About Sleeping Giant & Our Name
The Sleeping Giant Ice Cream Company proudly serves the best tasting Hand Crafted and All Natural soft serve ice cream in more than forty scrumptious flavors!
Enjoy it the way you like!
Sugar cone, Waffle cone, Wafer cone, in a bowl, as a Sundae or Shake! Now kick in any of our speciality toppings, “add ins” or candy and you’ve got a treat that memories are made of!
We are family owned with a proud business history in the Rondout Valley. Our roots in the ice cream business date to the earliest parts of the twentieth century. Our family history in the Hudson Valley dates to 1659 and the Second Esopus War. Our love of the mountain is timeless…
Welcome all, new and old, from far and near! Please stop by and enjoy the refreshing taste of summer time fun! We look forward to seeing you all real soon!
What Is A Sleeping Giant?
We all know the answer to that. Right? For those that don’t please let me explain. A laypersons geological understanding would say that a sleeping giant is a mountain range that rolls on its side. The once tall peaks lay down as if to rest or sleep. That is what happened to our Shawangunk Mountains. The evidence of what must have been an explosive event is still visible today hundreds of millions of years later. It explains much of the natural beauty that is enjoyed here. It explains the magnificent white cliffs visible from the Walkill Valley and the beautiful rolling hills seen from the Rondout Valley. This natural beauty that enriches our lives every day was best described by Philip H. Smith in his 1887 volume called “Legends of the Shawangunk”. This is how he viewed our corner of the earth and I’m sure his capital “P” was not a misprint,
“The Shawangunk is a vast amphitheater of rocks piled into the most fantastic of shapes, with forests covering it’s crests and slopes and sporting the exuberance of natures own flower garden…The summits overlook the valleys of the Rondout and the Walkill, beautiful as Paradise…”
The explanation of our business name is just that simple. It’s a tribute to our Shawangunk Moutains. Mostly. You probably had a different idea of what a sleeping giant is before reading our explanation. In fact everyone who reads this will probably have their own unique understanding of a sleeping giant. The possibilities are endless!!! They are as endless as a child’s ability to think and to wonder and to imagine and to pretend. Nothing goes better with child like wonder than ice cream. We want our name to represent the beautiful paradise of the Shawangunk Mountains combined with all the wonder and wisdom a child of any age can muster! Now add ice cream to that and my friends you’re getting close to Paradise!
So there you have it. That explains the name. Mostly. It’s a triple feature.