The resulting paintings were reproduced on the front page of the New York Evening Post and during an era of Erie Canal wealth made the Hudson River valley, and scenic locations like Kaaterskill Falls, some of the foremost and famous tourist destinations in the rapidly expanding United States. Cole's influential paintings from that visit inspired the first real generation of truly American artists for whom a journey to the Clove, Kaaterskill Falls and Charles Beach's Catskill Mountain House became something of a pilgrimage. The earliest known painting of the front of the Falls by Thomas Cole is dated 1826 is in the Westervelt Warner Museum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.Nearby Palenville, New York is considered to be the first art colony in the United States as a result (noted by Dr. Roland Van Zandt, author of The Catskill Mountain House, pages 175-178). Other artists who painted images of the falls included Frederic Edwin Church[https://web.archive.org/web/20070404132045/http://www.albanyinstitute.org/collections/Hudson/images/church.JPG, Sanford GiffordWinslow Homer[http://hamiltonauctiongalleries.com/Homer-1876-KF.JPG, Max Eglau, Richard William Hubbard and John Frederick Kensett. Their work attracted affluent visitors to the Catskill Mountain House and the other hotels established near it later.