New York State Route 296
State highway in Greene County, New York, US
New York State Route 296 (NY 296) is a 7.90-mile (12.71 km) north–south state highway located entirely within both the Catskill Park and Greene County, New York, in the United States. It connects NY 23A in the village of Hunter with NY 23 near the Windham hamlet of Hensonville. The route follows a mountainous track between the two locations, climbing up from the Schoharie Creek valley before descending again into the Batavia Kill watershed. NY 296 was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York; however, the highway had been state-maintained since the early 1910s.
Route description
NY 296 begins at an intersection with NY 23A (Main Street) along the banks of Schoharie Creek just west of the village of Hunter in the town of Hunter. Located within the Catskill Forest Preserve, NY 296 passes the entrance to the former Hunter Mountain Airport, where views of Rusk Mountain are visible. Winding into the town of Jewett, NY 296 is a two-lane asphalt roadway running through the Catskills. Near the junction with Beaches Corners Road, the route turns northwest, paralleling the East Kill, before crossing the waterway a short distance later. Just after crossing the East Kill, NY 296 crosses Beaches Corners Road one more time before intersecting with County Route 23C (CR 23C), which proceeds east towards NY 23A and west towards the hamlet of Jewett.
NY 296 continues northeast after CR 23, passing a local church near the junction with Peck Road.
The public source identifies “New York State Route 296” as state highway in Greene County, New York, US. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around York, State and Route.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “New York State Route 296”, the useful work is to connect “state highway in Greene County, New York, US” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2486600. The first chronological checks are 1930.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “New York State Route 296” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.