It was raining and beautiful on the way to Hancock on Thursday morning. It was foggy and it seemed perfect to go rather slowly, to enjoy the leaves and the subtle glow of the rain-drenched highway.

Riding from Narrowsburg to Hancock, some 35 miles, is an experience of moving slowly through a landscape. For me, it's a landscape of natural beauty, undulating hills, steep banks, and sparse population.

The section between Long Eddy to Hancock feels like you're moving through an open space to arrive someplace that is different.

Hancock, indeed, is the gateway to the north of the Upper Delaware River Valley, and traveling from the south, one leaves Sullivan and enters Delaware County.

Hancock sits at the confluence of the West and East branches where the main stem of the Delaware River begins. Hancock is inherently connected to the north, and to New York City Reservoir system of water impoundments and dams.

That is the story that was told by Jeff Skelding, President of Friends of the Upper Delaware, in their storefront on Front Street in Hancock. The community-based watershed conservation organization works on protecting and restoring the cold water ecosystem and on-stream rehabilitation.  

The story was told as part of the introduction of a new economic study by the National Parks Conservation Association called "Making Connections."

"It's a mirror," study principle Michelle Archie told the assembled group. "It's a mirror of what you said to us." 

At the core of the report's findings, not surprisingly, are beautiful landscapes, clean water and clean air. According to those surveyed, these are more important that close-knit communities or even a robust business environment.

"People coming here are here for the same reason that you are here," she said.

The study explores how traditional values and the working landscape of timbering, agriculture and bluestone mining can co-exist and even enhance the emergent tourist trade; and in Hancock, the fishing industry.

The key, the study reflects, to resilience and a viable future, is based on our ability to collaborate. Indeed, Hancock is blossoming with its collaborative efforts that include: The Hancock Gateway Board, the Tailwater Coalition and the Friends of the Upper Delaware River. Between these groups, the Town of Hancock, the Village of Hancock, the Delaware County Chamber and Hancock Partners are all talking with each other and building success from the ground up. Success stories include the building of a town square in 2013, which is now a space for community concerts and events. It's a space that connects those who live here with those who visit.

These projects begin to change the story that we tell about our communities. And those stories are significant to our identity.

On a national level, we are experiencing the power of who controls the narrative. History has always been told by the victors.

On a local level, especially as the region is receiving so much press from New York City magazines and newspapers, I am struck with this thought of who tells what story about our region and how that affects the future.

We all pay attention to those pieces of the Upper Delaware where we intersect with it. For some, it's the arts. For some, it's emergency services. For some, it's the river flow and river management plan. For some, it's the school. For some, this particular place is merely tangential to the busyness of our lives, the expectations of our jobs and the lives of our loved ones.

Our individual worlds intersect in community. In this beautiful 75-mile river valley.

How do we hold it all together?

How does the Upper Delaware become a region with an identity and a story? How do we bring these varied and numerous stories into a whole?  Who tells our story?  

For now, I recommend the "Making Connections" report.  It's a great place to start. Click here.