HudsonFur

July 27, 2024 HudsonFur is a regional furry group centered around the Lower Hudson Valley including the greater New York City metropolitan region. The majority of the members live in the New York City Tri-State area. Furmeets are usually organized through the group's mailing list every now and then, although in later years more meets have been orginized though LiveJournal communities.

Origin
During 1997, a few furries in the New York City metro area occasionally posted messages to the alt.lifestyle.furry Usenet newsgroup, looking for fellow furs to meet up with. TJCoyote, a new fur in the area with prior experience running an Internet mailing list, saw those messages and wished to meet some local furs before attending a distant con. He contacted a number of furries who ran servers in late 1997, asking if they could possibly host a regional mailing list. Puma, the maintainer of the Lake Area Furry Friends mailing list kindly replied, so the mailing list was set up on his server in January 1998, where it has been housed continuously to this day.

Name

It is impossible to set up a mailing list without giving it a name, so of course some name had to be chosen. TJCoyote was a native New Jerseyan, so he desired a mailing list that covered not only the famous New York City, but also his belittled home area of North Jersey -- specifically, Hudson County (with the hope that neighboring counties might be included as well). It should be noted that New York City and New Jersey are separated by the Hudson River. The metro/subway-style rail line that connects New York City and New Jersey is called PATH, short for Port Authority Trans Hudson.

Therefore, HudsonFur was chosen as the original name. It was certainly better than the alternative: North(ern New) Jersey and New York City Metro Area Furs. After the list started to gain membership, the members were asked if they would prefer a different name. Big Apple Furries was the most popular alternative, but for some reason, there wasn't enough interest to warrant changing the name, so HudsonFur stuck.

The Group

Other regional furry groups, such as Lake Area Furry Friends, are described as being groups supported by a mailing list. With HudsonFur, however, the mailing list came first, and a very loosely-formed group came later.

History
Firsts

The first message was posted to the list on February 1, 1998 by the moderator.

The first message posted by another member was from Wolven Terror, on February 3, 1998.

The first HudsonFur meet was held on October 10, 1998. It consisted primarily of visiting locations in Manhattan that were of interest to furs, such as Pearl Paint (an art supply store), a comic shop, and a sewing shop. The rainy day concluded with dinner at a pizza restaurant. Attendees included Wolven Terror, Mejeep, Klix, Jimmy Wolf, Rapid T. Rabbit, Lumen Photofox, Kooky, and John Barrett. The folks from Caer Carnivore -- Ken Sample, Wolf Kidd, Anastasia Kidd, and Lisa Sample -- made a brief appearance as well.

Second meet

The HudsonFur group had a second meet on February 6, 1999. The highlight of this meet was a vist to the top of one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Attendees included Rapid T. Rabbit, Jimmy Wolf, Mejeep, Basil Badger, Dante, and RailRide.

A larger area

As 1999 went on, there were a number of meets with furs travelling some rather long distances to attend a single-day meet.

There was a meet held on May 15, 1999 in Trenton, New Jersey, organized by Bussaca. The meet began with furs meeting up at The Urban Word Cafe, followed by a trip to a local movie theater. This meet in Trenton set the stage for the HudsonFur mailing list to cover a much larger area than the originally-intened immediate New York City area. (Trenton is located in the central-west part of New Jersey.) Smrgol and JBadger made the trip from Long Island, New York, all the way down to Trenton to attend. Kevin "Cerulean" Pease from South Jersey also travelled over. Some New York City furs made it down to Trenton as well. A similar meet was again held in Trenton in mid-September.

Other New York City meets took place this year. Grand Central Station, South Street Seaport, the Manhattan Mall and Chinatown were all visited at various meets. Wally Wabbit travelled in from Conneticut for at least one of them. LionKingCMSL travelled up from Cape May to a New York meet in Chinatown, and Kamau travelled down from Albany for the same meet.

Wally Wabbit also organized a meet in Conneticut. Mejeep gathered up a few furs for the biannual Gund Warehouse Sale in Edison, NJ.

Then in early 2000, Bussaca held a meet in Allentown, PA.

Early History, In Summary

In a period of 1.5 years, the HudsonFur group began in the New York City area, then rapidly expanded to include members from as far away as Allentown, PA, all of Long Island, Albany, NY, and Cape May, NJ.

Passing the Torch

TJCoyote was becoming bogged down with a new job and graduate school at night, and had been attempting to find a new moderator for the mailing list for some time. He asked Smrgol a few times to take it over, and he eventually relented in 2002. Under Smrgol's watch, the HudsonFur.org website received a much-needed revamp.

Current Status
The mailing list is currently active, continues to be hosted on Catbox by Puma, and is moderated by Smrgol. It still uses the Majordomo mailing list software. Smrgol continues to administer the list to this day.