Preamble -- Introduction: Meeting place for waters and students of Earth history -- Part I. Exploring New York State -- Invitations to study the Earth's past -- Natural sciences and civic virtues -- The landlord and the ex-convict -- Part II. Engineering for a New World's geology -- Clinton's ditch -- Eaton's agricultural and geological surveys -- Empire State exports -- Part III. Entertaining deep time and the sublime -- Literary naturalists -- Kindred spirits -- Rocks, reverence, and religion -- Conclusion: Echoes of New York's embrace of the geological imperative