Late 18th to early 19th century reports on the rocks of the Catskill Mountains in eastern New York were followed by over 180 years of geological and paleobiological studies of the Devonian terrestrial succession, in the state and up and down eastern North America. Yet, nearly 230 years later these estimated ca. 2.4 km- (1.5 mi-) thick, homogenous strata remain a largely unknown frontier in many ways.