Star Field
Chicken Farm Hill Road, Cooperstown, NY 13326
Star Field is an out and back 3.7 mile hike through a forest to the namesake field, which overlooks Otsego Lake. After 1.6 miles, the trail opens up to Star Field. A path around the wildflower-strewn field is mowed if you want to extend your hike, or take the path on the left to the mowed section that offers views of Otsego Lake and the hills beyond. Leashed dogs welcome.
Star Field was once the site of Chalet Farm, a 200-acre property purchased by James Fenimore Cooper in 1835. According to Cooper’s Otsego County by Hugh Cooke MacDougall, “Cooper visited almost daily, sometimes even in winter when it could be reached only by sleigh. Chalet Farm, worked primarily by hired employees, provided fresh produce for the Cooper family and their guests at Otsego Hall, but it was never a financial success. As Cooper’s grand niece, Constance Fenimore Woolson, wrote in 1871, ‘he [was] determined that the crops should grow, and the mountain [was] determined that they should not.'”
Star Field trailhead sign as seen from Chicken Farm Hill Road
“Star Field is an ancient and honorable haunt – a heavenly hiding place, a spot to think, to sit, to picnic and to frolic. Known by all Cooperstonians, it sits atop the Middlefield Hills, a great, green spread, shaped like a star if you happen to look up at it from the village, overlooking Otsego Lake. It used to be a scrumptious rolling pasture in which a big herd of Black Angus summered over; now, it’s a great rolling field that exists, it seems, for the pure pleasure of all of us. Mostly, you get there by way of a trail that began life in 1926 as a bridle path.” -The Freeman’s Journal, January 12, 2001 and later featured in the paper’s History column by Tom Heitz.
Henry Horvath, a local teenager who used his 2021 summit of Denali to raise funds for Otsego Outdoors, says Star Field is his favorite Otsego County trail. He likes to use it for trail running.
Getting There:
Go east on Main Street in Cooperstown, cross over the Susquehanna River, pass Woodside Hall and then look for Chicken Farm Hill Road on the right. The trailhead (pictured) is .6 miles on the left, just past the driveway for the State Police Canine Training Facility. A few parking spots are located across the road from the trailhead.
Coming from Main Street, this part of Chicken Farm Hill Road is seasonal. You can also reach Star Field on Chicken Hill Farm Road (the non-seasonal part) from County Route 33 via Kraham Road.
There is a small parking area for 2 cars across the street from the Star Field trailhead. Street parking also is an option.
What Octet-ers are saying:
6/25/22 “Hiked about 1/1/2 hours, 3.7 miles. Beautiful afternoon saw deer and a couple other hikers. Beautiful views.”
6/24/22 “Gorgeous!”
