Peekskill is one of the six cities located in Westchester County in New York.  The city of Peekskill is well known by name, with current New York State Governor George Pataki, Mel Gibson, and Paul Reubens (better known as Pee-Wee Herman) all hailing from here.  It was also the setting for the popular television sit-com The Facts of Life.

A fur trader from New Amsterdam, Jan Peeck, was the first European to arrive at what is now Peekskill.  At the time, it was dubbed Jan Peeck’s Kil (Kil being the Dutch word for creek).  Thus, the name of Peekskill was born.  Originally incorporated as a village within the town of Cortlandt, the area was finally given status as its own city in 1940.

Interestingly, Peekskill is the site of a meteorite landing that was recorded on camera by at least sixteen different people.  The meteorite is only the fourth ever to land on Earth of which the exact orbit has been determined.  Upon landing in October of 1992, it struck the trunk of a 1980 Malibu sedan.

Peekskill is also the location of the Battle of Peekskill, fought during the American Revolutionary War.  The fight between the Colonials and the 500 British soldiers ended in defeat for the Americans, and the accessibility of the town by means of the Hudson River led to the transfer of regional military control to the facilities at West Point in 1778.