A major wetland of the Lebanon Valley in upstate New York has been a source of healing waters and rare medicinal plants since the end of the last Ice Age. The Native, spiritual and secular communities that developed around this large swamp have all shaped the history of American medicine.

In Shaker Swamp: 4 Seasons in the Medicinal Wetlands of New Lebanon, NY, Ted Timreck explores this Medicinal Wetland at the base of Mount Lebanon. The wetland is a remarkably preserved ecosystem where at least 74 medicinal plants known to the Indians, Shakers and Tildens have been identified and still survive. It was first used as a source for harvesting medicinal plants by Native Peoples. Then, in the early 19th century, in a rare, documented instance of cross cultural cooperation with the early settlers, the Indians taught the Mount Lebanon Shakers about the medicines growing in the swamp. From the middle of the 19th century, the Tilden family who learned the medicinal formulas from the Shakers, built the first pharmaceutical factory in America at the edge of the Shaker Swamp.

The story of Shaker Swamp—and the broader lost history of natural medicines in America—is important to save for future generations, when it can be better understood in the wake of a contemporary upsurge in interest of evolving, natural remedies.