The county is named for the Irish province of Ulster, then an earldom of the Duke of York (later James II). The first European settlers called it Esopus.

By 1683, the Duke of York created 12 counties, which included Ulster. It became New York’s first capital of an independent New York in 1777.

From the site where the first meeting of New York State’s Senate took place, Senate House in Kingston, to Historic Huguenot Street in New Paltz, you can take a trip back in time to discover all the history that was made in Ulster County.