1823 to 1963, the Catskill Mountain House stood atop the Catskill high peaks as a symbol of the Gilded Age. Beginning in the 1850s, the Laurel House, the Hotel Kaaterskill, the Overlook Mountain House and the Grand Hotel also became world-famous vacation spots that attracted business tycoons, artists and presidents. This account of the rise and fall of the Catskill Mountain House is a compelling tale of steamboat and railroad empires, bitter rivalries, exclusive private preserves, fabulous art and picturesque landscapes that celebrate the Catskills as part of the American Grand Tour and as America’s first wilderness. Film by Tobe Corey